Handbook

This course, taken three times over three consecutive terms, forms the thesis component of the honours streams for applied mathematics, pure mathematics, physical oceanography, quantitative risk or statistics. The three instances of the course form part of the one thesis/project.

For the thesis component, a student will undertake independent study in the appropriate area of applied mathematics, pure mathematics, physical oceanography, quantitative risk or statistics according to their honours stream. The student will be supervised by at least one member of the academic staff of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, possibly jointly with an academic external to the School, or, with the permission of the Head of School, a suitable other person in a non-university research position. The student will write a thesis and give an oral presentation on the thesis to the appropriate department. 

Weekly honours seminars will be timetabled as part of the thesis courses. The main purpose of these seminars is to provide a forum for honours students to give an oral presentation of their work to, and receive feedback from, their peers, the honours coordinators and their supervisor(s). The seminars will also be used for other honours training purposes, such how to use and access mathematical and statistical literature, research methodology in mathematics and statistics and how to write mathematics and statistics.  

The written thesis will be assessed on four major areas:

1. exposition
2. literature coverage
3. critical analysis and insight
4. originality

The weighting of these components will depend on the type of thesis, as determined by discussion between the student and supervisor(s) when the topic is chosen. All theses are expected to address all four areas. 

Two academic staff members will assess the thesis. The supervisor(s) are expected to provide a report on the thesis but they may not be one of the two markers.

The written thesis mark will account for 90% of the final grade; the oral presentation for the other 10%. The final mark awarded will be decided at specially convened meetings. Students will receive a marker's report on their written thesis, outlining how the final mark was decided and possibly listing errors that ought to be corrected.