PhD seminar

1
PhD seminar

• Prof. Hugues Pirotte
• Solvay Business School (ULB)
• Co-founding partner, FinMetrics SA
• Assistant Benjamin Lorent, PhD

2008-2009
2
The purpose of this seminar

• Main goal
• Writing a 20/40-page research paper on an
  original topic, in the perspective of a
  scientific publication.
• Objective
• assess the students ability to conduct on his
  own a scientific research and to produce an
  academic contribution.

3
Rules

• To have completed - or being completing - the
  doctoral courses (part A)
• Only sole author contributions will be accepted.
• Topics related to any field of Management
  Finance Marketing Strategy Human Resources
  Accounting, namely.
• Supervision of the research by a member of the
  SBS Faculty (chosen by the student). Acceptance
  by a director necessary to start the seminar.
• To attend RSAEM, PhD sessions, introductory
  lessons, and lunch meetings
• To fulfill each intermediary report requirements
  (see below)
• The research director is invited to comment on
  the work carried out during intermediate and
  final steps
• The professor in charge of the seminar and his
  assistant, in collaboration with the research
  director will decide on the acceptability of the
  piece of work at each stage.

4
Rules

• General idea
• First time enlarge
• Second time refocus

5
Some dates

• 4/11 (15h-17h30) First introductory session
• 9/12 (15h-17h30) Second session
• Participants present their idea
• How to make a good presentation
• 3/2 (15h-17h30) Submission of research project
• 1-2 pages abstract (motivation and objectives,
  methodology, data, research question)
• Work plan
• Short bibliography
• 3/3 (15h-17h30) Third session
• 21/4 Deadline for draft
• 28/4 (14h-17h00) Workshop draft second rounds
  pres.
• First preliminary version
• 5/5 (15h-17h30) Final session - permanence
• 2/6 deadline for the final working paper
• 9/6 and 10/6 (tbd) Presentation in front of the
  jury

6
Grading criteria

• Marking criteria
• participation to the PhD sessions and lunch
  meetings 10 (fail if not attended)
• quality of preliminary versions 10 (fail if not
  handed in)
• quality of the final presentation 10
• quality of the final version of the paper 70
• Marking levels
• 12/20 satisfactory for graduation, but
  insufficient to carry out a Ph.D dissertation
• 14/20 satisfactory for graduation, and to start
  a doctoral research programme, provided a
  directors agreement
• 16/20 very good
• 18/20 excellent