19. April 2016

TATION pRÆSEN

Master’s thesis workshop

Oecon and Soc. students 2016

Student counselling

19. April 2016

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Agenda

The supervisor’s view › Alexander Koch, Professor, The Department of Economics and Business

Rules and procedures for the master’s thesis › Student counsellor

Litterature search › Lars Lund-Thomsen, Research Librarian, AU Library

Student counselling

19. April 2016

Rules and procedures

› Rules for the thesis contract and formalities

› Supervisor

› Postponement and leave of absence

› Submission

› Grading

› Failed thesis

› Cheating and plagiarism

› Cooperation with a company

› Group thesis

› Work spaces

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Important!

› The following rules only apply for students that have been enrolled in the master

degree programme before 1st of September 2015.

› All rules can be found at the study portal › Keep yourself updated regarding changes to the rules!!

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Rules for the thesis contract

› Registration: › You will be registered for the thesis if you have been registered for all your remaining exams, even if

you have not passed all your exams. This also applies if you have been registered as “absent” for

those exams.

› Exemption: › If you have failed courses and wish to have passed all your courses before starting writing your

master’s thesis you have to apply for exemption via mit.au.dk

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Timeline

› 15 November/15 May: Automatic registration for the master's thesis

› 1 December/1 June: Deadline for submission of master's thesis contract –

including suggestion for supervisor

› Start December/start June: Allocation of supervisors

› 15 January/15 August: Deadline for submission of problem statement to

supervisor

› 1 February/1 September: Approval of master's thesis contract and start of thesis

writing period.

› 14 August/14 March: Deadline for submission of master's thesis

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Rules for the thesis contract

› Registering before having attempted all 90 ECTS points: › If you want to start writing your thesis before you are automatically registered you have to fill out an

exemption form.

› Registering at other dates than 1st of September and 1st of February › As a general rule you cannot do so

› BUT you can apply for an exemption

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Formalities

› Maximum 100 standard pages (typically 60-100 pages) › A standard page 2400 keystrokes incl. spaces

› The following parts of the thesis are NOT parts of a standard page: › Title page

› Table of contents

› Illustrations and graphs

› Bibliography/References

› Appendix

› The title page should state: › Title (in Danish and English)

› Degree programme (cand. oecon or cand. soc.)

› Name of author

› Student registration number

› Name of supervisor

› Deadline for handing in

› Specification of whether the thesis is to be publicly available

› Always align with your supervisor! 8

Student counselling

19. April 2016

Formalities

› The following parts of the thesis DO count towards the maximum 100 pages: › Equations

› Tables

› Table notes

› Figures

› Figure notes

› You do not have to count the keystrokes of these items, but instead count the

actual number of pages with equations, tables, table notes, figures and figure

notes.

› The actual number of pages taken up by these items in total is denoted Y.

› The remaining available keystrokes amount to (100-Y)*2400 keystrokes including

spaces

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Suggestion for supervisor

› All members of faculty at the Department of Economics and Business Economics

(ECON) and the Department of Management (MGMT)

› PhD’s can also act as supervisors, if they have a master’s degree.

› You can also apply for an external supervisor, but only in areas not covered by

faculty members › To apply for an external supervisor, fill out an exemption application at mit.au.dk

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Change of supervisor

› You can apply for a new supervisor by sending in an application for exemption

› Requires that a new thesis contract is approved by the new supervisor

› No new deadline

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Postponement and leave of absence

› Postponement › You can apply for postponement of the deadline, if “special circumstances” have occurred under the

thesis period

› For example severe illness; your own or in the close family

› Leave of absence › Apply via the “self-service” facility– the deadline is postponed with the length of the leave of absence

by min. 2 months

› No supervision during the leave of absence

› Cannot submit the thesis in the semester you have leave of absence!

› For example leave of absence from 1. Jan – 1. Mar => first hand in date = 1. September

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Submission

› Electronic copy of the thesis (pdf file): › One copy to mastertheses.bss@au.dk - Please state the title of your study programme in the mail

subject field.

› Wiseflow (pdf file) › Upload one pdf file with thesis and appendix

› After submission it is not possible to withdraw your thesis

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Exceeding submission deadline

› You have used an exam attempt and will automatically be registered for 2nd

attempt

› You have to submit a revised problem statement within 2 weeks of the original

deadline date. › New deadline 3 month and 2 weeks from original deadline.

› Problem statement has to be within same area and discussed with supervisor

› In total you have three exam attempts to pass the master’s thesis › Same procedure for 3rd as 2nd attempt.

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Grading

› The qualification description is in the course catalogue!

› The grading must be announced no later than 2 months after the thesis is handed

in › July does not count

› Before the grade is given, there is a public defense in which an external examiner

participates › Presentation of the main areas and results

› 15 min. to presentation and 40 min. to the examiners’ questions

› Counts in the total grading

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Failed thesis

› Your supervisor will invite you to a talk, where the reasons for the grade are

explained

› A new plan for the thesis is drawn up in cooperation with the supervisor

› No later than 14 days after the grade is announced a new contract must be

made › New deadline is 3 months and 14 days after receiving the not passed grade

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Cheating and plagiarism

› Do not cheat!

› If you are in doubt – read: › http://studerende.au.dk/en/examinations/cheating-at-exams/

› Remember: Self plagiarism is just as bad as plagiarism.

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Cooperation with a company

› It is also possible to write the thesis in cooperation with a company or

organisation

› The procedure is the same as an ordinary thesis procedure

› AU offers a template for a confidentiality contract -> can be found at the study

portal

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Group thesis

› By recommendation from a faculty member, you can apply for writing a thesis in

a group › Fill out an exemption form at mit.au.dk

› Conditions › The thesis form and extent should correspond to a group paper

› You must have handed in at least one individual written assignment (project course/ topic (P) / 10

ECTS (P)) on your master’s programme

› The defence will take place individually

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Work spaces

› Application for master thesis work spaces takes place twice a year: › End of July

› End of December

› Find application form on Blackboard. Sign up for the group

BSS_ECON_Thesis Work Space (Specialelæseplads)

› Send the application form to Thomas Stephansen

tstephansen@econ.au.dk, building 2632, room 230.

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Questions

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Student counselling

19. April 2016

Concluding

› Enjoy the rest of your time as students

› Good luck!!

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