A 2000 word report due electronically 12 pm Wednesday 13 May for those presenting findings in Week 11 or 12 pm Wednesday 20 May for those presenting findings in Week 12)

This will be a case study analysing the performance of a university assigned to your group . The assignment is to respond to the question: "How is your assigned university currently performing?"

Syndicate groups of 3-4 students will be formed for the purposes of preparing a report and group presentation of findings about their case. Students should work in these syndicates to assist each other to gather the appropriate data and develop a clear framework for analysing this data. All syndicate members are expected to participate in the preparation of a report setting out your findings. All syndicate members are expected to participate in a 15 to 20 minute presentation of findings in Tutorial groups. Part of the exercise is to learn about working with others as a team and syndicates are expected to find ways of assigning tasks equitably among members.

Conditions:

1 The assignment, to be completed by syndicate groups, will be introduced during the lecture in Week 6. However, students are welcome to commence work on this prior to that discussion.

2 The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your skills in research, presenting your findings in a report format, and working with a team of people with different kinds of skills and abilities. In doing so you will be developing and demonstrating your skills in research, report writing, and team work - once again key skills expected by employers of university level graduates.

3 The Syndicate Report is to be lodged electronically via Moodle by 12pm on the day before your syndicate group's presentation and must have a Faculty of Business and Government cover sheet attached (see this unit's Moodle site for this attachment). Please provide a hard copy of the report to your Tutor's mail box.

4 Late submissions will be penalised at the rate of 10% per day from the due time. Extensions will only be granted where students have made a reasonable effort to meet the deadline but have been prevented from doing so by circumstances out of their control such as illness or misadventure. Students seeking an extension must provide supporting documentation (e.g. original doctor's certificate, counsellor's certificate or equivalent). All applications for extension should be made to your Tutor. Please note that work commitments are not considered exceptional circumstances and requests for extensions on this basis will not be granted.

5 The Syndicate Report and Presentation is worth 35 marks, with 15 marks allocated to the Report, 10 marks to the Presentation, 10 marks for Team Work.

6 The Syndicate Report is to be written in a report format. Note that the framework set out on this website includes the possibility of a 'Letter of transmission' - this is not required for this assignment. The framework also asks for a bibliography, however only use a list of references which includes those sources which are actually referred to in your Syndicate Report.

7 The Syndicate Presentation is to present your findings as a team about the performance of the university you have researched and reported on. The presentation will be from 15 to 20 minute long: your team will have 10 minutes to present its findings and a further 5 to 10 minute discussion time. To aid with the wider tutorial group discussion your syndicate will need to consider how to facilitate such a discussion and, where necessary, prompt such a discussion with the wider tutorial group. Facilities for using Powerpoint will be provided. However, groups are encouraged to use other forms of presentation which do not rely on Powerpoint.

8 The purpose of this assessment item is to enable you to develop and demonstrate your skills in working as a team to produce a significant research task and present your findings as a group.  

9 Detailed making rubrics will be posted on Moodle. However, as a guide the marking criteria will include the following:

Report

• Research: breadth in examining issues, depth of analysis and accuracy in reporting
• Ability to link theory with practice, including innovation and creativity in advancing understanding of theory;
• Presentation including grammar and mathematical correctness, and consistency with word limits of 2,000, report structure, referencing using the Harvard Author-Date method (See Assignment 1 above for links to referencing guides).
• Presentation
• Demonstrated knowledge and competent application of relevant concepts and ideas from the unit and the literature
• Capacity to engage with the audience in the topic area, and stimulate and facilitate class discussion
• Capacity to present material to the class: the content is structured in a clear and logical manner, and the presentation is well organized for the time allocated
• Demonstration of effective group work including equitable division of tasks
• Presentation and expression including succinct writing with accurate spelling, punctuation, grammar and referencing.