Pre-doctoral Training

SBMT4000 SBM Undergraduate Honors Research Project (6 credits) is a year-long course across two semesters from Fall to Spring term.

Designed for SBM students who are interested in pursuing systematic academic research at the senior undergraduate level. This course will serve as a pre-doctoral training program to help students expand their options in seeking future doctoral study opportunities. Students are expected to research a focused problem under close supervision by a faculty member and produce a thesis after completing the course. This course is open to SBM students in their final year only.

Upon successful completion of this course, students are expected to be able to: -

• Describe the process of academic research in a selected business discipline
• Describe, compare, and contrast different research methodologies
• Analyze the contextual features leading to particular individual, organizational, or social outcomes in a chosen business setting and problem
• Apply or adapt appropriate research methodology to study the chosen problem
• Develop a research paper with scope and quality commensurate with a top conference paper in the selected business discipline
• Present the research to an expert panel

• This course is open to final-year UG students only (graduating in Spring/Summer 2023/24), with CGA of at least 3.5 or above.
• Students cannot take more than 30 credits in the year of study while taking the course.

The assessment comprises a Final Research Project Report and Presentation that demonstrates the competency of the candidate in conducting and communicating the research.

Assessment will be conducted at the end of the course. In addition to the supervisor, two other faculty members from the home department of the supervisor (or other departments outside the supervisor’s home department as agreed by the course coordinator) will participate in assessing the quality of the output from the research project, including:

• Quality of the research
• Quality of thesis report writing
• Quality of defense and presentation

Note 1: Students will be given a "PP" grade in Fall upon satisfactory progress and the 6 credits will be earned in Spring.

Note 2: For early exit, W grade is permitted after one semester provided it is mutually agreed between the student and the supervisor. Otherwise, early exit will result in an F grade. No W will be allowed after the first semester PP grade is issued.

Prof. Kai-Lung Hui, Department of ISOM, klhui@ust.hk