Individual study activities

An individual study activity is a small research project that gives you an introduction to project work as a form of work.

You gain basic knowledge within the subject area of the project and are trained to identify and formulate a scientific problem - and then process it in a scientific way.

The project can be based on experimental and/or theoretical studies. Whether your project is experimental or purely theoretical, search for and application of relevant academic literature is an important part of the project.

An individual study activity usually has a weighting of 5 or 10 ECTS.

All associate and full professors at your department can serve as project supervisors. Before contacting a potential project supervisor, you must reflect on what you would like to work with during the project:

• Do you wish to do an experimental project?
• Would you rather work on a purely theoretical project?
• What subject area do you wish to work with?

Once you have found a supervisor, you make a final agreement for the project.

An individual study activity can also be done in collaboration with an external supervisor, who in that case serves as co-supervisor. The main supervisor must, however, be from your department at SDU.

The main supervisor has the formal responsibility for supervising you during the project and must ensure that the purpose, content, scope and academic level of the project are in accordance with the regulations of your degree programme.

You must register for the individual study activity in the student self-service during the course registration period:

• 20-30 November if you wish to do the project in the spring semester.
  
  
• 20-30 May if you wish to do the project in the autumn semester.

Please read the course description carefully before registering for an individual study activity, as they have different ECTS weightings and may have different exam regulations. You can find all course descriptions for individual study activities in the list of courses offered – the course codes start with "IA".

Once all agreements are in place, you must fill in a project contract, including project description, which you draw up in cooperation with your project supervisor.

The deadline for submitting the project is a week after the start of the semester in which you do the project. However, we recommend that you submit the project contract as soon as possible after registering for the individual study activity in the student self-service.

When the Study Board has approved the project contract, you will be notified by e-mail.

Individual study activities with an alternative weighting.

If you wish to do an individual study activity with a weighting other than 5 or 10 ECTS, you cannot use the digital project contract form. Instead, please contact the student counsellors at the Faculty of Science.

Academic changes

You can apply for approval of academic changes to your project if, during the course of your work, you find that the project is developing in a different direction than expected. This could, for example, involve a change to your project title or adjustments to your project description. 

You can apply for academic changes using the form ”Application for approval of changes in the bachelor’s project contract, master’s thesis contract, individual study activity contract and company project”, which you can find in SPOC under ”Study Secretariat” → ”Other forms”.

Applications for academic changes must be approved by your supervisor(s), your programme’s Teaching Committee and the Head of Studies. Therefore, we recommend that you apply in good time.

Extension of the submission deadline

You can apply for an extension of the submission deadline if you are able to document that you cannot submit your report on time due to extraordinary circumstances. 

It is recommended that you keep your project supervisor informed if you are prevented from meeting the set submission deadline, so that you can make a plan together for completing your project. 

Applications for extensions are processed as quickly as possible, but please note that processing time is required. We therefore recommend that you apply well in advance where possible. 

If your application cannot be approved by the Head of Studies and is referred to the Study Board, the processing time may be up to 2 months. You are welcome to contact the Student Guidance Center at studyscience@sdu.dk if you would like guidance on how to proceed while your application is being processed. 

You can apply for an extension of the submission deadline using the form ”Application for extension of bachelor’s project, master’s thesis, individual study activity or company project”, which you can find in SPOC under ”Studiesekretariat” → ”Andre blanketter”.

You conclude the individual study activity by writing a report of your project work.

The scope of the report depends ECTS weighting of the project and is agreed in detail with the project supervisor.