SOS3910 Bachelor Thesis Course description

The bachelor’s thesis is a piece of academic work based on a social work topic of the student’s own choosing relating to core areas of the programme. The students will obtain, process and analyse knowledge to answer a social work research question, and present this in writing in a thesis that meets the requirements for scientific argumentation and presentation at bachelor’s level. The bachelor’s thesis should demonstrate the students’ skills in writing academic papers, applying relevant theory to the selected topics, source criticism, independence, critical reflection and ethical understanding.  

The student must have completed and passed the second year of the bachelor’s degree programme in social work and completed and passed the practical training in the third year of the programme.  

Knowledge  

The student:  

• has broad knowledge of how to structure academic papers  

• has broad knowledge of research ethics, fundamental social science research methods and their possibilities and limitations 

• has in-depth multidisciplinary knowledge of a topic of their own choosing of relevance to **social workers’ area of expertise 

• has knowledge of different positions in theory of science and the development of knowledge in social work  

 Skills  

The student 

• can reflect on power structures, professionalism and their own role as a social worker  

• can develop research questions of relevance to the field of practice and apply new professional knowledge in a methodical and scientific manner 

• can find, assess and refer to research and practice-based knowledge in social work that sheds relevant light on the research question 

• can conduct advanced literature searches in various databases and apply social work knowledge in major written works 

• can reflect critically on theory of science perspectives and different sources of knowledge in their own work 

• can exercise source criticism when assessing and selecting literature and obtaining information online and in databases 

General competence  

The student 

• can analyse and critically reflect on research ethics issues in the performance of social work practice 

• masters the formal and methodology requirements that apply to academic writing 

• has broad knowledge of research and development work in social workers’ main areas of work 

• can document and communicate professional assessments in writing 

• can update their knowledge of the field of social work 

Teaching of relevance to work on the bachelor’s thesis. All students will be offered three 45-minute supervision individual sessions. No supervision will be given in the final week before submission. 

The following required coursework/compulsory activities must have been approved in order for the student to take the exam: 

1. INTERACT - INTER1300 

The following required coursework must be approved: 

Students must submit an individual log. Scope: 500 words (+/- 10%). The log requires participation at the two-day seminar. An individual assignment may compensate for absence. 

Read more about INTERACT and INTER1300 here: https://www.oslomet.no/en/research/research-projects/interact

Compulsory activities and coursework requirements must be completed and approved by the given deadline in order for the student to take the exam.  

The bachelor’s thesis is an individual work. 

The thesis must total 18-20 pages. The cover page, table of contents and reference list come in addition to this. All the pages, apart from the cover page, must be numbered and state the candidate number. The cover page must also state necessary information about which exam the paper concerns, and carry the exam code. 

Font and font size: Calibri 12-point. Line spacing 1.5. The approved citation style APA for assignments must be complied with. 

A selection of self-chosen readings, which comprises of 500 pages must be attached in the assignment.

Students who fail the exam or who were absent from the ordinary exam for a valid reason can take a resit/rescheduled exam. Students can submit a reworked version of the thesis once, and can receive one hours’ additional individual supervision in connection with improving the thesis. Students must contact the person responsible for the course to organise a supervision session. No supervision will be given in July. 

Students who fail twice must submit a new bachelor’s thesis based on a new research question at the next exam. It is the students’ responsibility to contact the person responsible for the course to schedule three supervision sessions well before the start of the course. 

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.  

Grade scale A-F.  

All exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner. A student’s supervisor cannot be their examiner.