American University of Central Asia - AUCA - Senior Thesis Requirements

Senior Thesis Requirements

 

The following courses are the Core Courses of the UPD Concentration:

  • Introduction to Urban and Regional Development
  • Research Methods
  • Senior Thesis Seminar 1, 2
  • Internship

 

Introduction to Urban and Regional Development

Cities are our future.  More than half the world’s population lives in cities.  We have thousands of years of experience with building cities, but even today some cities thrive while others go bankrupt. Some cities seem to have “soul” while others do not.  The course will explore the many reasons why people are attracted to cities and the factors that contribute to the development of healthy, economically successful cities with happy populations.  The course will cover the cities of the world, but we will also look at the cities of nomadic cultures, like Bishkek.  We will have readings, videos, lectures, and tours of the City of Bishkek.  Students will be expected to keep a journal, help solve a real-world design problem, and participate in a real-world community activist project.

Research Methods

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to research proposal writing, research methodologies, and foundational research theories and protocols. Students in the course learn about the cyclical nature of applied research and the iterative process of research writing. The course teaches students how to write a proposal, engage in independent studies, and work collaboratively with a mentor-mentee relationship with EUS faculty advisor. The curriculum is sequential, helping students to identify a study topic, formulate inquiry questions, organize a literature review, and select appropriate research designs and methodologies. Students use the proposal they develop to establish the foundation of a summer project and the basis of a final research paper that will be submitted at the end of the summer once the study is completed. By the end of the course, students will complete a proposal that includes an introduction, problem statement (significance of study), literature review, methods section, references, and a project timeline. At the end of the summer, students will convert this proposal into a full research that will include the following sections: findings, discussion, conclusions, and references.

The course enrolls students majoring in the social sciences (environmental management, social impact assessment), natural and physical sciences, engineering, and professional fields. Throughout the course, students will learn how research projects can emanate from specific intellectual interests, recognized knowledge gaps in existing scholarship, or from personal experiences or community-related matters that have broad societal implications. In summary, the course helps EUS Program undergraduate students become novice researchers, and it encourages them to continue looking for opportunities after the spring semester to further develop their research skills. This course, which is in modeled after a graduate-level introductory research methods seminar series, prepares undergraduates for future research experiences, particularly at the graduate-level. Accordingly, students will also receive advising related to and opportunities to explore postgraduate programs.

Senior Thesis Seminar 1, 2

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar brings together majors with different course backgrounds to analyze environmental problems using an interdisciplinary approach. The seminar will guide students through key issues in research design, from choosing a topic, through selecting approaches to researching it, to conducting research, drawing conclusions and summarizing the results in written form. While the students will be able to draw on a textbook to aid them in understanding the research process in ecological science, emphasis will be placed on how such research is actually conducted. To this end, the students will review and discuss empirical articles published in a variety of social science journals. At the end of semester, students will focus mostly on completing their research and writing of the thesis. Each student will be required to present the results of their research to their colleagues at the end of the course.

Internship

An internship experience provides the student with an opportunity to explore career interests while applying knowledge and skills learned in the classroom in a work setting. The experience also helps students gain a clearer sense of what they still need to learn and provides an opportunity to build professional networks.

The internship will provide students with the opportunity to:

  • Acquire knowledge of the industry in which the internship is done.
  • Apply knowledge and skills learned in the classroom in a work setting.
  • Develop a greater understanding about career options while more clearly defining personal career goals.
  • Develop and refine oral and written communication skills.
  • Identify areas for future knowledge and skill development.

 

Fragment of the painting "View on Rosslyn from the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge" by Emil Nasritdinov

American University of Central Asia
7/6 Aaly Tokombaev Street
Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic 720060

Tel.: +996 (312) 915000 + Еxt.
Fax: +996 (312) 915 028
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