From Keele University to SwissPeaks
University is the time for aspiring students to reach out and discover the unknown. An opportunity to open up and discover new means of thinking and to explore new perspectives.
As a Politics and International Relations graduate this notion was especially important during my studies.
To explore these subjects is to experience new, and often uncomfortable, ways of thinking which serve to challenge how we view an often misrepresented landscape. For this distorted landscape to be made clear, the need for reliable and well-researched sources of information was crucial.
During my time at University I came to appreciate the need for quality research, from first year essays to my dissertation on the illegal ivory trade. Politics and International Relations covers topics from Global Economics, the Arms Trade to International Development. Therefore, reliable and well researched sources of information are required. However, it is one thing to read the work of others for an essay but another to be able to go out and conduct your own primary research.
I was made aware of the complexities that goes into primary research during my second year module “Political Research in Practice”. This module sought to provide us with insight into this process, with students asked to theorise a proposition on a particular topic. We were then required to design a correctly formatted questionnaire, making use of various question types, which could be used to collect the data needed to prove or disprove our proposition.
It became clear to me that all stages of the research process are vital in producing useful data. Since arriving at SwissPeaks, these lessons from university have become more evident. An inadequate structural backbone, from the questionnaire design stage all the way through to quality control, will produce a limited questionnaire and poor results. Ultimately, unreliable data will lead to poor decisions.
These decisions, based upon potentially inaccurate information, will have impacts; whether you are a student producing an undergraduate essay, an NGO researching development issues or a FTSE 250 company investigating consumer patterns. Consequently, data quality is important.
The use of poor research in a university essay results in the reduced credibility of your argument and a low mark. However, as I am sure will become increasingly clear to me during my time here at SwissPeaks, the need to ensure quality research and reliable data, outside of university essays, will take on new meanings.
I am excited to become more involved in the world of market research, especially within the international research sector. My time here at SwissPeaks so far has opened my eyes to the technically demanding nature of questionnaires, with attention to detail a crucial asset to anyone working within this area. Perhaps it is time to go back and refresh my questionnaire from second year.
