Final Year Project Requirements

Tasks and Deadlines

1. Find a topic and get a
supervisor

This semester Week 13

Note: Need to fill out the FYP Title

Registration Form.

2. Project I
Note: Need to fill in and update the Record
of Supervision/Meeting. See Appendix F.
* To submit to supervisor + via Turnitin

3. Project II
Note: Need to fill in and update the Record
of Supervision/Meeting and Permission
Form and CD. See Appendix F.
*Overall similarity index is 20% and below for
Turnitin

Final Year S1
Week 10
Final Year S2
Week 12
Moderator

Project I and Project II

Contents
Project I

(a) Introduction
(b) Preliminary literature review

Only
Guideline

Length
4000 words
(5%)

(c) Research methodology

Project II

(a) Abstract, Introduction &

Literature review

(d) Analysis and discussion

(e) Conclusion and recommendation

20%
(Report +
General
Effort)

80%

(b) Research methodology

(c) Surveys/ interviews/fieldwork
results

Mark

10000 words
(10%)

(Report +
General
Effort +
Oral)

NEW MARKING SCHEME

Find a topic and get a supervisor

Subject Areas
Research Topic

Note: Need to fill out the Project Definition Document. See Appendix G.

Subject Areas
A subject area consists of a broad range of
possible issues (e.g. a module)
E.g. Procurement Systems in Malaysia

A subject area is usually much too large to

be taken as a topic in itself.

Research Topic
The research topic is a specific area
within a particular subject.
Title of research usually directly
announces its topic.
Note: See Attachment 1 for the list of proposed topics
and areas of interest of lecturers

Subject and topic

Subject Area

Topic

Identifying Research Topic

Student needs to explore and discuss with the teaching staff
on his/her intended research area of study on the semester
before the commencement of Project I.
The student may identify an area of his/her own or select a
potential topic from the Project List. the student may then
approach the teaching staff to discuss whether the area of
study or potential title could be pursued further.
As a general guide, students may refer to the journal and
conference articles in order to identify potential topics for
their research. Book titles are generally NOT suitable to be
used as a research topic!

Identifying Research Topic

Journals relevant to the built environment research
include:
Construction Management and Economics (CME)
Construction Innovation
Automation in Construction
Information Technology in Construction
Engineering, Construction and Architectural Engineering
Building research and Information
And many more at http://library.utar.edu.my/, and

the click on the online journals link.

Confirmation Of Project Title & Supervisor

If the student and the teaching staff are in agreement with
the topic and the teaching staff is willing to act as the
supervisor for the student's research, students must prepare
and submit a two-page Project Definition Document
(Appendix G) and get it approved by their supervisor before
they can officially start to work on their final year project.
A lecturer will become a particular students supervisor after
signing the PDD. Students are required to specify in the
Project Definition Document their own project title, aim,
objectives, outline of methodology, anticipated outcomes,
proposed structure of report, resources and the programme
of work.

Confirmation Of Project Title & Supervisor

PDD serves as a master plan for both the students and
supervisors to refer to from time to time in order to plan the
steps in conducting the research, for deciding on the detailed
contents of the report and monitoring the progress. This is
critical for ensuring that students can submit a report that
meets the rigorous academic standards within the time
constraint.
Can the project title, aim, objectives, etc. to be changed later?
This is dependent on your supervisor.

Supervisors expectation

Students should treat the supervisor with respect.

The students will take responsibility for their own Project Reports. It
must be remembered that it is the students who are being examined,
not the supervisors.
Students are to arrange and attend all meetings. This can be on a fixed
schedule, to be sorted out between the student and supervisor, to suit
both parties. In the case where the student cannot attend a meeting,
he/she should provide at least 24 hours notice to the supervisor
concerned.
There should be at least four such meetings between the students and
their supervisor for Projects I and II respectively. However, individual
supervisor may specify different minimum number of meetings for
students as appropriate.
Students should undertake all readings requested prior to meetings.

Supervisors expectation

Students should attend meetings with writing and note-taking

equipment, together with a file containing all previous work done and
comments made.
Students will report on their progress and brief the supervisor on the
work done at each meeting and receive advice from supervisor.
Students must keep a Record of Supervision/Meeting on the
meetings with their supervisors. See Appendix F in the FYP Guidelines
The supervisor may look at outlines of work but will not read drafts.
Students will not expect supervisors to correct grammar.
Once a Project Supervisor is confirmed, it is the students responsibility
to make and continue regular contact with the supervisor.

