RE: Dissertation ideas

Robyn — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 14:37:30 GMT

I did my dissertation on rabbits :D Data collection is always tricky and prepare yourself that it probably won't be successful, but as long as you can rationalise your choice and state that it would have worked if you had 3 years to do the research properly, you'll be marked fine :P

So I did mine on the prevalence of obesity, how obesity is being diagnosed, and the management strategies used in the species, and used a questionnaire sent out to vets to ask them their opinion (because a 3 year long data collection with me weighing and measuring rabbits in multiple clinics wasn't exactly feasible!). I had a friend in my year who was looking at links between dental disease and diet - her practice had a lot of rabbit dentals, and she had the owners answer a questionnaire about the diet they were on. The easiest and more interesting ideas are probably going to centre around welfare, so you could consider living arrangements (how many rabbits are kept in hutches vs house bunnies with plenty of space) or how many owners vaccinate their rabbits or are aware of vaccination?

The thing me and my course mate found with rabbits was that there wash;t a lot of literature\previous studies on rabbits to base our research on, so the literature review section of the dissertation was very difficult! If you're not an academic person then I would definitely recommend finding something with a LOT of previous studies that have already been done, as this will make doing yours really easy. The dissertation doesn't have to be groundbreaking research, it just has to be information we didn't have before. Maybe there's a lot of research about how many dogs eat dry kibbles, but is there any specific data for dogs in your area? I fell into the trap of wanting to do something really important and novel and have it be 'real research', but let me tell you, I could have avoided a hell of a lot of stress!

I also didn't know what my dissertation was going to be on until about a month before the first part of it was due, so my main advice is DON"T PANIC!