MAERGD5900 Master Thesis Course description

The master's thesis shall be an individual, independent and supervised research work based on an empirical study or a discussion of perspectives in everyday activities and working life. It can be an independent work or a delimited, but independent part of an ongoing project.

The master's thesis shall be written as a scientific article, with an introductory chapter ('kappe') in which the different parts of the article are put into context and supplemented.

All exams in the first and second years of the programme must be passed before the student is assigned a supervisor for his/her master's thesis.

Students waiting to be assessed for a new/postponed exam may participate in the initial seminar and start the planning of the paper. The supervisor is announced after the exam has been passed.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student

• has advanced knowledge about relevant research, theory and methods of importance to the work on preparing a limited occupational therapy research question relating to daily life or working life

Skills

The student is capable of

• developing a research design in line with the applicable research ethical guidelines and analysing their own or existing material and disseminating the results

Competence

The student is capable of

• designing, initiating and carrying out small-scale research studies
• assessing the methodological and theoretical preconditions for scientific studies
• disseminating the results of their own and other's research to professionals and the general public

Work and teaching methods include lectures, seminars and supervision.

At the start of the third year, the students on the programme will attend an initial seminar, which focuses on the project descriptions. The students will present their descriptions and receive feedback from the supervisors/lecturers and fellow students. After this, the students will continue working on their project description as necessary. The project description must be submitted the following week and forms the basis for the first supervision session.

The students will be allocated a supervisor within three weeks of submitting their project description. Students must have passed all exams in the first and second years in order to be assigned a supervisor, cf. the progress requirements. The student and supervisor sign a supervision contract that regulates responsibilities and rights, time frames and availability. The supervisor must approve the final project description.

Supervision is important during the whole writing process in order to discuss and decide how to formulate research questions, the quality of the data collection and data analysis, and to ensure that the project complies with research ethics conventions. The student is entitled to up to 25 hours of supervision, where two of the hours are related to the project description.

Four one-day seminars will be held in addition to the initial seminar. At these, the students are given the opportunity to discuss their projects and receive feedback from their fellow students and supervisors/lectures.

1) Participation at the seminars is compulsory.

The minimum attendance requirement at the master's seminars is 80 per cent. To the extent possible, a student who exceeds the maximum limit for absence will be required to submit extra coursework to compensate for his/her absence. If this is not possible, the student must move down a year to the next year group.

2) The student must attend two hours of supervision in order to quality-assure their work on the project description.

The supervisor will evaluate the planned project, the project description and other important aspects of the master's thesis together with the student in the initial phase.

The coursework requirements must be met before the master's thesis can be submitted for assessment.

Assessment content: The learning outcomes

Form of assessment: Individual written assignment and an oral exam

The master's thesis shall be written as a scientific research paper of up to 20 pages. The introduction chapter ('kappe') can have a scope of up to 60 pages. The thesis can be written in Norwegian or English.

Students must be awarded an E or better for their master's thesis to be allowed to take the oral exam.

The oral exam lasts for up to 60 minutes and can be carried out in either Norwegian or English.

Students can choose to take the oral exam in Norwegian or English, regardless of which language the thesis is written in.

Students can appeal against the grade awarded for the written thesis in accordance with Section 5-3 of the Act relating to Universities and University Colleges. If the grade is changed as a result of re-assessment, the student must take the oral exam again.

For provisions regarding resit/rescheduled exams, see the Regulations Relating to Studies and Examinations at OsloMet, Section 5-6.

Grade scale A-F. The master's thesis can be adjusted up or down by one grade on the basis of the oral exam.

One external and one internal examiner will assess all the students.