Call for Theses: Master's Award in Development Studies 2019

The Finnish University Partnership for International Development – UniPID and the Finnish Society for Development Research (FSDR) jointly seek exceptional Master’s level theses from UniPID universities [1] to be awarded.

The Master’s Award in Development Studies 2019 will be presented in conjunction with FSDR’s Development Day Seminar 2020. The prize sum is 1,000 euros. There will also be two honorable mentions for exceptionally meriting works.

The Master’s Award in Development Studies selection criteria are the following:

• The thesis has been approved during the period 1.8.2018-31.7.2019 at a UniPID member university, as a master's level thesis included in a degree. The language of the thesis is Finnish, Swedish, or English.
• The grade is at least magna cum laude or higher; or at least 4 if the work has been graded on a scale of 1-5.
• This is a multidisciplinary competition and the disciplines are not limited in advance. The work should however employ one of the following development research frameworks: development studies, developing country research, international development, or the Global South research.

In unclear cases, the appointed Master’s Award Working Group will decide whether the work fulfills the above conditions.

The final review of the work will take into account the following qualities:

Whether the thesis

• produces new knowledge or approaches old knowledge in a new and innovative way;
• includes results with societal significance; and/or
• forms an organized and coherent whole.

Participation

All submissions should be sent in electronic format (PDF) to the e-mail address if.uyj@ofni-dipinu by 31 August 2019 at 16.00 at the latest. The thesis and other necessary documents should be sent either via email as attachments. The work can be sent either by the Supervisor, ensuring the consent of the author, or by the author.

The submitted theses should be accompanied by the following information:

• personal contact information of the author (home address, email and phone number)
• transcript of records and/or examiner's statement indicating the university, department, supervisor(s), the grade the work received, and the official date of approval
• a summary of the work (max 1 page)
• reasons for participating in the competition (max 1 page)

The submitted materials will not be returned.

All submissions should be sent to:

if.uyj@ofni-dipinu

UniPID - Finnish University Partnership for International Development
University of Jyväskylä
PO Box 35
40014 University of Jyväskylä

Photo credit: Jorge Jaramillo, 2019, on Flickr.

[1] UniPID member universities are Aalto University, Åbo Akademi University, Tampere University University of Eastern Finland, University of Helsinki, University of Jyväskylä, University of Lapland, University of Oulu, University of Turku.