What was your dissertation about?

[Rdacsm]

What was YOUR dissertation on? Did you enjoy doing it? Did it make any significant impact in the field?

No, it was through an engineering department at a different uni.

An undergraduate thesis is highly unlikely to "make an impact on the field."

And indeed, this is not an assessment criterion for an undergrad dissertation, and shouldn't be. It only causes high anxiety amongst undergrads who are not yet ready (or mostly not capable) of doing truly original work. That's the main criterion for a PhD.

That sounds ace.

Also an interesting one - were you looking at the geological side of things?

Health Insurance. I know there is copy in the University Library as a friend of mine recently took it out as part of an essay. She was not allowed take it out of the library.

I have a bound copy myself somewhere at home. I think in the attic.

I spent the third year of my degree overseas working in a small NGO and gathered the research for my dissertation while I was there. It looked at how the traditional tribal structures and cultures interacted, diverted from and intersected with modern systems of government. I loved it as I got my colleagues to take me along to tribal courts and I even met the local 'Chief' to interview him. Totally pointless and never again saw the light of day though!

Mine was about how the criminal justice system treats women who kill their abusive partners. I really enjoyed doing it many moons ago.

The health benefits of alcohol. It was intense and stressful but actually really fun to research and write. I have a copy under my bed, and another on the bookshelf!

Severe burn infection control : not for the squeamish.

Mine was on why student nurses chose the branch of nursing they did.

The link between untrained midwives and medicine women and the Scottish witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries. It was a long time ago but I do remember enjoying the research side in particular.

Patient centred care in nursing. It didn’t make an impact as it was a literature review but it impacted my ongoing care and practice and continues to do so.

The impact the church had on medieval poetry and song.

Pretty sure only me and my tutor read it in terms of impact 😂

The effect of growing their own food on children’s physical and mental health. I used children to gather data!
Was great fun for all.

not used it since but the schools I based my dissertation on did use some of my findings to get funding for some more equipment.

Whether Freddie Laker's SkyTrain would have survived as the world's first transatlantic budget airline, if it had not been for BA's illegal dirty tricks campaign.

I didn’t have to do one! I did an Open Degree with the OU. I’m pretty sure most OU students do a thesis now.

Stayed at the Camborne School of Mines - had a wild time. Recognition of radon as a hazard was still fairly new at the time.

Creative dissertation based on interviews I conducted with people who had lost their vision beyond childhood. I composed a series of monologues based on their stories which were workshopped and performed. Finally, I created characters from the monolgues and built a full-length play script around them.

It actually... did fairly well. It didn't transform anything, but I was invited to speak about it at a panal where it got a fairly overwhelming share of the interest and the performances were genuinely well-received. My advisor, a well-known playwright, actually came out with two plays based on similar themes in the years that followed and I actively chose to think of that as flattering.

And after that, I made a radical turn away from the creative industries and am now a primary school teacher. I don't especially remember why I made that choice, tbh. It may be similar to everyone having one novel in them - I had one play. I just couldn't see doing all that again.

Rape. A history of the law and cultural issues. Literature review type.

I was so proud of it, and so disappointed when I got 53% for it. I read it recently and am amazed it got as high as that, it's all over the place 😂

I did 10 credits in something along these lines and loved it!

Experiences of professionals who have visible tattoos and whether it had implemented career progression

MSc - it was about risk assessment for patients in the care of community mental health services

Great ! Is it viewable anywhere? I work in forest school and would be interested to read it.

Mine was on post traumatic stress disorder after childbirth (for my undergraduate degree). I am currently completing my masters dissertation and this one is on sexual exploitation of girls within county lines gangs ( safeguarding)

I would love to read about dementia and music / Debussy and some of the others.

My MFA dissertation was on the success of modern poetry and profitability of the poetry industry (written in 2020 after a bumper year thanks to Rupi Kaur and Brian Bilson)