Rethinking the final year project report: cutting out the waffle

All final year students in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Greenwich undertake either a weekly placement or the research methods and project module.  The assessment for the project module is made up of a group project, followed by an individual project. In 2012 the University’s academic calendar and term structure was changed following recommendations during the UG-Flex project, which advocated the flexibility of a trimester calendar (JISC, 2012). This resulted in the research methods and project students having a significantly shorter period of time to write up their research.  As a result, the individual project assessment was redesigned to incorporate a seven-page, ‘research paper’ style report, cognate to journal articles that students necessarily encounter as part of their research. This paper describes the format of the new report, and discusses findings and feedback from academic staff. In particular, external examiners have commented very favourably on this format and think other HEIs might benefit from adopting a similar approach to project reports.