This module is an opportunity to tackle a real organisational problem in a specific discipline, as prescribed by a ‘client’ company, working in a group.

The aims of this module are:

• to apply discipline-specific knowledge, covered in the postgraduate programme, in addition to knowledge gained from previous studies (if relevant) to a real-world problem/situation;
• to undertake business consultancy across the entire lifecycle of a project from inception to delivery;
• to develop consulting skills, including those related to academic research, such as effective communication with the company, choosing appropriate theories/frameworks and effectively collecting and using data as needed;
• to effectively work in a group;
• to deliver a range of agreed outputs to a deadline.

The aim of this module is to develop the capability for independent focused study of an intellectual, business or policy question in economics or finance.

More specifically the module will require:

• team work on the discussion and choice of a suitable research question, and the review of both relevant literature and business or policy context;
• planning of the project, including identification of the problem, summary of literature and context, and development of appropriate framework of analysis;
• the supervised execution of the research project, using relevant theoretical, empirical and institutional tools of economic analysis and appropriate data.

The supervision will be from a university staff member or, where agreed with an external organisation, joint supervision between a staff member and an employee of the external organisation.