Supporting part-time Masters students towards successful research dissertations: a case study

Abstract

Experience at many Higher Education Institutions (HEls) is that a large percentage of registered Masters students never complete their research dissertation. A number of reasons have been suggested for this. Coursework and dissertation mixed Masters degrees have been introduced in order to attract more Masters students, but the rate of completion is still low . The Faculty of Business Informatics (FBI) at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) has implemented several approaches to part-time Masters students' support, including the most recent one of offering a Structured Study Program (SSP) that is directly supportive of the skills and resources that a Masters student needs to complete a dissertation. This paper reports on various modes of offering Masters degrees, FBI's Masters student history, a survey of FBI's Masters students to assess factors influencing progress with research dissertations and the implementation of SSP