E2025

International Bachelor Study Programme in Social Science

Basic course

English

Studerende på 1. semester bliver automatisk tilmeldt. Hvis du skal tage kurset igen, og ikke går på 1. semester, skal du kontakte sib-exams@ruc.dk.

Students on their 1st semester will be registered automatically. If you are taking the course again and are not on your 1st semester, please contact sib-exams@ruc.dk.

The course introduces the problem-oriented project work as the interdisciplinary "research-like" activity (Andersen & Dupont 2014: 123) that is the hallmark of RUC's pedagogical model. The course goes over the different phases of project work, and associated concepts such as problem area, problem formulation and project design, etc. The student will also be introduced to how to search for literature and gain an understanding of the role of the existing literature in project work. Furthermore, the course introduces students to meta-theoretical aspects underpinning concrete project work, such as ontology and epistemology, and their connections to methodological directions of project work. The focus is laid on students' understanding of the need for a logical coherence between meta-theoretical aspects and other, methodological and theoretical components of project design. Students are likewise introduced to the main types of data and sources of data, including critical discussions about the quality assessment of sources of data and evidence used in academic reasoning. Finally, the course covers the correct way of referencing and provides students with a comprehensive understanding of plagiarism in the academic context.

List of classes:

1. Introduction: Interdisciplinary Project Work (PPL) and Problem formulation
2. Maintaining curiosity, project design and managing the process
3. Reliability in knowledge, evidence, data, triangulation and the project process
4. Reviewing the literature in PPL
5. Introducing methodology and methods in PPL
6. Introducing the philosophy og social science in PPL
7. Introducing theory and analysis in PPL
8. Conclusions: Ethics, quality, transferrable skills of PPL

• Librarian-led introduction to literature search will be held between classes 3 and 5, and has a seperate Moodle page.

The methods course is worth 5 ECTS which amounts to 135 hours of work per semester.

It includes 28 contact hours (8 classes: 2x2 hr; 6x4 hr) and additional 2 hours of library-organized literature search course and 2 hours of library-organized introduction to Peergrade i.e. total of 32 contact hours.

Additionally, you are expected to spend 2.5 hour preparing for each hour of course taught by the course instructors (except for the librarian-led sessions) hours preparing for every class (70 hours total).

The final 23 hours are spent on working on the exam.

Flick, U. (2018) An Introduction to Qualitative Research” 6th edition. Sage publications

Olsen, P.B. & Pedersen, K. (Eds) (2019) Problem-oriented project work - a workbook. Roskilde University Press.

Bendix Petersen, E. & Sørensen, K. A. (2020) The Group Project: How to do it. A handbook for university students. RUC

4 select (anonymized) project reports that the course instructors have received permission to use (from reports' student authors)

Wright Mills (1959) The sociological imagination. Oxford University Press (Chapter 7: The human variety)

Bryman, A. (2016) "Getting started: reviewing the literature" (Chapter 5). In: Social research methods. Oxford University Press, pp. 90-119

White, P. (2010) “Making use of secondary data” In. in N. Clifford, and G. Valentine (eds ), Key Methods in Geography, London: Sage, pp. 61-76

Bradbury-Jones, C., Taylor, J., Herber, O. 2014. How theory is used and articulated in qualitative research: development of a new typology. Social science & medicine Vol.120, pp.135-141.

Meyer, S., Ward, P. 2014. 'How to' Use social theory within and throughout qualitative research in healthcare contexts. Sociology Compass, Vol.8(5), pp.525-539

Northey, M., Tepperman, L. & Albanese, P. 2012. "Exercising Judgment and Good Ethics" (Chapter 6), In: Making sense in the social sciences: a student's guide to research and writing. York: Oxford University Press, pp. 90-113

Students will have the opportunity to seek feedback on their final exam assignment.

SIB Registration & Exams (sib-exams@ruc.dk)

Johanna Hood (hood@ruc.dk)

Please note, changes may occur to the curriculum and examination format for the academic year 2025/2026. Changes will be announced on study.ruc.dk before the start of the academic year.

5

• Knowledge

  • Knowledge about central forms of knowledge production in social sciences and analysis with emphasis on problem formulation, project design and scientific literature

  • Knowledge about how to work with problem oriented project work

• Skills

  Understanding of the role scientific literature plays in the project work. The student is able to carry out a relevant literature search and justify the relevance of the selected literature in relation to a problem formulation

• Skills to develop a project design based on a social scientific problem

• Understand the connection between how social scientific problems are formulated and the answers specific problem formulations can give.

• Knowledge and understanding of good academic practise, including correct referencing and compile a bibliography

Mandatory course

The course introduces different social scientific methods. The course introduces the problem oriented project work and the different phases of project work, including concepts like: Problem area, problem formulation and project design etc. The student will also be introduced to the how to search for literature and gain understanding of the role of literature in project work. Furthermore, the course includes discussion of academic reasoning and how to assess the quality of project work. Finally, the course gives examples of academic misconduct and thereby give the student a critical understanding of the use of sources and other kinds of materials

The course consists of both lectures and seminars. As part of the course, the students will participate in group work.

Individual written invigilated exam in a topic(s) given by the lecturer and a portfolio consisting of two individual assignment(s) during the course.

The exam must be taken on your own PC. You can only use the internet to access the exam materials and for submission in the Digital Exam. The internet must remain on throughout the exam to ensure the Observer program runs successfully.

The character limit of the portfolio is: 4,800-7,200 characters, including spaces.
The character limit includes the cover, table of contents, bibliography, figures and other illustrations, but excludes appendices.

The entire portfolio must be handed in at the same time.
The portfolio submission deadline will be announced on study.ruc.dk.

The duration of the invigilated exam is 3 hours.

One grade is provided. In the assessment, the portfolio will count for 40 percent and the invigilated exam will count for 60 percent.

Permitted support and preparation materials for the exam:You are allowed to use your own notes, a dictionary, a physical calculator and course materials during the exam. Course materials and notes must be local files on your PC, books/notes in physical form or links available through the exam in Digital Exam. You are allowed to use a digital dictionary linked through the exam in Digital Exam..

Assessment: 7-point grading scale

Samme som ordinær eksamen / same form as ordinary exam