Best Masters Thesis Award

From 2013, the best PhD Thesis Award has been combined with the best Masters Thesis Award in the best Post-Graduate Award.

Previous Winners

Purpose

The Best Masters Thesis Award is intended to recognise the most outstanding Masters thesis in the field of agricultural and resource economics.

Amount of Award

The winning thesis will receive a $500 cash award and a certificate to be presented at the Society’s Annual Conference dinner.

Eligibility

All theses accepted (that is, examined and approved) by Australian and New Zealand universities during the 12 months ended 30 September, for the award of a Masters degree. ‘Accepted’ in this sense means approved by the Faculty concerned, irrespective of the date of conferring of degrees.

Membership of the Society is not a necessary condition of entry.

Entries

Only one thesis may be submitted by any one Department.

The thesis must be submitted by the Department Head at the University at which the thesis was submitted. Three copies of the thesis plus examiners reports and written agreement to the nomination are to be forwarded by certified mail or courier to the AARES Central Office by 12 November.  Electronic copies of the thesis will not be accepted.

Department Heads should indicate the relative importance of the thesis in the degree program.

Selection Criteria

The Prize will be made on the basis of academic merit within the field of agricultural and resource economics.

The system and specific criteria for judging the award are up to the committee.

General

In the event of one or more theses being judged to have equal merit, the Prize may be shared. The Society reserves the right to make no award in the event that no entry is judged to be of sufficient merit.

Entries submitted which are considered ineligible by the Prize Committee because they are beyond the field of agricultural and resource economics will be returned to Departments prior to consideration of the comparative merit of other entries.

The decision of the Council of the Society will be final and no correspondence will be entered into with entrants or department heads on behalf of entrants. Submission of a thesis for the Prize implies acceptance of all the conditions of the Prize.

Instructions to the Prize Committee

Ideally, the Committee should finalise their decision prior to the Conference and advise the Federal Secretary of the result so that he/she can prepare a cheque and certificate for presentation at the conference dinner.

The Committee includes three members. Normally, one member is replaced each year, so the usual length of tenure of a member is three years. Normally, each member chairs the Committee in their third year as a member.

Masters Thesis Prize Committees