From May to June 2021, the members of Students@Digimedia carried out a pilot survey aiming to understand directors of masters’ courses in Portuguese public university and polytechnic education perspectives on the current state of completion of these study cycles. The discussion of survey results is expected to lead to a set of good practices to undertake in the curricular unit of Dissertation/Project/Internship.

Directors of Portuguese master degree courses were asked to answer an online questionnaire, and 303 valid answers were obtained (approximately 20% of the total number of courses).

Questionnaire included questions about the directors’ perception on the current state of completion of these study cycles, as well as their vision of the respective future state. Preliminary results indicate that:

– in only 17.8% (N=54) of the courses more than 60% of the students manage to finish the master’s degree in the normal season (by the end of July);
– 72.9% (N=221) of the course directors consider that the percentage of students finishing in the normal season should be higher than it currently is;
– 67.7% (N=205) of the course directors acknowledge that no specific measures are implemented to promote the delivery of dissertations in the normal season.

This pilot study was led by DigiMedia’s integrated member, Carlos Santos, who challenged a team of volunteers to carry out this research. Participation included  30 hours of scientific research activities, and involved designing, implementing, and disseminating the study. The team was composed by  DigiMedia researchers, and by graduate and PhD students in the Communication Sciences and Technologies field: João Batista, Liliana Costa, Mónica Aresta, Tânia Ribeiro, Francisco Regalado, Lorena Sousa e Maria Clara Rodrigues.

The final phase of the team’s work consists of the preparation of the final results and their dissemination through infographic and scientific publications. More news will be released soon!

For more information on the initiative please check HERE