EPS3100 European Project Semester - Supporting Courses Course description

Admission to the programme.

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.  Students are advised to find a lab group to participate in.

Thesis supervision is compulsory. Each candidate gets 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. 

The following required coursework must be approved before the student can take the exam:

a.   Research ethics seminar 1 and 2 must be fully attended 

b.   Approved thesis outline

c.   A signed contract with the appointed supervisor

Thesis. Submission of master’s thesis according to program specifications, consisting of 1 scientific article. Technical standards according to the current APA manual. Submitting dates each year: June 15th  and November 15th.

Thesis format

The 30 ECTS Master’s thesis for BSCA consists of one article written in accordance with the author guidelines specified in the current APA Publication Manual. The length should be appropriate for the work that is reported, but should commonly not exceed 40 pages, including the title page, references, talbes, and figures, but excluding appendices.

Ethics and data protection

An account of ethical considerations is required if the thesis includes empirical data on humans or nonhuman animals. A risk -and vulnerability analysis (ROS-vurdering) should normally be conducted, and a case number should be included in the title page of the thesis article. If data on humans are included in the thesis, an account of data protection issues is typically required. The description of ethical and data protection considerations can be included in the main body of the thesis. If the decision is made that such an account is not appropriate in the main body of the thesis, a reflection note on this topic should be attached to the thesis. A reflection note is a short description of ethical and data protection considerations, maximum 6000 characters, including spaces. For theses that do not include empirical data, research ethics relevant to the thesis should be discussed, either in the main body of the text or a reflection note. 

Some Master projects may require consideration or approval from external bodies, such as Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD), the Regional Committee for Medicine and Health Sciences Research Ethics (REK), National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (NESH), and/or internal or external data protection officials. It is ultimately the responsibility of the main supervisor to ensure that the relevant bodies are consulted. If external bodies are consulted, a case number should be included in the title page of the thesis article. If a decision is made that there is no need to consult external bodies regarding ethics or data protection, a description of the deliberations preceding this decision is required, either in the main body of the thesis or in the reflection note. If the thesis is an empirical work, the main supervisor must state in writing that the research is conducted in accordance with current laws and regulations before the thesis can be submitted.

All

Grade scale A-F

All forms of support materials are permitted. All source material must be appropriately referenced.

The portfolio exam is assessed as a whole and graded A-F.

A grading scale from A to E is used, where A denotes the highest grade, E denotes the lowest, and F denotes a fail. Grades are assigned according to the Assessment Criteria for Bachelor's Theses in Engineering set by the Norwegian Association for Higher Education Institutions.

The portfolio examination cannot be appealed.

Two internal examiners. The two Supporting Course teachers (one for Project Management and one for English and Academic Writing) approve the assignments and assess the portfolio as a whole.

Tengel Sandtrø (Project Management) and Tom Muir (English and Academic Writing).