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.
If you are completing your Double Masters Dissertation at Warwick in Year 2 then your title must be agreed with the dissertation title and plan advisor and approved by the External Examiner at Warwick. Please also inform the Double Masters coordinator or administrator at your partner university once you have finalised and approved your title at Warwick.
Students Completing the Joint Dissertation at the Partner University in Year Two - Expectations at Warwick
The Joint Dissertation counts towards the two parts of the Double Masters – at Warwick and at the partner university. Accordingly, the dissertation is supervised both by a faculty member in PAIS and a faculty member at the partner institution.
If you are completing the joint dissertation in Year 2 at the partner, 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 at the partner university in consultation with the partner university supervisor. Please inform the PAIS PG Team if you do agree a new title during Year 2 at the partner.
The summer period between Term 3 at Warwick and the start of your first semester at the partner institution will vary from one Double Degree to another. You can find the start dates for each institution on their webpages and you will normally be contacted by the partner 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 your partner university's academic year begins and when you will need to travel to the host country 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 partner institution. 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 break 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 partner university supervisor and PAIS advisor to an adequate extent, though their partner university supervisor should be considered their primary supervisor if they complete the dissertation in Year 2 at the partner. The extent to which the student consults with the Warwick advisor during this 2nd year can be agreed between student and advisor but the expectation is that the majority of advising in Year 2 will be conducted by the partner-based supervisor. Students should adhere to dissertation requirements at the partner in terms of deadlines and submission. A copy should be submitted both to the partner university 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 the student’s 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. As noted above, 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.
If you are coming to Warwick for Year 2 of the programme, you will progress to the Dissertation stage (ie, Part II of the degree) alongside your colleagues on the single MA programmes. Whether you start or finish at Warwick, your final project will be jointly supervised by an academic from each university.