General information on Master's thesis projects
The Master's thesis project is the part of the Master's degree programme where you independently document your ability to identify, analyse and critically process academic issues on a scientific basis.
In addition, if your thesis project is experimental, you must demonstrate an ability to plan and conduct a experimental project within a limited period of time. The thesis also documents your ability to write a report of the work you have completed.
A thesis basically consists of 3 elements:
- An experimental or theoretical thesis project
- A written thesis report in Danish or English
- An oral thesis exam in the same language as the report
The thesis periods are fixed. You can see in your course of study whether your Master's thesis project weights 30 or 60 ECTS.
30 ECTS thesis projects
- If you start your thesis project on 1 February, the submission deadline is 1 June the same year.
- If you start your thesis project on 1 September, the submission deadline is 1 January the following year.
60 ECTS thesis projects
- If you start your thesis project on 1 February, the submission deadline is 1 January the following year.
- If you start your thesis project on 1 September, the submission deadline is 1 June the following year
Thesis across 3 semesters
A 60 ECTS thesis project can be done across 3 semesters, in consultation with your main supervisor.
If you wish to do a 3-semester thesis project, you should carefully consider whether you are academically prepared to start working on your thesis project already after the first semester of your Master's thesis programme. Additionally, you must meet the study activity requirement and time limit regulations.
You register for the thesis project through the SDU Student Self-Service.
The registration periods are 20-30 November if you wish to start your project on 1 February, and 20-30 May if you wish to start your project on 1 September.
If you plan to do your thesis project in collaboration with another student, each of you must register for the project in the Student Self-Service.
It is important that you find a project supervisor well in advance of starting your thesis project. As a starting point, all associate professors and professors at your department can act as main supervisors.
The project can be done with an external partner, for example a company outside the university. However, the main supervisor must be an internal supervisor who is employed at your department.
The supervisor is the person with whom you are associated during the project and who can help and advise you along the way. Note that it is not intended that the supervisor must correct the entire thesis report before the final submission.
The supervision could be in the form of reading through individual sections, introduction to experiments or the like. It is the responsibility of the main supervisor to ensure that the thesis project has a scope so that it can be completed within the set time frame.
You have the opportunity to do your thesis project in collaboration with a company or organisation, typically based on a concrete problem. A thesis collaboration with a company/organisation strengthens your network on the labour market and can be a stepping stone to your first job.
If you do your thesis project in collaboration with a company/organisation, you will typically have an external co-supervisor at the place in question. However, you must also have an internal main supervisor at SDU.
An agreement specifying the division of responsibilities between the external co-supervisor and the internal main supervisor must be made. The external co-supervisor in the company and your internal main supervisor at SDU often have two different goals with your thesis project. The external co-supervisor will typically be most interested in your actual findings, while the internal main supervisor must ensure that your thesis meets the applicable guidelines and academic standards.
Non-disclosure agreements
If the company wishes to subject your internal main supervisor at SDU to a non-disclosure obligation, a non-disclosure agreement must be drawn up between you, the company, and the university. SDU RIO has prepared a template for this.
Any non-disclosure agreement must be approved by the Legal Services team in SDU RIO before the head of your department can sign the agreement on behalf of the university.
As soon as possible after registering for the couse – and no later than one week after the start of the semester – you must submit a project contract with an with a problem statement, which you and your thesis supervisor prepare together.
If you are doing your thesis project in collaboration with another student, you only have to submit one project contract, stating the names of both group members.
Once the project contract has been approved, or if problems arise during the approval process, you will be informed via your SDU email.
Please note that it is not possible to submit the project contract after the deadline.
The report must be written in Danish or English.
A traditional report within the natural sciences typically includes the elements mentioned below. You should agree on the exact structure with your main supervisor. The elements marked with bold should be included when you calculate the length of the report.
- Front page
- Preface
- Table of contents
- Glossary of abbreviations used in your report
- Abstract
- Hypothesis/aim of the project
- Introduction
- Methods and materials
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- References
- Bibliography
- Appendices
When doing dissemination projects and theoretical projects, it may be relevant to deviate from the traditional report structure, by further agreement with your main supervisor. In any cases, you should present your proposed report structure to your supervisor before you begin writing the report.
Raw data and other information that is not essential to the report can be included in appendices; however, it is important that the report can be read and understood without reading the appendices.
If the results are of a quality where publication of data is considered, the thesis report can be written as an article draft. However, the supervisor must not be more involved in the writing process than in ordinary thesis projects. Therefore, the supervisor's detailed reading of the article draft must wait until after submission of the report. This type of thesis project will have an additional theoretical sub-report explaining technical details not included in the draft article.
The report must be submitted digitally in the Digital Exam system.
The report must be submitted as one document in PDF format. The file must be names "Specialerapport" followed by your full name. Any enclosures are typically submitted as one separate PDF document. If any of your enclosures cannot be submitted in PDF format (for example program code, video clips etc.), such appendices can be uploaded as separate files. All appendices should have unique file names.
When you have submitted your report, you will receive a submission receipt by e-mail. It is important that you keep this e-mail; it is your proof that you have submitted the report within the deadline.
The submission deadline is stated in the course description of your Master's thesis project.
You begin the oral thesis examination with a lecture. After the lecture, you will be examined both in the lecture itself and in the thesis report.
During the exam, the supervisors and an external examinator participate as adjudicators. Immediately after the exam, you will receive a grade on the 7-point grading scale, based on an overall assessment of the thesis report and the oral exam.
The assessment of the thesis report primarily concerns the academic content. Your formulating and spelling capacity is also included in the assessment, albeit with limited weight, unless there are quite extensive significant deviations from normal academic language use.
The assessment deadline for thesis projects is 6 weeks. This means that the oral exam must take place no later than 6 weeks after the submission deadline. The month of July does not count towards the calculation of the 6 weeks.
You can apply for a dispensation to change the title of your thesis project if you find out during the process that your project is taking a different turn than first anticipated.
You can apply for a dispensation to postpone the submission deadline if you can document that extraordinary circumstances prevent you from submitting the report on time.
Please note that any postponement of the submission deadline must first be approved by your main supervisor, then by the department's teaching committee and finally by the head of studies. Therefore, it is important that you contact your main supervisor before you submit an application to postpone the submission deadline.
Regardless of whether you are applying for a dispensation to change the title or to postpone the submission deadline, you must submit your application no later than 4 weeks before the submission deadline. If you do not meet this deadline, your application will not be processed.
A Master's thesis project can be done in collaboration by a maximum of two students.
It must be clearly stated in the report who is responsible for each section.
Only one of you should submit the report; it is already registered in the Digital Exam system that you are writing a group thesis. When the report has been submitted, you will both receive a submission receipt via e-mail. It is important that you save the receipt, as this is your proof that you have submitted the report on time.
The report is included in the assessment at subsequent individual oral examinations.