Syllabus for Independent Study in Contemporary Sociological Research

Decisions and guidelines

The course is given as a programme course in the Master's Programme in Social Sciences. The course may be given in English.

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to train the student's ability to establish an overview of a research field and identify research gaps in the field in question.

Upon completing the course, students will

• show advanced knowledge of a delimited sociological research field and its central research questions
• demonstrate the ability to compile and present large sets of scientific sources in a systematic way
• demonstrate the ability to reflect on and to critically relate to the existing literature.

Content

During the course, the student writes a research overview based on assigned literature in consultation with the teacher. The student independently reads and analyses the assigned literature, and presents findings in the form of a written text.

Instruction

The teaching consists of an initial supervision session at the beginning of the course and contacts with the teacher during the course.

Assessment

The course is examined by assessment of the research overview. The grades awarded are Fail (U), Pass (G) and Pass with distinction (VG). If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may decide to make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. Special reasons can include notification of special educational support from the university disability coordinator.