Examination arrangement

Course content

You will write a master's thesis during your second year of the MSc program. The master's thesis is to be as a team of two students under faculty supervision (it is possible to apply to conduct the thesis as a single student). You may prefer to do the thesis as a team as it allows you to share the workload and provides an additional critical view to improve your work. The student(s) chooses a topic from a list provided to them by the department or of their own choosing within the chosen field of study. The student(s) formulates a research problem and potentially formulates a list of more specific research issues, questions or hypotheses. The work is to be research-oriented and directly related to your major. Through the thesis, the student should demonstrate competence in describing, analyzing and concluding in relation to the chosen research problem. In the case of hypothesis use, these must be tested through use of relevant statistical methods. The thesis must provide new knowledge based on existing knowledge of the field. The master's thesis documents that the student has sufficient competence in analyzing actual research problems. The work must be carried out in compliance with established ethical norms, GDPR and practice within the research community.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

• Have advanced knowledge within the chosen topic of the master's thesis.
• Have developed analytical competence through use of appropriate methods for research issues.

Skills:

• Be able to disseminate findings from a major research project and have developed a good understanding of the field's relevant terminology.
• Be able to develop research topics, analysis, and provide analytically founded conclusions.

General competence:

• Have competence in carrying out a focused research project in accordance with established methodological requirements.
• Exhibit understanding, self-reflection and maturity in the field.

Learning methods and activities

Formalities and Deadlines

1. A list of potential research topics will be provided to students in a master's thesis seminar by the end of August in the 3rd semester.

2. Students will indicate their top 3 topics in prioritized order from the list by mid-September using a form on BlackBoard. It is possible for students to apply to choose a topic of their own not from the list. In this case, a thesis draft plan is to be handed in through Inspera by the mid-September.

3. Student preferences will be reviewed, topics will be allocated according to student prioritizations and supervisors will be allocated based on assigned topics or after approval of the thesis draft plan for those choosing their own topic by the end of September.

4. A final project draft must be approved and sent in by 30 November in the third term. The project draft must be signed by both the student and the supervisor. A specific document is to be used for this purpose.

5. A written contract between the supervisor and the student must be signed showing a plan for progression and counseling. This contract is signed after the project draft has been approved.

6. An obligatory thesis project seminar is arranged in mid-January of the 4th semester. The program for the seminar is announced at the start of this term.

7. A poster session will be held in April/May, in which you present your thesis as a poster and receive comments from other students and faculty regarding your work.

8. For each year, there are two deadlines for submitting the master thesis. The ordinary deadline for delivery of your thesis is in June. If you do not submit your thesis by the deadline, then you must submit by the deadline for the following academic year.

9. The thesis must be submitted as a single pdf document via Inspera. The student's name must be provided on the front page according to the template for master thesis.

Compulsory assignments

• Project draft

Further on evaluation

Students who do not succeed in submitting the thesis within the deadline must submit the thesis in accordance with the given deadline the following term/semester

Specific conditions

Required previous knowledge

Exams in all mandatory and required major courses must be passed by the deadline for registration on 1 February. Students may apply for an exemption from this prerequisite if they are missing no more than 7.5 ECTS. The application must be well grounded.