Syllabus Information

1. General information

1.1. Aims of the course

The undergraduate dissertation (Trabajo de fin de grado- TFG) is compulsory for all the students of the degree in Business Administration and Management. The key aim of the undergraduate dissertation is to enable students to apply and develop a range of skills and competences acquired during the degree.

The types of undergraduate dissertation are described in the corresponding regulation of each School in which the degree is taught.

In all cases, the undergraduate dissertation requires a written report, accompanied by the necessary materials, such as questionnaires, additional information,….., and there will be a public defense in accordance with the corresponding regulation.

1.2. Context and importance of this course in the degree

The undergraduate dissertation (TFG) is compulsory for all the students and it is worth 6 ECTS. The TFG is included within the module of business, professional and social development. This module aims to enhance work placements of the graduate students of Business Administration and Management. The TFG implies the use of individual competences and expertise with the supervision of a professor/lecturer.

1.3. Recommendations to take this course

The student has to check and to understand the norms and instructions of the University of Zaragoza and his/her School regarding TFG. These regulations are available in the web pages.

2. Learning goals

2.1. Competences

Specific skills

1: Assess the situation and foreseeable evolution of business entities and other organizations, make decisions and extract relevant knowledge.

2: Elaborate global management projects of companies and other types of institutions.

3: Write advisory reports on specific situations of markets, sectors, organizations, companies and their functional areas.

4: Understand and apply professional criteria and scientific rigor to solve economic, business and organizational problems.

Transferable skills

1. Apply knowledge to practice;
2. Ability to solve problems
3. Ability for analysis and synthesis
4. Ability to plan and organize
5. Ability to analyze and search for information from different sources
6. Make decisions and manage business organizations
7. Understand and apply professional criteria and scientific rigor to solve economic, business and organizational problems.
8. Appropriate oral and written communication.
9. Ethical commitment at work.
10. Work under pressure and individually
11. Motivation for excellence and quality
12. Autonomous work for continuous training and learning

2.3. Importance of learning goals

The TFG allows the students to increase and integrate the knowledge, competences and abilities attained during their degree.

3. Assessment (1st and 2nd call)

3.1. Assessment tasks (description of tasks, marking system and assessment criteria)

The student will prove that he/she has achieved the expected learning outcomes by presenting the written report (80% of the mark) and publicly defending it (20% of the mark).

Written report

The TFG written report will summarize the work carried out by the student, and it will be accompanied by the necessary materials, such as questionnaires, additional information,….., Students of Business Administration and Management shall do the written report in Spanish. It is possible also to do it in English but in order to do so the supervisor should agree.

The content, format and length of the written report should fulfill the requirements indicated in the evaluation section.

It would be advisable for the student to deliver the report of the work to his / her director / s, at least 15 school days before the beginning of the deposit period (the deposit and defense deadlines are published on the Center's website).

Defense

The defense of the TFG will be carried out following the norms and instructions published on the web of each School.

Any claim with regards to the mark attained will be made following the regulation of the University of Zaragoza

Assessment criteria

1. CONTENT (Max 8 points).

1.1. Scope and purpose (max 2 points)

1.2. Scientific and technical content (max 4 points)

1.3. Discussion and conclusions. (max 2 points)

2. PUBLIC DEFENSE OF THE DISSERTATION (Max 2 points).

2.1. Public defense of the dissertation (max 1 point)

2.2. Discussion of the work and answering the questions (max 1 point)

In case of misbehavior, such as plagiarism, by the students, paragraph 30 of the Evaluation and Learning rules of the University of Zaragoza will be applied (artículo 30 del Reglamento de Normas de Evaluación del Aprendizaje de la Universidad de Zaragoza-Acuerdo de 22 de diciembre de 2010 del Consejo de Gobierno). To verify plagiarism the University will establish the necessary procedures to guarantee that the original work of the students is greater than 80% of the written report handed in.

To be considered an English-taught course in the transcript of records of the students of the English group of the School of Economics and Business of the University of Zaragoza, both the written report and the public defense of the undergraduate dissertation should be in English.

Assessment rubrics could be prepared to easy the evaluation of the undergraduate dissertation. The Schools that decide to do so will disclose it on the web page.

GUIDELINES FOR THE UNDERGRADUATE DISSERTATION

These guidelines are instructions about the characteristics, content and formal aspects of the undergraduate dissertation

1. CONTENT

The report should include the page numbers and the content will be organized considering the following sections:

Index (including page numbers

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical framework / Literature review / Contextualization

3. Methodology

4. Analysis / Findings

5. Discussion and Conclusions

Bibliographical References

2. FORMAT

Margins: Left: 3 cm; Right: 3 cm; Top: 2.5 cm; Bottom: 2.5 cm.

