Master's Thesis

You must yourself (in good time) find a thesis supervisor from the Faculty of Engineering. As a rule, the principal supervisor must be employed by the Faculty of Engineering. Any co-supervisor may be employed by another faculty. All faculty professors, associate professors and assistant professors may act as principal supervisors. PhD students may only act as co-supervisors.

The supervisor is formally responsible for academic supervision during the process and must participate in the concluding thesis examination. The role of a supervisor is to supervise during the entire project period?? through regular dialogue with the student.

If you choose to write your thesis in cooperation with a company you may have a supervisor from the company (also known as an external supervisor). In such cases, you must also have a principal supervisor at the Faculty of Engineering. It is the principal supervisor who ensures that the thesis meets the Faculty standards for a master’s thesis.

Cooperation on a project must be based on an agreement between the student(s) and the company. There is no requirement for direct contact between the supervisor(s) and the company. However, it is important that the principal supervisor is familiar with the company’s objectives and how they have contributed to the project.

You may, in connection with your cooperation with the company, receive company data or other classified information, which the company does not want publicised in the master’s thesis. In that case the company is likely to ask you to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (abbreviated NDA). An NDA means that your thesis will not be publicised.

Read more about NDA/download templates here.

When you submit the master’s thesis you must enclose any NDA as a separate, titled/named enclosure to the thesis, also if the NDA is only entered by you and the company. Ultimately it is your responsibility to ensure that SDU is informed of the company’s wish not to publish the thesis report.

The master’s thesis is usually carried out by 1-2 students. In special cases, the thesis can be carried out by up to 3 students. This, however, requires special permission by the Head of Programme. In the thesis report it must be stated clearly which parts of the report each student is responsible for. 

If you are 2-3 writing the same thesis, it is very important that you submit a shared thesis contract (please see  Registration and Thesis Contract below).  One of you should start the contract and submit the names of the co-writers as the very first thing. Unfortunately,  you cannot add co-authors later on. You may not make separate contracts, if you in fact write the  together - if you have separate contracts, you cannot submit the report together. 

Registration

You must register for the master’s thesis to enter into a thesis contract. Registration for the thesis takes place at the same time as registration for other courses through Self Service within the registration period. You will receive a letter in your student email when it is time to register. Registration for the thesis also means that you are bound by the Faculty’s fixed project period and submission deadlines. 

Prerequisites for writing Master's Thesis

NB you must fulfil the prerequisites in order to be able to write the thesis. The prerequisites are:

• 30 ECTS thesis: You must have passed all the other courses on the Master's programme, apart from an elective on max 5 ECTS points.
• 40 ECTS thesis: You must have passed all the courses on the first 2 semesters of the Master's programme.

If you do not fulfil the prerequisites and still wish to write the thesis, you must apply for a dispensation by using the TECH Application of Exemption from Prerequisites. Please note that the practice of the Academic Study Board is restrictive.  You find more information about the practice of the Study Board on https://mitsdu.dk/en/tek/studienaevn.  

The Thesis Contract

Once registered you can enter into a thesis contract through TECH Master's Thesis Contract (https://spoc.sdu.dk - > Study Secretariat -> Master thesis supervisor agreements).

The research question of the thesis is written in cooperation with the supervisor. The thesis contract must be submitted for approval no later than 31 August, if your project period starts on 1 September and no later than 31 January if your project period starts on 1 February. If your study programme has announced an earlier date, you must abide by the submission date announced by your study programme.

Please note that if you are 2-3 students writing the same project, only one of you can fill in the contract, and must mention the other/s as co-writers from start. Unfortunately, it is not possible for you to add co-writers later on.

You cannot make amendments in the contract once you have sent it for approval. Therefore, please check that all the given information is correct before you click on "Save and send".

The contract will be sent for approval by your possible co-author, your supervisor, the Head of Programme and the Head of Studies. When they have approved the contract, you will receive an e-mail to your SDU-mail confirming this. Should your co-author, your supervisor, the Head of Programme and the Head of Studies reject the contract, it will be returned to you and you can make the suggested changes, after which you can re-send the contract for approval.

Note that finding a thesis subject and getting started on the project is your responsibility. Not getting started by semester start does not qualify as an exceptional circumstance which may give grounds for exemption from the submission deadline.

Supervision Plan for Master's Thesis on Engineering Programmes 

The Supervision Plan is kept by the student with a copy for the supervisor. The Supervision Plan should be attached to the project.
Standard Supervision Plan for Thesis - (word) (pdf)

Students enrolled on a programme offered in Danish may write the thesis report in either Danish or English. If the supervisor does not speak Danish, the thesis report must be written in English. Students enrolled on a programme offered in English must write the thesis report in English.

The thesis report must include an abstract in English. If the report is written in English, the abstract may be in Danish. The abstract will be included in the assessment.

The Faculty of Engineering has no overall requirements as to the length of the thesis report, by number of characters or pages. Your programme, however, may have programme specific requirements. Please contact your Programme Coordinator for further information as to programme specific requirements.

