On October 28, 2016, Professor Zhao Shurongof the School of Political Science and Public Administration (SPSPA) organized an academic workshop for students under her academic supervision in Room 444 of Zonghe Building. The workshop aimed at helping the students understands masters dissertation, and to provide them with tips for drafting and revising individual sections of the proposal.The training was attended by 5participants who included, Borojo Petros, a second year Ethiopian master of Public Management student, Khursnad Rakhmatov, Bulaukin Nivita, Borba Inagamod and Saif Ur Rahman who are all first year international masters of Public Management students from SPSPA.
The workshop was in two sessions. Before the presentations, Professor Zhao Shurong gave a brief introduction to participants about the objectives and highlighted the need for them to take every aspect of the workshop.
In the first session, Borojo Petros who wasconducting his masters dissertation on: “An Exploration on Irregular Migration from Policy Perspective: the Case Study of Southern Ethiopian Regions” under the supervision of Professor Zhao Shurong explained the outline of his research proposal to participants. He took the class through four thematic areas under the first chapter of his work – research background and research objective, statement of problem and research guiding questions, research significance, and the research framework. He identified that the high rate of illegal migration in southern Ethiopia influenced his research focus, and emphasized that to understand the situation he would aim at analyzing the causes, consequences, evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of existing policy responses that fight against irregular migration, and recommend policy priorities based on the findings of the study to help policy makers.
Professor Zhao Shurong asked him to clarify his research tools. Other participants asked him to explain his source of data and how he was going to gather them since he is far from his sampling population. He was also advised against plagiarism which he admitted to reference his sources. Prof. Zhao Shurong admitted the significance of the work. She however, advised him to gather enough data and remindand submit his research questionnaires .
During the second session, Prof. Zhao Shurong took the participant step by step in writing the Chapter One of the Proposal. She said generally, the introduction provides necessary background information to the study and provides readers with some sense of your overall research interest. She also remarked that it should also include a brief description of the topic, the aim, research objectives and the research question to be addressed. Explaining further, she said the aim of the research provides a description of what the researcher wants to achieve from carrying out the research. The objectives of the research on the other hand outline the particular issues that he/she needs to address in order to achieve the aim above while the research questions which are more specific than the research objectives specifies the various insights/information that need to be collected in order to achieve the objectives.
Assessing Petros proposal, Prof. Zhao Shurong reminded him that although his work focus on efficiency and effectiveness of public policies but due to the shift towards New Public Management (NPM) he should pay attention to social equity (justice) and equality. She also advised him to focus more on the problem of irregular migration and to put the research topic title in proper perspective. She suggested to him to revise it to “Causes of Irregular Migration in the Southern Region of Ethiopia.” Petros was also to explain why he chose the Case Study approach in his methodology.
The participants were unanimous that the workshop on writing masters dissertation had been educative, informative and exciting.Professor Zhao Shurong thanked the participants for attending the training and requested them to revise accordingly. The participants took group photos before closing the workshop.
