The Warwick Year
During your year at Warwick, you will follow the taught portion of one of our 10 core MA programmes (ie, Part I of the degree as described on the course structure page), taking your core and optional modules alongside the rest of the MA cohort.
The Joint Dissertation - Expectations at Warwick in Year One
The Joint Dissertation counts towards the two parts of the Double Masters – at Warwick and at the Balsillie School. Accordingly, the dissertation is supervised both by a faculty member in PAIS and a faculty member at Balsillie.
Although you will complete the joint dissertation in Academic Year 2 at the Balsillie School, you must still submit a provisional topic, meet with your PAIS dissertation advisor, submit a provisional plan on which you'll receive feedback, and then submit a provisional joint dissertation title during Term 3 of your 1st Year at Warwick. You are also encouraged to take part in the MA Dissertation Conference.
Since the plan and title are provisional at this stage, you can adapt or even completely change the plan and title during Year 2 in Waterloo in consultation with your Balsillie School supervisor. Please inform the PAIS PG Team if you do agree a new title during Year 2.
You can find the start dates for the Balsillie School on their webpages and they will normally contact you about arrival dates and any orientation or welcome activities.
During the summer after Warwick Term 3 there are no formal teaching requirements and no further assessments to submit so it is up to each individual student to decide how to spend their time. You are encouraged to undertake preliminary work on your dissertation topic. You can also do preparatory work for the second part of the Double Degree at the partner institution, find work or internship opportunities, take a holiday, or some combination of all of these.
Please bear in mind when the Balsillie School's academic year begins and when you will need to travel to Canada for the second part of your Double Degree.
You are not required to be resident at Warwick during the summer period after Term 3 and before the start of your second MA at the Balsillie School. However, Warwick facilities such as the Library and study spaces will be available should you choose to access them.
PAIS provides Dissertation Clinics during the summer which you can take part in if you wish. You can also continue to seek advice from your PAIS advisor, the PAIS Course Director for the Double Masters, and the PAIS Programmes Team, bearing in mind that periods of annual leave may mean that they will not be available at all times, particularly during August.
It is the student’s responsibility to consult with both Balsillie School supervisor and PAIS advisor to an adequate extent, though your Balsillie School supervisor should be considered your primary supervisor if you complete the Double Degree in Year 2 in Canada. The extent to which you consult with the Warwick advisor during this 2nd year can be agreed between you and your advisor but the expectation is that the majority of advising in Year 2 will be conducted by the Balsillie School supervisor. You should adhere to dissertation requirements at the Balsillie School in terms of deadlines and submission. A copy should be submitted both to the Balsillie School and to Warwick (the latter via Tabula).
While the scope of the dissertation is similar at our partner universities and the University of Warwick, it is your responsibility to incorporate the guidelines of both institutions into the work. This may concern formatting, referencing etc. The length of the Joint Dissertation is to be no more than 15,000 words excluding abstract, footnotes, bibliography, and any appendices. There may be some exceptions to this rule depending upon the partner institution - please adhere to the rules and regulations of the partner if completing your dissertation there in Year 2 but inform the PAIS PG Team and PAIS Double Degrees Course Director of any deviation from the usual word limit.