Line spacing: 1.5

Paragraph spacing: Before: 0 points; After: 6 points

Font: Times New Roman 12.

3. LENGTH

The undergraduate dissertation should have a minimum length of 20 pages and a maximum of 40 pages, without annexes. The maximum length of the annexes is 30 pages

4. CONTENT

Cover page

The cover page format can be found in: http://biblioteca.unizar.es/servicios/deposito-tfgtfm It includes the title, the name of the degree, the author’s name and surname, and the supervisor’s name and surname.

The following page will include the author’s name and surname, the supervisor’s name and surname, the title (in Spanish and English) and degree. In addition, this page will include an abstract of 200 words (approximately), in Spanish and in English or one of the other languages offered for the B1 accreditation.

Introduction

The student should explain the purpose of his/her TFG; set out the reasons for undertaking this particular study, mention the possible applications to public or private organizations; mention the methodology he/she is going to apply or use; briefly describe the different sections and content of the dissertation.

Theoretical framework / Literature review / Contextualization

In this section the student should give a summary of the reading research that he/she has done into the topic area, describing the existing and established theory and research in the report area and providing a context for the work.

It is also important to contextualize the dissertation by referring to similar works in the same specific field of study, other findings in the same line, etc..

Methodology

Here the student will describe the scope of the research and all of the research methods he/she intends to use. This section starts by describing the process and the particular methods of research.

Analysis of results

This is the main body of the dissertation, where the student will describe the results obtained from the data that he/she has gathered during the research

Discussion and conclusions

In this section the general and specific conclusions must be presented. In addition, the student should explain if these conclusions are consistent with the objectives initially proposed and justify the work done.

It is important to stress the importance of the study again. That is, the student should explain the public, business or academic interest of the results obtained.

He/she may also describe any limitations or shortcomings in the research methods.

4.6. References

In this section the student has to include a list of all the sources he/she has used and referred to in the body of the dissertation: books, book chapters, journals, websites, reports, etc.

Here the student can find some guidelines:

Books:

SURNAME, NAME.  (YEAR). Title. Publisher, Place of publication.

Articles in Journals:

SURNAME, NAME.  (YEAR).): “Title of article”. Title of journal , Vol. x, No. x, pp. x-y.

Websites:

SURNAME, NAME. (YEAR). Name of Webpage. [online]. Available: http://? [accessed: Date Month YEAR]

NAME OF UNIVERSITY/NEWSPAPER/WEBSITE, (YEAR). Name of Webpage. [online]. Available: http://? [accessed: Date Month YEAR]

4.7. Tables, charts, figures and graphs

It is recommended to use a double numbering system for tables, charts, figures and graphs (the first number for the chapter and the second for the order within the chapter).

4.8. Annexes

The student can include one appendix or several appendices in the dissertation which should be numbered (e.g. Appendix I; Appendix II, Appendix III, etc.). In this section the student should include:

- The questionnaire that he/she has used if he/she has carried out a survey.

- Any supplementary information which could be useful but which is not essential to understand the study.

4. Methodology, learning tasks, syllabus and resources

4.1. Methodological overview

The learning process that has been designed for this course is based on the following activities:

1. Each student will choose the model for their undergraduate dissertation and the theme based on the offer made by the center. This offer will be updated every year.
2. Seminar: The tutor will provide the students with the necessary guidance for carrying out the undergraduate dissertation.
3. Tutorials: the student will have at least 4 hours where the tutor will guide and monitor the work.
4. Individual work: Students will performs their work individually.

4.2. Learning tasks

This course is organized as follows:

Seminar (0.04 ECTS: 1 hour). The student is expected to attend an induction section in which guidelines for initial dissertation preparation will be provided.

Tutorials (0.2 ECTS: 5 hours). Each student must have at least 5 hours where the tutor will guide and monitor the work. They can be face-to-face or online.

Autonomous work (5.74 ECTS: 143.5 hours). To prepare the dissertation draft, the student is expected to engage in autonomous work (use of the library, reviewing the literature, writing the draft of the dissertation and revising the draft).

Assessment (0.2 ECTS: 0.5 hours). Public defense and discussion.

4.3. Syllabus

Grado (EQF/MECU 6)

4.4. Course planning and calendar

The specific dates of this course regarding the selection of supervisor, the submission and the public defense will be disclosed on each School web page, as well as the instructions for selecting the supervisor of the TFG