A blessing or a curse? Introducing autonomy to third-year BA students
A blessing or a curse? Introducing autonomy to third-year BA students

Summary/Abstract: As a requirement for obtaining a BA degree in English philology studies, students have to write an academic paper of considerable length. This is the first work of this kind that they have to complete at the end of the three-year course of study. The supervisor monitoring students in writing the paper faces challenges in helping them find a topic, search for appropriate materials, develop skills in reading, analyzing and synthesizing the information found in the resources, and adopt the required academic style. Motivating students to finalize the paper within the third year of their studies seems to be a difficult task because writing of the paper is an arduous endeavor, especially that they quite often work and have other duties to perform. Completing a diploma paper requires a significant amount of independence on the part of the students in the out-of-class time. The paper presents the findings of a small-scale questionnaire study carried out among three groups of students from three different institutions of higher education writing their diploma papers. The aim of the study was to determine the students’ perceptions of and attitudes towards autonomy, as well as their thoughts on the final requirement for gaining the BA degree. The results serve as a basis for drawing some conclusions concerning the development of autonomy in third-year English philology students.

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