Guidelines For Final

Year Bachelor Students

Undertaking
Project and Dissertation
II

Academic
Year
2016/2017

The project is an important component of the learning and assessment

elements of the Final Year Bachelor programme

Department of Architecture and

Building
Department of Quantity Surveying and
Real Estate

Table of Contents
Aims___________________________________________________________________ 3
Anticipated Learning Outcomes______________________________________________3
General Information_______________________________________________________ 3
Broad timeline to be observed_______________________________________________ 4
Student-Supervisor Log-Book_______________________________________________ 5
Submission______________________________________________________________7
Advisory Notes__________________________________________________________17
Assessment_____________________________________________________________17
Safety_________________________________________________________________ 17
Plagarism______________________________________________________________ 17
Assessment Form________________________________________________________ 18

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Aims
This course provides students with the opportunity to study in-depth a chosen area of
particular interest to them and related to the Built Environment. It is also a process to develop
critical analytical skills and to acquire self-management skills. Students will develop
independent learning skills through planning, monitoring, records experiential learning and
time-management abilities. Each has to work independently in soliciting verifiable and valid
information, from literature search, questionnaires, interviews or case studies and present the
study in a bound dissertation as partial requirement for the award of Bachelor.

Anticipated Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the course, students should be able to: CLO1: To design an appropriate research methodology for the proposed research.
CLO2: To collect and analyse the qualitative and/or quantitative data and present results of
the research.
CLO3: To draw the conclusion clearly and produce a written dissertation in an academically
acceptable format.

General Information
1. Every Final Year Bachelor student in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment
must undertake a project and submit a dissertation as part of the requirements of the final
year examination. Every student must obtain at least a Pass in his project and dissertation
to satisfy the Board of Examiners for the award of the Bachelor. A student who fails his
project will not qualify to graduate.
2. The subject matter of the project can be any area within the built environment and related
to the programme of study. Students are advised to make some initial reading before
choosing a topic and continue the research base of the previous studies. Merely finding
out what you dont know will make you ended up doing an assignment rather than a
research (systematic investigation).
3. After selecting a suitable topic, students shall register their titles on-line to the Associate
Dean or its assigned staff for assignment of supervisors. After the assignment of a
supervisor, a student is required to appear before the supervisor to discuss the suitability
of the topic chosen. No student shall start the project work without the prior approval of
the supervisor. No student is allowed to share the same title with any other students.
4. The student shall commence work immediately after obtaining approval from the
supervisor. The student shall carry out the project work under the supervision of a
member of the academic staff (Full-time or Part-time Lecturer) and shall consult him/her
for on a weekly basis for the whole duration of the project. The main role of the
supervisor is to provide guidance to the student. The student shall not expect the
supervisor to be personally involved in carrying out the project. The supervisor will also
be the examiner for the project.
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5. In certain circumstances, qualified professionals from the industry may be appointed as

supervisors/examiners. Any student approaching such persons to be the supervisor should
obtain prior approval from the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Built
Environment
6. Each student is required to submit the dissertation in the proper format to the Associate
Dean or its assigned staff. Student who submits after the deadline will be penalised. All
dissertations submitted will become the property of the University College. The copyright
of all dissertations belongs to the University College. Instructions regarding preparation
and submission of project dissertations will be given in the later part of this document.

Broad timeline to be observed

The students shall observe the following broad timeline:
Timeline
By Week 12
By Week 13
By Week 16

Tasks
Final draft of Project and Dissertation II submission.
Completed Project and Dissertation II Final Submission.
In the event of an unsatisfactory dissertation submission, the student
may be allowed to resubmit an improved version. Resubmission,
however, can only be given a minimum pass grade or original fail
grade.

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Student-Supervisor Log-Book
1. The main purpose of this log-book is to make sure that all interactions with your
supervisor are recorded and properly documented as evidences. This is form part of the
skills that students should develop in recording experiential learning.
2. As your supervisor guides you, you are required to record down exactly his comments,
ranging from praise for work well done, to specific task you are required to do before you
see him/her in next meeting. Once you have completed such remarks, the supervisor will
verify by placing his signature there, and a next appointment can be fixed.
3. Your log should consist of
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

Date, venue, starting time, and ending time of the meeting.

Reasons for missed appointment as fixed earlier, if any.
What were being discussed, what was commented, and what was to be done
before the next meeting.
Appointment for next meeting.
Signature, as verification, of the supervisor.

