MALK5000 Master's Thesis Course description

All courses must be completed with pass grades and the coursework requirements must be approved before the candidate may submit the master's thesis.

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes

classified as knowledge, skills and competence:

Knowledge

The student

• can analyze and critically assess the scientific work of others
• can choose and apply relevant methods of data collection for research or scientific inquiry.

Skills

The student

• can apply the ethical and technical principles that govern scientific research and publication, including international citation and reference standards
• can demonstrate that they can conduct a supervised research project in accordance with research ethics guidelines and regulations, and guidelines from relevant governmental bodies (i.e. The Norwegian Data Protection Authority, relevant Norwegian Research Ethics Committees and so on)
• can write a thesis according to criteria determined by the university college
• can critically assess the results of his own work
• can critically assess various sources of information

Competence

The student

• can participate and promote the development of learning in complex systems
• can justify their professional behavior with reference to ethical guidelines, general ethical considerations and their own assessment of the situation
• can analyze and critically assess various sources of information with relevance for the thesis.

Defining a research question, collecting empirical data, reading relevant literature and writing the thesis under supervision.

Replicating the research of others is a legitimate and acceptable basis for theses.

The thesis outline and thesis are individual work. Submission of thesis outline is required before a supervisor is appointed. Thesis outline must be submitted the semester before thesis submission at the latest.

Each candidate has a maximum of 30 hours of supervision during the thesis work. If a non- faculty supervisor is appointed, resources are divided by 2/3 of the time for the main supervisor and 1/3 for the second supervisor. Supervision hours are calculated for each thesis not per student.

Coursework requirements

a.   Two research ethics seminars are 100 % attendance required before submitting the thesis outline

b.   Approval of thesis outline

c.   Submit a signed contract with the appointed supervisor

Thesis. Submission of master's thesis according to program specifications, consisting of 2 scientific articles with a common theme. Technical standards according to the current APA manual.

Submitting dates each year: June 15th and November 15th.

Thesis format

The Master's thesis consists of two papers. Paper I introduces the relevant field of inquiry, primarily in the form of a review, over no more than 25 pages. This paper gives a general perspective on the research questions of the field and serves as an introduction to the research paper (paper II). Paper II must not exceed 40 pages. The papers are written according to the current APA Publishing Manual Standard; double spaced Times New Roman size 12 with standard margins for MS Office Word.

All

A grading scale of A (highest) to F (lowest) where A to E is a pass grade and F is a fail grade for the overall thesis. If one of the articles do not achieve the pass grade, F grade is given to the overall thesis.

If two students have submitted the same empirical article in their Master's thesis, each individual student may appeal against the determination of the grade. The result of the appeal will only be applicable for the student who submitted the appeal..

One internal and one external examiner