Emphasis is placed on applied problems relevant to future employment. A regular programme of research colloquia is held during the year which students attend. Each student is assigned a tutor, one of whose tasks is to help guide the planning of the dissertation and to assist in the supervision of the dissertation research programme. The dissertation topic is selected by the student to suit their particular interests. This allows the student to investigate a sedimentological problem in depth and to develop their skills in a particular area.
Topics usually combine field and laboratory techniques.
Projects may involve environmental geochemistry, pollution studies, facies and diagenetic analyses and experimental approaches. The scope is vast. The dissertation is submitted by the 31 August in the year of examination and in September the students prepare a poster and short verbal presentation outlining the results of their dissertation to an invited audience. A student enrolled for the part-time Course will be required to follow an agreed portion of the taught element of the Course during each of the two academic years spanned by the Course. Work towards the dissertation can commence at any point in the 2 year period, but the completed dissertation must be submitted in August of the final year.