DE7057 - Project Thesis and Portfolio

For your final semester you will use the foundations created in blocks 1, 2 and 3. Through a range of methods you will consolidate your research and explore potential solutions to challenge current fashion systems, driving forward innovation.

Throughout the module, you will work with an allocated specialist supervisor in the development and execution of your project. The role of the supervisor is to help guide you through this final semester, not to dictate content or to deliver teaching materials. Meetings should be led by you as the researcher, ensuring that you are well prepared for each and every meeting to gain the most from the time spent with your supervisor.

At the beginning of the module, you will engage in a series of weekly 1-hour lectures with a member of the MA Fashion Design team to receive practical advice regarding the form, structure and tools needed to complete the thesis.

You will use your ongoing year-long Personal Development Planning (PDP), continued on from block 1,2 and 3, to record what you have done and what you want to achieve. This will enable you to recognise an area that needs to be developed and identifying your personal contribution in design to improve the product offering. You will evidence your year-long engagement with your PDP through a design thesis or project supported by an evaluative report that reaches an analytical conclusion.

Working within a design community, research excellence is positioned at the forefront of the support available, enabling you to work alongside academic leaders within their field who will disrupt thinking and facilitate debate amongst the postgraduate community. Throughout your Thesis and Portfolio module, you are encouraged to be autonomous, working to extract and conclude your research findings. An assigned specialist tutor will be there to offer support throughout the project. Across the module, you will have 6 hours of contact time with your supervisor with times, dates and frequency of meetings to be arranged locally.

If you choose to explore practice-based research avenues, you will be supported by the technical team.

During discussions in one tutorials you will be provided with verbal formative feedback providing the opportunity for improvement and revision prior to submission. Written summative feedback will be provided along with the opportunity for further verbal discussion to facilitate reflection and evaluation.

Where appropriate, you will be supported in developing relationships with external communities to further which may include fashion brands, consumer groups, non-governmental organisations and charities.

Further formal academic support is provided via information posted on E-Learning Portal. Where appropriate, you may also be directed to engage with Study Skills +, or other resources offered through the University Student Support Services such as Dyslexia Support. The Library is open 24 hours a day and E-Learning Portal houses all your module documents including your timetable. These services can be accessed on a range of devices.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding (KU):

Evidence your personal development underpinned by a clear direction and depth of knowledge. Through your study articulate the value of your knowledge in relevant contexts.

• Demonstrate an understanding of advanced research methods and employ appropriate methods in context to collect, analyse and synthesise data.


Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities (IPSA):

• Present a portfolio of professional practice & experience and engage in an investigative and developmental dialogue with relevant academic and professional groups and communities.

• Demonstrate innovation in your own work and recognise creativity in others. Organise and interpret complex issues and evidence mastery of design problems and design solutions.

Personal Values Attributes (PVA):

• Demonstrate an ability to work independently and collaboratively, to organise your dissertation effectively and to reflect on the outcome of your project.

Formative feedback will be given during tutorials when on-going work, drafts and plans will be presented by students for review. This cumulative formative feedback will help you to prepare for a final submission consisting of either:

Summative Assessment 90%:
Two options:
1. a practical design project supported by a 6,000 word thesis and portfolio that represents the culmination and consolidation of your work in the theoretical area of study

2. a design thesis of 15,000 words, and portfolio that demonstrates the student’s mastery of and contribution to new knowledge in relation to their subject.

Summative Assessment 10%
A reflective summary of your year-long PDP.

Your submission will be of an original and innovative nature and will demonstrate advanced scholarship in the communication of a personally investigated topic that reaches an analytical conclusion.

Summative feedback will include assessment of your submission against module learning outcomes and assessors comments.

N/A

N/A

In this 60-credit module, you will continue to advance your research taking a directional approach to the final execution and conclusion of your personal project. You will synthesise the learning outcomes from semesters 1, 2 and 3, demonstrating a cumulation of knowledge to develop your design project and thesis. This will evidence an analysis of advanced academic research, debates, and exploratory practices in the production of theories, insights and practical work that demonstrates real-world, discipline-specific value within an industry context. 

Based on your planned outcomes from block 3 and 4, you are expected to take an autonomous approach to your studies by developing, implementing, and clarifying your individual research themes, adopting one of the following options: 

OPTION 1: a practical design project supported by a 6,000 word thesis and portfolio that represents the culmination and consolidation of your work in the theoretical area of study

OPTION 2: a design thesis of 15,000 words, and portfolio that demonstrates the student’s mastery of and contribution to new knowledge in relation to their subject.