4. The students are not expected to follow blindly all that the supervisor requested, but to
weigh if the request for work falls within your own proposal, your aim, your objectives,
etc. Though it is not likely to happen, we do not expect students to carry out a personal
research for the supervisor, and that the students should have the privilege to decline /
oblige.
5. The supervisors will be advised here to detect any submission / draft / write-up that do not
fall within the aim / objectives of the dissertation. Students, being students, will source
for all types of information, and whatever was read that has a faint indication to building
industry, will be copied, or quoted, in your dissertation. It is important to ask why this
information is required in your dissertation and that it is important is not good
enough. It must be related to what you have to study, or want to study. It should fit your
objectives, and it shouldnt be important information included just to beef up the pages of
your dissertation.
6. The student-supervisor log-book sheet is given at the end of this guideline and it is also
available in CeL FEBE Bulletin Board.

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Project and Dissertation II Guidelines

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Submission of Project and Dissertation II

General Information And Guidelines
Every student in the Final Year of a Bachelor course in the Faculty of Engineering and Built
Environment must carry out a Project under the supervision of an academic staff of the
Faculty. Each candidate is required to submit to the Associate Dean or its assigned staff a
dissertation on the project that he/she has undertaken not later than WEEK 13. Every
candidate must obtain at least a Pass in his/her Project and Dissertation I to satisfy the Board
of Examiners in order to proceed with his/her Project and Dissertation I.
In submitting their dissertations, all candidates must observe the following
requirements/guidelines to ensure that uniformity is maintained. Candidates who deviate from
these requirements/guidelines without prior approval from the Associate Dean or its assigned
staff will be penalised.
1.

Format of the Project and Dissertation II

1.1

The dissertation is a technical report on the project that the candidate has
undertaken over a period of approximately one (1) long semester. The report
should comprise of about 12,500 words (excluding appendix) and may include
photographs, tables, drawings, graphs, flowcharts, computer programmes, etc.
which must be clearly annotated.

1.2

The dissertation should be typewritten on one (1) side of the paper only to suit
a folder of A4 size. The following electronic formatting should be observed:
Left hand margin
:
35mm
Top margin
:
25mm
Bottom margin
:
25mm
Right hand margin
:
25mm
Font size
:
12
Font Type
:
Times New Roman
Alignment
:
Justify
Page Number
:
Bottom, centre
Line Spacing
:
Double should be used for normal paragraph.
Footnote
:
Bottom, bulleted points, short notes in the table
form and etc, closer spacing may be used, but
should not be less than the space between words.
The use of equations and mathematical formulae
may require additional space as appropriate.
Heading

e.g.

Project and Dissertation II Guidelines

Headings should be used to indicate the

hierarchical structure of subsections within the
dissertation. There should normally be no more
than four levels.
1. First level
1.1 Second level
1.1.1 Third level
1.1.1.1 fourth level
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1.3

The dissertation should be properly bound with black cover/folder, and with
labels (in gold colour) indicating the Title, Candidates name, Course and Year
on the face of the cover/folder. For the hardcover copy, the spine of the cover
must also be labelled with the Title, Candidates name, and Year. These are
shown in Appendix A or B.

1.4

The first page of the dissertation should follow the format as shown in
Appendix C, D or E.

1.5

The rest of the papers of the dissertation should follow the following
sequence:
a)

Declaration

b)

Acknowledgement

c)

Summary / Abstracts
The summary should give a simplified, clear and precise description of
what have been carried out in the project. The abstract should give
information on the research problem that was studied, the method used
to study the problem (including information on the type of sample), the
result, and major conclusions. The abstract should provide enough
information to the examiners about your research as well as
information to other readers so that they may decide whether to read
the entire dissertation. It should normally be not longer that one page.

d)

Nomenclature (if applicable)

e)

Table of content
This should list out the title of each chapter and section/sub-section
with corresponding pages properly shown.

f)

Introduction chapter
This chapter should give the background on why / how the project was
chosen. It should introduce to the reader the existing technologies /
products / services / methods and how it proposes to improve / modify
on these. In other cases, depending on the nature of the project, this
chapter should provide the theoretical background appropriate to the
subject matter under study. This chapter should also give the outline of
the approach in undertaking the project.

g)

Literature review chapter(s). Usually one (1) or two (2) chapters

reviewing previous work (theory/ies and /or previous evidence). These
chapters should review what has been written on your topic
emphasised that a critical review should show that the writer has
studied existing work in the field with insight. The main point is that a
review should provide the reader with a picture of the state of
knowledge and of main questions in the subject area being
investigated.

