📚 Overview of Module
This introductory module invites students to consider the impact of their dissertations and theses across three dimensions:
- Global significance (the contribution of the research to addressing important societal challenges),
- Personal development (how the dissertation builds students’ skills, career capital, and research trajectory), and
- Community impact (how the project contributes to their surrounding community - i.e., peers, academics, family).
Students will also be introduced to the Theory of Change framework, a structured tool widely used in policy, development, and organizational strategy, to help them articulate how their research could lead to meaningful outcomes.
🧠 Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module, students should be able to:
- Differentiate between multiple dimensions of what makes a thesis high-impact
- Identify common pitfalls that reduce research impact and strategies to avoid them.
- Apply the Theory of Change framework to articulate potential pathways of impact of their thesis
📗 Module Content