URPMaster Thesis Projects

2014-2015

Information meeting

Structure

• Why projects?• What does it mean?• Projects• How to inform yourself?

– Alternative arrangement• Registration• “Extra’s”

– Research assistent– Internship– Fieldwork abroad

• Overview deadlines

Why Projects?

• More focused• More structured• Guided by staff’s expertise• Peer group and help of fellow students

Higher success rate

What does it mean?

• Peer group meetings– towards research proposal• kick-off meeting in December• theory meeting in January• at least 2 meetings more from February on

• Bilateral meetings– towards definitive thesis• arrange with your supervisor

…in what groups?

Projects

Covering URP topics:

• Metropolis in transition; transitions in strategic planning and urban development

• The dilemma of urban mobility, and beyond

• Private arrangements for ‘public goods’

• The urban escalator: migration and urban development in The Netherlands

• Housing: People, Place and Policy

• Big data: social-spatial implications of new (spatial) data sources

• Shenzhen: from factory of the world to world city

How to inform yourself?

• Start– read documents

• Thesis Topic Guide (distributed)• Writing a master’s thesis (upcomming)• Course Manual Thesis Project (upcomming)

• Follow up– General questions about the projects:

• contact coordinator (b.m.hissinkmuller@uva.nl)– Project specific questions:

• office hours of supervisors– through e-mail/individual meetings

» see Thesis Topic Guide

Alternative Arrangement

an I N V I T A T I O N you cannot refuse

Master-students of Human Geography, Urban and Regional Planning and Sociology

eager to do research in an exiting, fast growing Chinese city in rapid transformation (for more information see below)

are invited to attend the special information meeting Tuesday October 21th 11:30 – 12:30 (please note that this differs from the date and time mentioned in the master manual!)

Room C 2.07 If you want to attend (or are interested but not able to attend) please send an email to A.Reijndorp@uva.nl Arnold Reijndorp Chingwen Yang

Registration

• Ultimately Sunday 16 November 2014• First and Second Choice – What if project is full?

Extra Call for Research Assistants

Research AssistantApart from joining the thesis projects, interested students (also those not writing there thesis about this topic) are invited to participate in the research in a wider sense, for example to carry out interviews or assist in focus group discussions for which funding is available.

Please express your interest by sending an e-mail to k.pfeffer@uva.nl , no later than 20 December 2014

Internship

• Own responsibility and at your own risk– supported, but not facilitated• pros: find out about stakeholders, get closer to your

research object, gather or access data • cons: extra conditions, extra expectations, possible

delay, sometimes issues of confidentiality

Foreign Fieldwork

• Own responsibility and at your own risk– no funding

• Not in countries with a negative travel advice (negatief reisadvies)– fill in the ‘Thesis contract for fieldwork abroad’• appendix in Writing a master’s thesis

Overview Deadlines

Task Deadline

1st chance research proposal

Monday 16 March, 2015, 10hr

2nd chance research proposal

Monday 30 March, 2015, 10hr

1st chance master thesis Monday 22 June, 2015, 10hr

2nd chance master thesis Monday 17 August, 2015, 10hr