Postgraduate Study Research Programme

A postgraduate qualification certainly puts you ahead of the crowd, not only in terms of what you about your particular subject, but also in transferable skills such as how to conduct research, time management, and presentation skills. Postgraduate research is carried out in one of the University’s research centers. The research centers cut across traditional academic disciplines to promote innovative thinking. Students are encouraged to undertake research at the interface between disciplines. Research Programs lead to the award of an MPhil, MSc or PhD. MPhil, MAs and MScs usually last one or more years if studied full time. Students must successfully complete a program of study and research and present a thesis. The thesis contributes to learning and provides evidence of the candidate’s ability to carry out a systematic study and relate the results of the study to the general body of knowledge in the subject.

All Postgraduate degrees offered by the University are the responsibility of a Graduate Senate and fall into two main categories, research degrees and taught programs. There are important differences in the nature of the work undertaken, the period of study involved and the method of examination. The aim of a research degree is to provide a thorough training in a particular subject area through original exploration and experiment, culminating in the preparation of a thesis setting out the conclusions of the research undertaken. By contrast, taught programs normally involve formal lecture and/or seminar programs and written examinations or assessment by essays and dissertation. They are intended to impart advanced knowledge or techniques in specialized aspects of subjects previously studied more generally at undergraduate level. Some programs also serve as conversion courses, enabling students to switch their area of specialism in a direction other than that of their undergraduate studies.

Our research activities cover:

• research, both theoretical and applied, which arises primarily from the interests of the staff and students concerned; and
• specific or contract research projects selected and promoted by outside bodies, such as Government, industry, trade unions, and the research councils.

RESEARCH DEGREES
The University maintains a good quality of its research degree training program. Departments ensure that students receive the appropriate training, guidance and advice to enable them to complete their research studies within the required period.

Research degrees provide a full training in research techniques and methodologies by means of a direct contribution to the advancement of knowledge in a particular subject area. All departments in the university admit research students and are happy to discuss with applicants their choice of research projects. For each student a personal supervisor is appointed. Supervisors draw on their own special experience of the subject to guide the student’s work, and give encouragement and critical advice. The supervisor will advise on the preparation and submission of the written thesis by which the degree is examined. The thesis presents the student’s own research and conclusions in detail. The examination process involves an external examiner, specially appointed as an independent expert in the filed, and includes an oral examination of the student.

To improve their knowledge of and training in their subject, research students are required to attend appropriate general training courses and to attend relevant lecture courses. They are also encouraged to take part in seminars in which recent developments are presented and views exchanged with other workers in the filed.

The University recognizes that research degree programs should support personal development as well as the development of subject knowledge and research skills.

GRADUATE SENATE
The University’s Graduate Senate has overall responsibility for all postgraduate programs of study and for liaison with the Graduate Students Committee.

Career Opportunities
Our MA, MSc, and PhD graduates enter a wide variety of careers in both the public and private sectors. A recent Departmental survey revealed that our graduates have successfully secured positions in all areas of business management including, for example, personnel management, accountancy, and management consultancy.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
The University is committed to the active promotion of equal opportunities and will seek to ensure that no applicant or student is discriminated against on the grounds of sex, age, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, or ethnic or national origin. It will also seek to prevent undue disadvantage or discrimination on the basis of disability. The procedures for selection of students are designed in accordance with good practice and the university seeks to ensure that students are treated wholly on the basis of their aptitudes, skills and abilities in relation to their course.

RESEARCH SCHOOLS
The University has created a number of Research Schools which build on and extend the wide range of successful multidisciplinary research. They do this by improving avenues for communicating new research opportunities, by developing discussion meetings, seminars and workshops, and by bringing research workers, both staff and students, together into new groupings.

There are currently Research Schools of Arts, Business, Law, Education and Social Sciences; Environment; Psychology and Health. The University Research School structure demonstrates the breadth and excellence of the University’s research. It co-ordinates research training, enhances the opportunities available to research students and supports a wide range of interdisciplinary research projects. All postgraduate degrees can be studied either on a part-time or full-time basis.

MA; MPhil; PhD

Entry requirements
Recognized Masters Degree in a field relevant to the proposed Research Degree.

Topics for research
The School is able to supervise research in all the major branches of philosophy and in most of the phases of the history of Western philosophy. The main areas of research include: philosophy of logic and language; philosophy of time; artificial intelligence; philosophical psychology; political philosophy; business, environmental, media and medical ethics; virtue ethics; meta-ethics; practical reason; aesthetics and philosophy of art; philosophy of education; and philosophy of sport. As a School with a high percentage of postgraduates, we aim to combine our status as a centre of research excellence with the highest standards of teaching.

One of the main strengths of the School is its multidisciplinary nature. There are research and teaching groups specializing in accounting and finance, management, human resource management and industrial relations, marketing, and economics. Shared research and teaching interests link many of the groups together and create a stimulating environment that spans many of the traditional disciplinary boundaries.

The School has a lively community of postgraduates pursuing a variety of taught mastership courses, and research degrees.

Popular Research Areas
Other popular Research Areas of strength in the University are:

Financial Services
Strategic management of financial services, performance measurement systems and value creation, rigorous quantitative analysis of financial markets and securities selection, financial services regulation, corporate governance, mutuality and business ethics in financial services, the advanced use of technology in service delivery, customer profiling and regulation, the virtualization and globalization of financial services, financial decision making.

Global Business
Theory and strategies in international business, the role of culture in international management, theory and practice of international joint ventures and alliances, the competitive stance of firms with respect to emerging markets and markets becoming more regionalized and globalized, the process of international competition.

Relationship Marketing and Media
Networks, partnerships, co-operation and competition, interaction of patterns of customer behavior with advances in technology, predicting and managing technological change and evolving distribution systems, degree of interaction within the two-way communications and branding issues.

Industrial Policy and Performance
Changes in the organization of labor markets and labor processes and how they affect industrial performance, the effects of industrial re-structuring and changes in the global ownership and organization of companies on industrial growth, how different state institutions and different political programs affect the quality and impact of industrial policy.

Organizational Behavior
Managerial performance, cognitive style, and work-related psychological problems.

Industrial Relations
Impact on postwar performance, supply-side implications of reforms, collective bargaining, and the theory and practice of wage determination.

Accounting and Finance
Economic analysis of auditing, company valuation through stock markets, determinants of small firm performance, small firm failure prediction models, and social accounting and corporate social reporting.

Economics
Macro economics, political economy, labor economics, economics of firms and industries, public sector economics, including the performance and regulation of water, coal and transport sectors, environmental economics, economic development and integration (including European Union).

Economics History
Modern business history, agrarian history, the development of the modern European economy, the evolution of women’s position in the economy, and the economic history of the USA and Japan.

Marketing and Strategic Management
Marketing competitiveness, financial services marketing, retail marketing, public sector marketing, the impacts of new technology in marketing, joint ventures and the strategic use of information.

Management Decision Analysis
Public sector decision making, the modeling and analysis of managerial decision processes.

For further information contact: registrar@cal-uni.org
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Postgraduate Research Secretary