Master Thesis

The thesis writing seminar will take place on 31st of October 2018, between 12 and 14, in room O77.
At the meeting, we will present all the formal rules of the master thesis , and you will receive information and guidance to the thesis writing process in general. The idea is to assist you in planning the thesis writing process, making initial search for the relevant literature and formulate your research questions. If you have any questions, this will also be an opportunity to ask your head of studies.

When you have finished the initial three semesters of your master study, you are ready to enroll in the ‘course’ master thesis using the normal course registration procedure. There are two conditions, however: one is that you have passed at least the first semester and and additional 15 ECTS points and the other is that you must be enrolled in (or have passed) 30 additional ECTS. If you do not fulfill these conditions, you have to be aware that there is a time limit for the length of your master study. You must start writing your thesis no later than on the 5th semester, your study will be terminated if you have not started the Master’s thesis within 2 years and 6 months after you began your Master’s study.
You must enroll in the ‘course’ “Master thesis” in May, if you wish to write the thesis in the fall semester – and in November if you wish to write the thesis in the spring semester. The course registration enrolls you in the exam as well, and you can neither deregister from the ordinary exam nor from any re-exam you might need.

It is a new demand that you register information on the topic of your dissertation and your preferred supervisor by June the 2^nd (if for any special reason you write your dissertation in a fall semester) or December the 2^nd (if you write your dissertation in the spring semester). Earlier submissions are also welcome, but only students enrolled in “Master thesis” will get a supervisor assigned. A digital form has been created and you can have access to it here.
If you are to write the thesis together with a peer, the two of you need to fill in a joint form.
It is the Head of Studies who assigns supervisors based on the information you submitted about your topic and preferred supervisor. Supervision capacity is limited, though. Therefore not all wishes can be granted. The more information you provide in the digital form, the better your chances of getting the most qualified supervisor will be. It is in everybody’s interest that you define your topic in a fairly precise way and include some thoughts on the contents of the thesis and the methods to be applied in the digital form. If you don’t write anything, a supervisor will be assigned to you randomly.

You will get information about the supervisor assigned to you no later than June 15 (for those writing in fall semester) or December 15 (for those writing in spring semester). You will get this information in an e-mail sent to your SDU student-mail. It is your responsibility to check your email and contact the supervisor as soon as possible to prepare the supervision contract.

Your supervision contract must be approved by the supervisor and the Head of Studies NO LATER THAN August 15 (for those writing in fall semester) or January 16 (for those writing in spring semester). This implies that you must submit the contract in due time to leave time for remedying possible problems associated with the approval.
The supervisor contract is to be filled in on the basis of a discussion between you and the supervisor. You need to reach agreement on a research question and a supervision plan. The demands are the following:

• The research question must be elaborated to an extent that allows the supervisor to judge if the you can fulfill the goals in the course description sufficiently.
• The supervision plan must include dates for submissions of important chapters of the thesis to your supervisor and dates and themes for supervision meetings.

When you are ready to include these elements in the digital supervision contract, then you can complete and submit the contract for approval. When you have filled in the form, this is automatically passed on to your supervisor and to the Head of Studies for approval.
In case you do not submit the supervision contract in time or it is not approved before the deadline, you will not be able to submit your master thesis and you will have spent and exam attempt for your master thesis. If you find yourself in this situation, you will have to follow the guidelines on what to do next included in the course description and precisely in the section on ‘Examination conditions’
When you have submitted the supervision contract and this is approved, you can move on with the master thesis in accordance with the supervision plan. The criteria for assessing the thesis are specified in the course description, and specifically in the section on ‘Goal description’.

The Master’s thesis must be submitted by January 2 (for those writing in fall semester) or June 1 (for those writing in fall semester). If the date is a holiday, you are to submit on the first working day after that date. Only digital submissions through SDU Assignment are accepted. All guidelines on formal demands of the thesis itself and other formalities are available in the thesis guidelines, which can be found here.
When the Master’s thesis is received, it is passed on to the supervisor and an external examiner for grading.
Should you not be able to submit the Master’s thesis in time, you will have to follow the guidelines included in the course description, in the section ‘Time of examination’ regarding second or third attempt.

The Master’s thesis will be graded using an external examiner and the 7-scale. Grading must be finished no later than one month after submission – i.e. no later than January 31(for those writing in fall semester) or June 30 (for those writing in fall semester). The grade will be published in the Self Service as for any other exam.

Since the deadline for grading only is a month after submission it is not possible to give pre-approval of the thesis.

If the Master’s thesis is the last exam in your study, you will receive the diploma after the grading and by ordinary mail. Each year the department celebrates the graduates of the study programs and you will be invited to participate. To be able to send you the invitation to the conferring ceremony (and any other message), you will be asked for your private e-mail-address when you will submit your thesis.
You cannot demand an explanation of your grade. However, if you request so, the supervisor can agree to give a thorough oral feed-back on strengths and weaknesses of your thesis and in that context explain the grade. Your request of feedback should be submitted directly to the supervisor no later than a month after the grading.
If your master thesis is graded as ‘failed’ (graded -03 or 00), then you should follow the guidelines included in the course description, in the section ’Time of examination’ regarding second/third attempt.