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1.6

h)

Research methodology chapter

This chapter should clearly state the theory and various types of
research methods. The students are expected to select and justify the
most appropriate research method for the project by giving and justify
the following:
i)
The reasons for such selection
ii)
The method selected match with the aim and objectives of the
project.
This chapter should also consist in depth consideration of research
question, case study, observation, empirical or experimental research.

i)

Data collection and analysis chapter

Recording of observations/surveys, analysis and interpretation of
data/results, etc. This chapter is the core part of your dissertation and
will consist of the research findings expressed by texts, figures, tables,
charts, graphs and the like. It is absolutely important for candidate to
present their results clearly.

j)

Conclusions chapter
Conclusion and recommendations for future work. The students must
be able to tie very closely with their introduction chapter. The students
must be able to comments on their own objective and state whether
your investigation proved or disproved your research hypothesis.
The students should provide recommendations for further studies as to
what should and should not be done. Perhaps a development of a
conceptual model of a framework can be inserted in this part of the
conclusion chapter.

k)

References
Care should be exercised in the use of reference works. Whenever a
reference is made to a book or an article in the list of references, this
should be indicated by quoting the number, in parentheses, of the book
or article as appeared in the reference list. The list of references should
be provided at the end of each relevant chapter.
The students should not reproduce verbatim passages or sentences
from reference materials without comment criticism or examination of
its application to local conditions. Where materials from such reference
works are quoted they should be made clear in the text of the
dissertation and placed under inverted commas and in italics.
The method of referencing should be based on Harvard system.

l)

Appendices (if any)

Computer programmes, data sheets, standard theorems/formulae, list of
manufacturers/suppliers, etc.

If a survey to obtain data and opinion has been carried out, the results of the
survey should appear in the dissertation with a critical appreciation of the
results.

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1.7

The following declaration should be included in your dissertation:

DECLARATION:
The project submitted herewith is a result of my own investigations. All
information that has been obtained from other sources had been fully
acknowledged. I understand that plagiarism constitutes a breach of University
College rules and regulations and would be subjected to disciplinary actions.

Signature
-----------------------------<Name of Student>
Date:

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2.

Submission of the Project and Dissertation II

In submitting the dissertation, all candidates must observe the following procedures
and requirements:
2.1

Four (4) copies of the dissertation and a CD are to be submitted by each

candidates as follows:
One (1) original hard copy
Two (2) photocopies
One soft copy CD

hardcover
comb-binding
containing 2 folders one folder
contains the Abstract and the other the
Fulltext of the dissertation, pictures and
video (if any).

Note that:
a) The Abstract should contain the following information:
i) Title of the project
ii) Name of the Author
iii) The Abstract
b) The fulltext should contain the following information:
i) Title
ii) Author
iii) Declaration
iv) Abstract
v) Table of Content
vi) Fulltext (includes graphics, images, programmes, etc.)
vii) References
viii) Appendices.
2.2

Label the CDs submitted with the following information:

a)
Faculty
b)
Department
c)
Academic Year
d)
Registration Number
e)
Name
f)
Title

2.3

The candidate normally makes one copy for his/her personal keeping. He/She
may make an extra copy for his/her supervisor. Multiple computer printout
copies are not acceptable.

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Appendix A
Format for the face and spine of the cover/folder

< Title of Dissertation >

< Title of Dissertation >

BY
< Name of Author >
< Name of Author >
.
2015/2016

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT
TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
KUALA LUMPUR

2015/2016
Spine (Hard cover copy only)

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Appendix B
Format for the face and spine of the cover/folder

< Title of Dissertation >

< Title of Dissertation >

BY
< Name of Author >
< Name of Author >
.
2015/2016

DEPARTMENT OF QUANTITY SURVEYING AND REAL

ESTATE
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT
TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
KUALA LUMPUR

2015/2016
Spine (Hard cover copy only)

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Appendix C
Format of the first page of the Dissertation
< Title of dissertation >

by
< Author >

Supervisor:

< name of supervisor >

Project dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the award of the Bachelor of Construction Management and
Economics (Honours)

Department of Architecture and Building

Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College
Kuala Lumpur

2015/2016

Copyright 2016 by Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

All rights reserved. No part of this dissertation may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means without the prior permission of Tunku Abdul Rahman
University College

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Appendix D
Format of the first page of the Dissertation
< Title of dissertation >

by
< Author >

Supervisor:

< name of supervisor >

Project dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the award of the Bachelor of Quantity Surveying (Honours)

Department of Quantity Surveying and Real Estate

Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College
Kuala Lumpur

2015/2016

Copyright 2016 by Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

All rights reserved. No part of this dissertation may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means without the prior permission of Tunku Abdul Rahman
University College

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Appendix E
Format of the first page of the Dissertation
< Title of dissertation >

by
< Author >

Supervisor:

< name of supervisor >

Project dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the award of the Bachelor of Estate Management (Honours)

Department of Quantity Surveying and Real Estate

Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College
Kuala Lumpur

2015/2016

Copyright 2016 by Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

All rights reserved. No part of this dissertation may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means without the prior permission of Tunku Abdul Rahman
University College

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Advisory Notes
1.

