Dissertation – the Scottish fourth year‘s magnum opus

It is one of the most distinct differences between studying in Czech Republic and in Scotland. Dissertation is perceived as extremely important and significant. We are expected to work on it during the entirety of the academic year. Sooner, even, since we should have prepared ourselves mentally during the last summer (and do some background reading). After all, we have known our proposal since the end of the third year.

There are two ways to get a project proposal. Lecturers, researchers and other school staff put up their own proposals the students can bid for. Everyone can bid for a couple of proposals they are most interested in and an algorithm then matches the proposals and students such that everyone gets on of their preferred options.

The other way is to self-define your proposal. This gives you more freedom, but you also have to find someone willing to supervise the project. And that can be tricky.

As for me, I started out by self-defining my project and over time, I negotiated with my current supervisor and got to a project that is within his area of interest while still satisfying my requirements. The project title is „Workflow Tool for Lean Startups“. I am going to create a tool that helps startups to navigate the Lean methodology and guides them through the core process loop. The goal is to aid startups in getting the most value for their (usually limited) capital and nudge them towards creating desirable products, leading to a sustainable business model.