You must fill in the supervision plan regularly while writing your Thesis. You must submit the completed supervision plan together with your Thesis. The supervision plan can be downloaded here.

The submission deadline is stated in the thesis contract. If you have been granted dispensation for a later deadline this deadline will be stated in the letter of dispensation.

The submission deadline is binding. Should unusual conditions/circumstances prevent you from submitting the thesis on time, you must Apply to the Academic Study Board for dispensation for suspension no later than one month before the official deadline. Please refer to the paragraph "Amendments" to the thesis contract below.

The thesis report must not contain any civil registration (cpr) numbers, including your own. Instead you must state your name on the front page. If the thesis has more authors, all names must be stated on the front page.

The thesis report must be submitted electronically in Digital Eksamen, https://digitaleksamen.sdu.dk/.  The report must be submitted as one single pdf document. Any enclosures must be submitted as separate files. Any NDA must be available in a separate enclosure in pdf format. Should you have any special enclosures which cannot be submitted in pdf format (such as programming code/encoding, film and similar), these enclosures can be uploaded as a single zip-file together with the pdf document. In addition, any large drawings can be submitted in paper format at the relevant secretarial office provided you have a prior agreement with your supervisor.

You can submit only one copy of the thesis report: if you are more students who write together, you must agree in advance who will submit the thesis report in Digital Eksamen.

When you submit the thesis report, you will be asked to submit the title of your project. It is very important that you submit the exactly same title as the one in your thesis contract or an approved amendment of the contract, as the title will be transferred to your diploma. It is obligatory to submit the English title, whereas the Danish title is voluntary. 

You and your possible co-students writing the thesis receive a receipt upon the submitted thesis report in your SDU mail. It is important that you keep the receipt as this is your documentation for timely submission. 

All thesis reports are checked for plagiarism.

Upon passing the thesis you will receive an e-mail from thesis.sdu.dk, asking if you wish to publish your thesis and if you wish that your thesis can be lent from SDU’s library. If you have signed an NDA you must remember to state this (refer to the paragraph Master’s Thesis in cooperation with a company  for further information).

Change of Title or Project Description

If during the thesis work you learn that the thesis takes you in a different direction than initially assumed you can make amendments in the contract. Please fill in the application form  TECH Amendment of title or Project Description - Final Project Contract, Bachelor Project Contract or Master's Thesis Contract (https://spoc.sdu.dk -> Study Secretariat -> Other forms). 

The changes must be approved by your supervisor. Once this is done, you will be notified by an e-mail. 

As a main rule, the approval of change of title or research question does not qualify for dispensation as to submission deadline.

You must have applied for change of titel before you submit your thesis report. 

Other Changes (eg. Postponement of the Submission Date)

If you know from the start that you cannot keep within the fixed writing period for the thesis, you must apply the Academic Study Board for a dispensation. You must also apply the Academic Study Board for dispensation if there are other changes that affect the thesis contract, such as the need for postponement of the submission deadline. Such changes must be based on exceptional circumstances.

You can apply for the dispensation by using the application form TECH Other amendments of Final Project Contract, Bachelor Project Contract or Master's Thesis Contract (https://spoc.sdu.dk -> Studyboard - > Dispensation).

Applications for dispensation for changes in the thesis contract must, as a basic rule, be received by the Academic Study Board no later than one month before the submission deadline.

Change of Supervisor

If your supervisor changes of one reason or another, please ask your programme coordinator to confirm that the change of supervisor has been approved by the study programme, to the secretariat of the Academic Study Board. 

The thesis examination is held within 6 weeks from the date of submission of the thesis report.

Usually the exam starts with a presentation of the master’s thesis. Following the presentation students are examined on the report and the presentation.

In addition to the supervisor(s) an external examiner will be present at the exam as assessor. The exam will be graded according to the 7-point grading scale based on an overall assessment of the thesis report and the oral examination and the student will receive the grade immediately after the exam.

Assessment of the thesis report is especially based on its academic content. Spelling and wording (regardless of language) are included in the assessment with limited weight unless there are significant deviations from common academic language. Relevant documented disabilities may lead to exemption from this rule.

If you fail to meet the submission deadline for the thesis you will use an examination attempt and you must sign a TECH Contract Supplement - Master's Thesis (via https://spoc.sdu.dk -> Study Secretariat -> Master thesis supervisor agreements) within two weeks of the submission deadline. You must enclose an extended research question with the supplementary agreement. The extended research question must be within the original subject area and it must, regardless of the number of ECTS awarded, equal a workload of an additional three months. You can get a third attempt according to the same rules as apply to the second attempt.

If you fail the thesis exam you must sign a TECH Contract Supplement - Master's Thesis (via https://spoc.sdu.dk -> Study Secretariat -> Master thesis supervisor agreements)  within two weeks of the examination date. You must enclose an extended research question with the supplementary agreement. The extended research question must be within the original subject area and it must, regardless of the number of ECTS awarded, equal a workload of an additional three months. You can get a third attempt according to the same rules as apply to the second attempt.