research projects and supervision

I've one question. In general, are research projects at graduate(Master) study level always supervised or is there a possibilty to do an independent research project without supervision? Is there a common practice/policy among graduate schools in this regard?

Thanks,

Dennis

 

If you are going to get academic creidt for the project how would it work without supervision? Someone has to review and approve your plan, verify that you are making progress and evaluate the end result, whihc is what I would call supervision. This can be a minimum level (weekly contact).

 

There will always be some type of supervision. For my senior research paper at UMass, we had to show our progress every week. In addition to making procrastination (one of my biggest problems) impossible, it also avoided having the finished product rejected on a technicality like formatting (my professor was a stickler for using APA guidelines).

 

By the expression "without supervision" I meant that after your proposal is accepted, you are given a deadline when you have to turn in your research paper and there is no contact in-between. Basically, in my opinion, this should work fine for many projects as long as the person can bring up sufficient knowledge in research methods and self-discipline. But my questions was, are there any schools that offer such options?

Thanks for your input,

Dennis

 

I can think of a couple of South African universities where supervisors will grant this for intelligent reasons, provided you spell out you projected pattern of work/completion in fair detail at the outset.

It would seem *also* that any number of research supervisors would figure hey, it's your bucks, and if you don't want me to do any work, fine, but don't expect a lot of advocacy in getting the thing passed or a lot of comfort if there are (as Bruce indicated) technical or protocol screw-ups.

In my drab and wretched experience with grad-level research , I've gotten as much supervision/direction/support as I wanted--or less. Unless you pick a real martinet as your supervisor, I doubt you'll have the fellow breathing down your neck. It's up to you, after all, what you do once admitted to a degree program.

BTW, I'm NOT accusing you of any sort of dereliction. I'm a little puzzled by just what your concern is, so forgive me if I have not responded acccurately to it. Best wishes to you. Explain more if you think I need it. J.

 

Many independent research courses work exactly this way. In actual fact it is sometimes hard to get closer supervission even if you want it.