Undertaking a collaborative dissertation for my masters thesis has been an incredibly rewarding process. As someone who studies a broad subject and is interested in many aspects of my field, the thought of having to pick a specific area to write a dissertation on was always a difficult task. By writing a collaborative dissertation, I was able to identify an area of my subject that I found engaging, whilst giving me the opportunity to use my academic abilities to help my chosen charity to strengthen their research and policy recommendations. This has not only been an incredibly rewarding experience, but has also given me clarity that policy and research is a career path I am now certain I want to pursue.

- Leah Dobbs, MSc Educational Studies

Working with a student on the University of Glasgow's Collaborative Dissertation project has been a unique opportunity for us as a small third sector organisation to gain access to a skill set and resources we wouldn't normally have the capacity for. The student was very flexible to design their dissertation question around our research needs and we worked extremely well together on what was an important piece of work for the charity. I would encourage other organisations to consider the mutually beneficial rewards such a collaboration can bring and would highly recommend taking part in the programme.

- Rebecca Scarlett, Senior Policy and Information Officer, LEAD Scotland


First published: 17 March 2021