In undertaking the project, each student should endeavour to:

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

2.

Co-ordinate and integrate his/her knowledge in the various subjects he/she has
studied relating to the project.
Analyse scientifically all factors involved in problems faced in the project.
Develop initiative in the preparation of the project and make judgements which
can be justified.
Elicit a critical appreciation of the overall result.
Compile and present a realistic and proper technical report.

Students are encouraged to undertake experimental-based and/or analytical-based

projects. For literature review type project, a critical review of a number of original
published papers from journals must be included, not just extracts from papers.

Assessment
The student will be assessed on the type of research proposed, either experiment or empirical
research. Please kindly refer to the attached marking scheme for the areas of assessment.

Safety
Students must make every effort to ensure the safety of themselves and the people around
them (classmates, laboratory staff, lecturers, etc) when performing experiments. Failing to do
so may result in undesirable consequences such as permanent injury / disfigurement.

Plagiarism
It is important that students respect the right to intellectual property of others. Students who
copy work from any sources (books, research papers, internet, other institutions, etc) without
referencing would have committed plagiarism and would be severely reprimanded and his/her
dissertation would be awarded an F (fail) grade. Sources of all works quoted must be clearly
stated.

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TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT
ASSESSMENT FORM
Candidate Name:

0%-50%

Indicative performance
50%-60%
60%-75%

Fail

Pass

Merit

Reg. No.:

Programme:

2nd Marker Name:

3rd Marker Name (if any):

75%-100%
Distinction

Group:

Project and Dissertation Title:

1st Marker Name:

Project and Dissertation II: Assessment (100%)

Not Do: 0, Very Poor: 1, Poor: 2, Fairly Poor: 3, Below Average: 4, Average: 5, Above Average: 6, Fairly Good: 7, Good: 8, Very Good: 9, Excellent: 10

Assessment Criteria
1

Aim, objectives,
hypothesis,
literature review
and research
methodology
(20%)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Score
(0-10)

Total
Score

Average
Score

Weightage

Consideration of background study/research questions

Aim and objectives clearly stated
Appropriate references from a variety of sources
References are correctly cited and vice versa
Understanding the topic areas of the research
Consideration of validity of each source & critical review
Appropriate research method for the proposed research
Reasons for the proposed research method(s) clearly stated
Research method matches with aim & objectives
Questionnaire/case studies/experimental/observation
design field work match with the aim and objectives

Note:
Appropriateness of research. Ability to identify the knowledge gap, problem statement, hypothesis, benefits, ethical issues and its limitations. Range
of references of key text (secondary referencing/data, books, journals, articles, conference papers, internet, etc.). Accurate citations in the text, figure,
table, chart, graph, diagram and the like. Appropriateness of research method. Appropriate questionnaire, experimental or observation design.

Note:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Data collection
and analysis
(35%)

1.
2.
3.
4.

Range of data collection

Consideration of validity, reliability & interrogation of data
Analysis of & interpret the data using appropriate methods
Presentation of data using appropriate methods

3.5

Where quantitative methods are used with wide range of data: Appropriate graphs, tables, charts or diagrams shall be used to illustrate the data.
Where interviews, case studies or qualitative methods are used: Critical analysis of respondents views or case studies.
Where experimental methods are used: Critical analysis of testing data.
Where observation methods are used: Critical analysis of observation data.

Discussions and
findings (20%)

1.
2.
3.
4.

Presentation of findings in appropriate & rigorous way

Clear discussions between the findings & literature review
Clear discussions on linking the findings to the objectives
Ability to integrate and synthesise new ideas

Note:
Overall discussions and findings are well grounded in literature review, aim & objectives of the research and candidates own investigations or field works.

Conclusions and 1.
abstract (15%)
2.
3.

Rigorous conclusions drawn from the findings & addressed

the aim, objectives, research questions & literature
Suggestion for further study/identify areas of uncertainty
Abstract of research is clearly presented

1.5

Note:
Overall conclusions are drawn from the body of work. Evaluation should be done in a rigorous and appropriate manner.

Report writing
(10%)

1.
2.
3.

Grammar, spelling and syntax

Standard of presentation style (layout & arrangement)
Appropriate references and citations

Note:
Appropriate presentation. Accurate grammar, spelling, syntax and citations (in the reference list).

Supervisor Name:
Comments by Marker (if any):

Action by Course Coordinator:

Marker Signature:
Date:

Course Coordinator Signature:

Date:

Project and Dissertation II Guidelines

Marks

Total:

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