Dissertation

Students normally prepare their dissertations during Trinity term and the long vacation, with some background reading and preliminary work over the Easter vacation. A student's dissertation topic should be selected in consultation with their supervisor and the details of the form and scope of the dissertation are described in the Regulations. It is possible to do a dissertation on a project proposed by one of our industrial partners. Here are some potential dissertation projects for the academic year 2025-26. This will be updated for the academic year 2026-27 in February 2027. Also students are encouraged to talk to any potential supervisors, which includes most academics or researchers in OCIAM or the Numerical Analysis Group. Note that the supervisor allocated in the first term will not usually turn out to be the supervisor for the dissertation. Each student will be required to give a short talk and answer questions on the background to their dissertation topic at an open meeting, attended by supervisors, examiners and other students, to be held in late June.

The body of the dissertation (excluding appendices etc.) should usually be 40-50 pages (up to 50 pages without penalty).

Students should submit an electronic copy of their dissertation by 12 noon on Wednesday 25th August 2027. The electronic copy should be a single pdf file and should be submitted online via the Inspera coursework submission platform.

The oral examination (viva) will be held in mid-September and students will be expected to answer questions on their dissertation.

More details about the dissertation are given in the dissertation handbook and students should also be aware of the departmental AI policy (both available from the main course webpage).

Past dissertations can be viewed by members of the Mathematical Institute (log in required).