E. Graduation Portal (Thesis project)

Introduction

A thesis project is the finale of your master study. Here you find guidelines, rules and tips to support your project management. Read all information before you ask help from (potential) supervisors, professors, the Graduation Coordinators, the Programme Coordinator or secretaries.

Purpose

The aim of this individual project is to test if you fulfil the following at an academic level:

• Research quality requirements: You become master of your graduation topic and contribute to the reduction of one (or more) research gap(s) you identified in your problem analysis. You write a scientific paper with the highlights of your work;
• Research competences: You initiate, manage and plan your work effectively and efficiently. You meet your supervisors and other experts (on site) regularly to discuss your progress. You use the outcomes to improve yourself; 
• Reporting skills: You produce thesis documents (chapters or sections), which together lead to a final thesis report that meets the requirements as described in the TIL Master Thesis Grading rubric (use this during your project);
• Presentation skills: You are able to present and discuss intermediate project results with your supervisors and present and defend the final results convincingly.

The TIL programme is interdisciplinary, which means that your topic and set of methods is also interdisciplinary. You will apply relevant theories and methods from your BSc and MSc courses.

Thesis planning

Scheduling a thesis project is a dynamic activity. You are the project and process manager and therefor the active party. Your supervisors are in principle re-active. They will however become active if you find it difficult to manage your project, because of internal or external reasons. Ask for support in an early stage.

When scheduling the 4 mandatory meetings, be convinced that the work you want to discuss is sufficient. If it is not, then such meetings have less use. You may be overloaded with comments. Your supervisors may question the way you operate.

It is not always easy to stick to an agreed deadline. If you run out of time, best option is to delay the meeting. In case of very tight agendas, you can shift it to an already reserved date for the next meeting in line.

Result: a report or design

The thesis ends with a thesis report or a design that will be defended by you before an audience and/or Thesis Assessment Committee. Appendix A of your thesis report contains your scientific paper (> 4. Project Execution / Content tab - Reporting tips).

Workload

The work is valued at 30 EC (6 months).