HETEK5900 Master´s Thesis Course description

Students must have been admitted to the Master’s Programme in Health and Technology - Specialisation in Biomedicine.

After completing the course, the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

• understands and is capable of explaining a range of biochemical and cellular biological methods, their possibilities and limitations
• understands the term proteomics, the principle behind selected analytical methods and their applications
• can describe different advanced microscopy techniques, principles and areas of application
• understands the principle behind different methods of preparation of transgenic animals, and can explain the laws and regulations that regulate the production of such animals

Skills

The student

• can assess the suitability of selected biochemical and cell biological methods and their strengths and weaknesses in an independent manner
• can use and critically interpret results from selected methods in the field of biochemistry and cell biology in an independent manner
• can conduct bio-informatic searches in web-based sequence databases
• can present research results in a scientific manner

General competence

The student

• can critically assess relevant methods in biomedical research and diagnostics
• can design an experiment in biochemistry and cell biology

The work and teaching methods used include lectures, student presentations, seminars and skills training in the form of laboratory work. Digital learning resources will be made available to students in advance and some of the teaching will be organised as flipped classroom.

The thesis can be written individually or in groups of two students.

The students are required to draw up a project description with an associated progress plan. All project descriptions must be approved by the course coordinator within the given deadlines.

Each student or group of students will be assigned a supervisor for the master’s project. The supervisor may be internal or external to the organisation. Up to 25 hours of supervision is normally available per project. The scope will depend on the subject area and working methods concerned. The supervision is intended to ensure satisfactory work progress and quality. After the project description has been approved by the course coordinator, the student/group of students, main supervisor and any co-supervisors will enter into an agreement that regulates responsibilities and rights issues, time frames and availability. When a group of students work together, the thesis must include an appendix that documents each student’s contribution.

Students meet for seminars during the period they are working on the master’s thesis. The seminars give them an opportunity to share experience from their own project work. Students will take part in academic discussion and practise structuring and wording academic reasoning and convey constructive criticism. Presenting their work and receiving feedback from fellow students and teachers are important parts of the seminars. The seminars will be held digitally or through physical attendance on campus.

Detailed guidelines for the master’s thesis will be published on OsloMet’s learning platform.

The following must have been approved in order for the student to take the exam:

• two oral presentations (up to 30 minutes) at the master’s seminars
• project outline with a progress schedule in accordance with specified criteria

If the seminars are taught in English, presentations must be given in English.

Individual oral exam, up to 30 minutes.

The exam can be taken in English or a Scandinavian language.

Simple handheld calculator.

Grade scale A-F

All answers are assessed by two examiners. An external examiner is used regularly, at a minimum of every third completion of the course. When selecting answers for external evaluation, a minimum of 10 percent of the answers shall be included, with no fewer than 5 answers. The external examiner’s assessment of the selected answers shall benefit all students.