Supervisors expectation

Students will set their own directions. The supervisors role

is to help the student achieve their objectives and ensure
that the Project Report belongs to the student. However,
the supervisor may require an alteration in the direction or
objectives of the Project Report as necessary.

Other than the arranged schedule, students will only

contact the supervisor on substantive issues, after having
exhausted other avenues to rectify their queries.

Students may present outlines (headings/sub-headings etc.)

and drafts of chapters may be discussed during supervision
time.

Supervisors expectation

Students must recognize that the supervisors support will

primarily be concerned with the process, i.e. how the
Project Report is to be undertaken, rather than the
correctness and detailed content of the Project Report
which may fall outside the supervisors area of subject
expertise.

Students should forward questions of a significant nature to

the supervisor 24 hours prior to a meeting. The questions
can be forwarded via e-mails or written notes deposited in
the supervisors pigeon-holes.

Contact With Supervisor

Once a Project Supervisor is confirmed, it is the students
responsibility to make and continue regular contact with the
supervisor.
It is essential for the students to maintain regular contact with
their supervisors. Regular contact helps to ensure that the
supervisor is better aware of the students progress and the
sources of materials as the Project Report develops. Students
should be aware that any Project Report which is produced
with minimal or zero contact with supervisor will inevitably
be scrutinized with extra care with respect to the origin of
the work, and they may be referred to the Project Report
Coordination Committee for recommendation for viva
sessions (as per Item 3.3)

Format of Report

Cover
Title page
Certificate of Originality
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Contents
Introduction
Literature review
Research methodology
Findings and Discussions
Conclusions and Recommendations
Appendices

Cover
The cover (for both comb-binding and hard-cover) should
bear, in the following order:

The title of the Project Report,

Name of student,
Universitys name,
Faculty, department and
Month/year.
The spine for the hard-cover binding should bear the students name,
course, title of project report and month/year.

Please refer to sample as shown in Appendix A.

Title page

The title page is to follow the format as

shown in Appendix B.

Certificate of Originality
This is to follow the format and content as
shown in Appendix C.

Abstract
This should outline the objectives of the project
report.
Briefly summarise the findings, conclusions and
recommendations. All these should be done in one
page of A4-sized paper. The abstract (excluding the
project report particulars) is to be no less than 250
words and no more than 350 words.
The last to be written
A SPECIMEN is as shown in Appendix D.

Acknowledgements
The student may wish to thank those people
who have been particularly helpful in the
preparation of the dissertation. Consideration
of persons external to Universiti Tunku Abdul
Rahman is particularly appropriate.

Contents
The Contents Page(s) needs to be a good
guide to what are contained within the project
report such that at a glance the reader should
be able to extract a good idea of what the
Project Report is about.
Appendix E shows a sample of a contents page.

Introduction (1)
This chapter introduces the reader to the area being
investigated. In general, the introduction chapter may be
composed of five sections, these are:
The first section starts with a general introduction or
description of past research which is relevant to the problems
or issues. This section contain also a section normally entitled
Rationale for the research that informs the reader about the
problems or issues which are to be investigated in the study,
why they are of interest and what the study aims to establish.
Note: Refer to the Chapter 9 of Naoums book.

Introduction (2)
The second section outlines the aim and objectives of the
research
The third section should briefly describe the research
method/strategy used to achieve the aim and objectives of
the research.
This chapter should also highlight the scope and limitation of
the research.
The final part of the introduction tells the reader about the
chapters of the report. It tells the reader how the topics will
be unfolded and the order of forthcoming material. This part
may be entitled Report Layout and Contents.

Literature Review

The literature review should not be just a

compilation/reproduction of the works of others. It
requires the student to examine and comment
critically on the literature relevant to the students
area of research.

Usually a review of half a dozen of the most

important works of others with brief comments on
a few other less important ones will be sufficient.

Research Methodology

The student must clearly and coherently describe

the method he/she has adopted in the carrying out
of the research.
The approach that a student take depends on what
he/she wants to investigate and what he/she tries
to achieve.

