University refusing to let me change dissertation project/supervisor

[DollhouseBurglar]

I was only given a list of research topics last week and made a decision in a few hours without much thought. I wasn't on their mailing list.

I was told who my supervisor was on Wednesday and I had a meeting with the supervisor the next day. He asked me what ideas I had in his area of expertise and tbh, I could barely come up with anything. It was embarrassing. I've since come to the realisation that I'm not really interested in this area of research. Its interesting- to read about. But I have nothing to add.

I emailed the module coordinator and was told that it is now too late to change and wished me luck for the year.

The university are in the wrong here right? For not sending a list of projects to me months before (May 2020- I think), like the rest of students in my cohort?

Should I complain? Or just get on with it? I'm convinced that I'll fail as I have no enthusiasm for my project.

To be honest, whilst the uni are being inflexible your 'laid back' attitude has put you in this predicament not the university. That said have you submitted your project and ethics form yet? If not then I would appeal.

@DollhouseBurglar

The topic is a problem. Their research is interesting but no way I can expand on it. My current ideas lack originality.

You'll usually need to do a decent amount of reading on the topic to come up with original ideas (apologies if you already have done this). Perhaps a different sample, method/ology, context or similar may be enough; the originality and criticality could be shown in your interpretation or application. You don't need to be inventing a new field of study or aiming for publishable quality - you don't need this pressure and something quite mundane will likely be good enough.

My institution has produced suggestions for Covid-affected research with desk-based projects eg using secondary data, systematic reviews or extended research proposals. If you don't have anything similar, ask or search online. The same for being left off a group email - this should not happen with official communication but uni staff are working under huge pressure at the moment, so just ask if they could please check that you are included in all communication as you appear to have been left off a list in error.

RE: marking and expertise, I mark on a range of subject areas, not just my published research interests, and TBH students tend to come up with quite similar projects each year. People go on about "passion" for a project but you can do a good dissertation without it. Just get it done. My last MSc supervisee cheerfully told me that she didn't really care about her chosen topic (fair play to her for being honest!). She got more into it as she went on and produced a dissertation that had some interesting insights, was a pleasure to read and was a clear pass. Good luck.

Humanities tutor here: we assign supervisors for UG dissertations with no possibility of changing. All my colleagues are highly capable of supervising any topic an undergrad might come up with. Our undergrads develop their own areas of interest, with a lot of input from tutors in converting an area of interest into a doable undergrad dissertation.

So you probably cannot change to another supervisor, and I'd be careful about demanding this. You should enquire why you didn't receive the list of topics when other students in the module did. But first - were you enrolled in the module? Did you read all your emails? (several of my students actually tell me they don't read university emails, as there are too many ...)

And would it have made a difference if you had received the list of topics? Be realistic about this.

When I met the supervisor he helped me come up with an idea on the spot and he said it would work. But I'm not feeling enthusiastic about it now.

So your supervisor has already done a good job working with you. What does "not feeling enthusiastic" mean? Would you be enthusiastic about any topic? Doing independent research is very hard work, it's difficult, and not everyone enjoys it or is good at it.

But it is the final and essential demonstration of "graduateness" and required for an Honours degree.

You'll usually need to do a decent amount of reading on the topic to come up with original ideas

This. You'll need to do far more reading & research than you may be used to. My students are always a bit shocked about how much work is needed. And they complain about "wasted" reading when it's not stuff they can directly quote; get used to that, as well.

PS it's not "wasted" reading, it's absolutely necessary to understand your topic area in breadth & depth.

Your supervisor is more than capable of supporting you in an undergraduate area outside his/her specialist area. It isn't until PhD level that such a distinction would matter.

Find a topic you are interested in, start taking control of your work. If there is anything the supervisor is unsure about, they can/will ask a colleague to have a look and co-supervise.

If you take the lead, it will fall into place - they are there to support you, not provide all the direction.

Thanks. I'll just get on with it and try not to complicate things by keeping it simple.

try not to complicate things by keeping it simple.

This is the best approach. You will get very little credit for a really complex groundbreaking study. Generally most of the marks are gained for the write up and demonstrating your understanding of research methods. Spend a little time developing the study you have rather than lots of time trying to come up with something original.

Should say very little additional credit.

I think it's v common at u/g level to feel a bit terrified about this....

I agree the department seems to have messed up but I am not sure changing topic will make a massive amount of difference

A similar thing happened to me for my MSc dissertation. I was doing a joint honours subject and thee were so few of us, the uni cocked up and put me in the wrong dissertation group. (Eg if I had been doing Russian with basketweaving, they put me down to to the basket weaving arts project, whereas I should have been put into the Russien reseach project) but no one seemed to know this and I actually did 3 weeks work on the wrong project.

I felt very similar to you, and really aggrieved. But in the end, I did just have to get on with it. I think everyone gets weeks of doubt that we picked the wrong project.

And if it’s any help, I wasn’t too happy with my project, it wasn’t in my area of expertise or interest at all. But years later the topics i studied have helped me land 2 different and really brilliant jobs. each time it wasn’t a direct requirement of the job, but a useful addition and the look on the interviews face when I was able to say ‘yes, well translating Russian folklore is a specialty of mine, I did my dissertation on it‘

UG doesn't have to be groundbreaking new research. Yeah you need primary data but you can also use lots of secondary.

On UG nobody cares about what you think. Get your primary data sorted and use secondary to back it up.