Your individual project is a major component of your academic year. It carries a high proportion of the credits that contribute to your final degree classification and a minimum pass mark in this module is mandatory to obtain an accredited honours degree i.e. a classification of third class or above. Typically, you should expect to spend 10-20 hours per week working on your project.

Project Management

Interaction with your supervisor is very important throughout your project. It is important to ensure that you have regular meetings with your supervisor and that you clearly define the actions required by the following meeting. You must therefore develop a professional working relationship, where you treat your supervisor either as your manager or as a client. The frequency of meetings with your supervisor will vary but as a guideline you should aim to meet approximately once per week. You may find it helpful to agree a regular time to meet each week.

The record sheet (Appendix A) must be taken with you to all meetings and initialled by your supervisor. Your record sheet may be inspected by the Year Tutor before the presentation/viva voce examination, and a copy must be bound into your final report.

Safety and ethics

Many projects have the potential for significant safety hazards if the work is not carried out correctly. It is your legal responsibility to ensure that all your work is carried out in a safe manner, and before doing any experimental work you will need to complete risk assessments to identify any possible hazards and the appropriate safety precautions. Your supervisor is also responsible for your safety and you should not undertake any practical work without their approval and that of any other relevant members of staff, for example a technician in charge of the laboratory.

Any work involving human subjects, human material or human data must be approved in advance by the School Research Ethics Committee, to ensure that it is carried out in a safe and ethical manner and that issues such as confidentiality and data protection are respected. If you think that this may apply to your project, please consult your supervisor.

Project Assessment

Project Presentation

Project Report

Appendix A – Record of project meetings