Findings and analysis

Data collection
Data can be collected using various methods: survey
questionnaires, field observations, experiments,
interviews or even secondary data from works of
other researchers.
The choice of a data collection method, or a
combination of methods, to be used depends very
much on the research methodology adopted by the
student.

Findings and analysis

Data Analysis
Data analysis can take either the quantitative or
qualitative approach, again depending on the
research methodology and the resulting data
typology.
Textual data lends itself easily to qualitative analysis,
whereas interval data and ratio data are best
analysed using quantitative methods.

Conclusions and Recommendations

This chapter brings together the findings of the
research and draws conclusions with specific
reference to the research objectives. It should also
mention the recommendations for further research.

Appendices
Where such material would be inconvenient
to include in the text itself, it can be included
in as an appendix.
Appendices are labeled alphabetically. The
Record of Supervision/Meeting should be
attached as an appendix.

Writing Style
The level of writing must be appropriate to the level
of the Bachelors degree.
It is the students responsibility to edit the text for
typing errors and uncover all spelling errors..
Normally, there should be no first person references
(e.g., I, we, us) in the report. If self-reference is
required, reference may be made to the author or
this study. The exception to this is in the conclusion
section, where personal comments may be
appropriate.

Page layout
Pages should be numbered in sequence at the
bottom right hand corner, starting with and including
the title page.
Margins and headings : the specifications are 1 left
margin, 1 on the other three sides. The right
margin should be justified. Headers and footers are
to be used with discretion. Please do NOT include
your name in any header or footer.
See the manual for details!

Method of Referencing
For the sake of uniformity, the Harvard Referencing System
shall be used.
Please refer to the sample from UTARs library (Refer to the
guideline uploaded)

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is academically unacceptable, and the
University views this offense very seriously.
Plagiarism can be in one or a combination of the
following forms:
(i) Presenting someone elses work as your own;
(ii) Copying, in parts or whole, of another persons work;
(iii) Failure to acknowledge quotations, phrases, ideas or
information from published sources.

Viva (only for FYP2)

Viva sessions will be conducted on students to provide a

way through which the University will be able to ascertain if
a piece of work had been plagiarized from other sources.
All the students will be participated for the viva sessions

Assessment Method
Elements of
Assessment

Benchmark

Final Year Project

subject matter

A topic in construction related areas (including business,

management, technology, contract or economics)

Research
objectives

Clearly defined objectives relating to the topic and based

upon the literature in the field

Research
methodology

Must demonstrate an awareness of different research

methodologies and must justify, explain, select and
recognize the limitations of the strategy chosen. Must
explain the practical details of the conduct of the research.
Primary research may or may not be conducted.
Students may undertake primary research (quantitative or
qualitative etc.) or they will need to undertake some reanalysis of existing material (e.g. quantitative financial
data, budgets, trade statistics, or qualitative minutes of
meetings, use of diaries and other archival materials etc.)

Assessment Method
Literature review

Discussion of relevant literature critical review

explanation of role of the literature in the research

References

An adequate range and number of journal articles

and books are to be used/cited.

Data Analysis

Application of relevant literature review and theory to

the data gathered to gain understanding.
Discussion of the data in relation to the theories.
Displays competence in the subject matter and
related theory.
Use of appropriate quantitative/qualitative techniques
at a simple level.

Assessment Method
Conclusions and
Recommendations

Conclusions are drawn from the analysis and

supported by the data. Conclusions are related to
relevant prior research. Recognition of need for
further research

Submission
Please refer to:
http://fes.utar.edu.my/student-resources/fyp/8department/132-fyp-survey

Recommended reading list

Naoum, S.G. (1997), Dissertation Research and Writing for Construction

Students, Architectural Press.
Fellows, R. and Liu, A. (2003) Research Methods for Construction,
Blackwell Science.
Sharp, J.A, Peters, J. and Howard, K. (2002), The Management of a
Student Research Project (3rd Ed), Gower Publishing Ltd.
Creswell, J. (2002) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and
Mixed Methods Approaches: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed
Method Approaches, Sage Publications.
Richardson S., et al. (2005) How to Research: A Guide for Undergraduate
& Graduate Students, Thomson.
Jackson S.L. (2003) Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking
Approach, Thomson Wadsworth.
Guidelines on the writing and supervision of Final year project report,
UTAR.
http://www.utar.edu.my/fes/index.jsp?fcatid=74&fcontentid=190&f2nd
contentid=807