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M0-BIOEC Planning the Master's Thesis

Course responsible:Frode Alfnes

Campus / Online:Taught campus Ås

Teaching language:Norsk

Course frequency:Annually

Nominal workload:M0-BIOEC and M30- BIOEC are combined 750 hours.

Teaching and exam period:This course has teaching and evaluation in the Autumn semester. There will be a self-study variant of the course in the spring semester.

About this course

The course will lead to a project description for the master's thesis in business administration. The master's thesis is an independent and scientific research work where the students will go in-depth on a problem. It is important to get started early with the processes of finding a writing partner, a topic for the thesis, and possibly a company to work with.

The course covers the following topics: guidelines for writing a master's thesis, formulation of a problem statement, writing a project description, handling research data, privacy and research ethics, and references, citation and plagiarism. Together, this should provide a good basis for planning a master's thesis in line with research ethics norms.

After submitting a preliminary project sketch in the middle of the semester, everyone will be assigned a supervisor for the master's thesis.

Learning outcome

When the course has been passed, you should have the following knowledge, skills and general competence.

Knowledge

  • You will have knowledge of guidelines for writing master's theses at NMBU.
  • You will have knowledge of handling research data, privacy and research ethics, and references, citation and plagiarism.

Skills

  • You should be able to write a project plan for a research study.
  • You should be able to find relevant scientific articles and previous master's theses.

General competence

  • You should be able to identify research issues within business administration.
  • You should be able to plan a social science research study.
  • Learning activities

    M0-BIOEC runs over one semester. In the autumn semester, there are lectures, a seminar with student presentations of issues, assignments of supervisors, meetings with supervisors, and writing of project descriptions.

    For those who plan to write a master's thesis in the autumn and have not already taken the course, there will be a self-study variant of the course in the spring semester.

    The master's thesis shall mainly be written by two students jointly. To write alone, you must get approval from the course coordinator. The project description for the master's thesis to be submitted in this course must also mainly be written by the same two students jointly.

  • Teaching support

    There will be lectures once a week in the first half of the semester. The lectures will not be recorded. There will be a workshop where students give a presentation of their planned research problem and data collection about halfway through the semester. In the second half of the semester, it is recommended to have two meetings with the assigned supervisor.

    Students on exchange will be invited to an online seminar for a follow-up of their planned research problem and data collection about halfway through the semester.

    It is expected that the students on exchange follow the same time schedule as other students.

  • Prerequisites
    The course is reserved for students who have been admitted to the master program in bioeconomics at the School of Economics and Business at NMBU, and who have completed several of the most important courses in the master's degree.
  • Assessment method

    Pass or fail based on the project description.

    The project description is assessed by the course coordinator based on the template for the project description.



    Project description

    Grading: Passed / Not Passed

  • Examiner scheme
    The quiz and project description will be evaluated by the course coordinator.
  • Mandatory activity
    • Participation in a workshop on topics and issues where students present their master's thesis ideas. For exchange students, the presentation should be delivered as a 10-minute Zoom film.
    • Completion of a canvas quiz about privacy, literature review and references.

    The mandatory activity is valid only for one semester, i.e., if a student would like to retake the course, the mandatory activity also need to be retaken. The mandatory activity must be approved in order to be assessed in the course.

  • Notes

    Submission of a signed master's contract to the supervisor and study administration at the Norwegian School of Management.

    A signed contract between student and supervisor is submitted to the faculty by post-hh@nmbu.no by 1 December for the master's thesis in the spring.

    Exceptionally, students can choose to write a master's thesis in the autumn. Then the signed contract between student and supervisor must be submitted to the faculty by post-hh@nmbu.no by 1 May.

  • Admission requirements
    Masters students at the NMBU Masters Degree Programme in Bioeconomy - Biobased Value Creation and Business Development