FYB3900 Bachelor’s Thesis Course description

Physiotherapists work within a complex health and welfare system, and society expects physiotherapists to contribute to service innovation and systematic and quality-enhancing processes to raise the quality of interprofessional work and/or physiotherapy practice. Through the work on the bachelor’s thesis, the student will gain experience of studying a delimited area in depth, and will have the possibility to develop skills and knowledge required to be able to cooperate in groups that aim to contribute to developing the discipline of physiotherapy. In addition to the ability to cooperate in a specialist community and participate in academic discussions, discipline development processes require critical thinking, structured work and knowledge about how to proceed to implement new knowledge in practice. Detailed guidelines for the bachelor’s thesis will be published on the university’s learning platform.

Passed first and second year of the programme or equivalent.

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

Knowledge

The student can

• describe theory and results from up-to-date research relating to the topic of the bachelor’s thesis

Skills

The student can

• prepare a project outline with a concrete schedule and a description of how they intend to complete the bachelor’s degree project with the resources available
• formulate a clear research question that can be answered within the limits of the project
• elaborate on the research question’s relevance to physiotherapy and, as a background to the project, explain the knowledge status and knowledge gaps within the thematic area that the research question concerns
• formulate concrete research questions based on the research issue and present theory for use in the discussion
• answer the research question in a clear conclusion based on the presentation of empirical material, and make active use of empirical data and theory when discussing the issue/research questions
• give grounds for the choice of data collection method and choice of sources (databases/literature), and document systematic literature searches or other methods for obtaining data
• carry out the project in accordance with scientific criteria and guidelines for research ethics and data protection
• discuss the processing of personal data with their supervisor and conduct a data processing risk assessment if they will be processing personal data

General competence

The student can

• explain the implications of the conclusion for the professional practice of physiotherapists, reflect on knowledge needs in the field, and present research questions for future projects within the thematic area
• communicate the project in written academic form and in accordance with applicable criteria regarding transparency about the methodological implementation of the project
• reflect on strengths and weaknesses of the application of the chosen methods in the implementation of the project
• document the implementation of the project and reflections on the cooperation in a project log

The bachelor’s theses are normally written in groups of 2-3 students. If the project’s topic is interprofessional, the project group can also include a student from another bachelor’s programme, subject to the approval of the person responsible for the course at both programmes.

The work and teaching methods include lectures, seminars, supervision and self-study in the project group. At the start, project sketching seminars are arranged, including a half-day seminar with presentation of the project sketch and feedback on fellow students' project sketching. Halfway into the project, students meet to present the preliminary project status and provide input to fellow students for use in the completion of the projects.

Students are assigned a supervisor after submitting a project outline. The supervision is based on written project material and specific questions submitted by the student group ahead of the supervision session. Each group receives two (2) hours of supervision on the project outline during the seminars, and three (3) hours of individual project supervision.

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

• participation in seminar in connection with presentation of the project outline (half a day)
• project outline, subject to more detailed criteria. The project outline will be subject to assessment and must be approved before the work on the project begins
• a presentation at the midway seminar of project status and, if relevant, a risk assessment of personal data processing

Written bachelor’s thesis in groups of 2-3 students, 6,000 words (+/- 10%)

Resits/rescheduled exam: If the bachelor’s thesis is awarded the grade F (fails the written assignment), the student has the right to submit a reworked version once.

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

Grade scale: A-F

All answers are assessed by two examiner.

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.