Capstone
Full course description
The word capstone refers to a wedged stone connecting two sides of a curved stone bridge. Your capstone serves as a connection between the various important themes in your curriculum that you have followed at UCV. Capstone is the culmination of a student’s academic work at UCV and is comparable in function to a bachelor thesis.
During this module students will work on writing a proposal in which they formulate their individual goals and determine a topic and format appropriate to their topic; students will independently search for a capstone/ research advisor; students will conduct the research primarily themselves; and their findings are going to be presented in a final piece of work (capstone). The capstone can take on a variety of forms and is not confined to a traditional research article/paper.
Course objectives
- To enable students to express their individual academic profile through a scholarly project during their last semester at the College.
- To further develop the ability to give an independent, systematic and clear treatment of a certain topic.
- To train the ability to independently identify and analyse relevant literature, theories and knowledge.
- To make systematic use of an appropriate selection of theories and methodologies in approaching questions and problems.
- To train the ability to independently acquire and handle academic knowledge through independent studies of relevant literature, and to cultivate the ability to critically evaluate and briefly account for the central elements in a large literature base.
- To assist senior students in the transition from undergraduate education to a master programme or the labour market.
Prerequisites
Students should have at least 140 ECTS at the start of Capstone.
Recommendations: Participating in Capstone is doable, but demanding. Therefore, having a higher workload than usual (30 ECTS for one semester) due to e.g. additional courses, skills trainings and projects is not recommended.
Recommended reading
There is no preassigned literature for Capstone. Students will search for their own literature based on their capstone topic.
- M.A. van den Heuvel
- K. Semen