Master's Thesis

Overview

The thesis should correspond to your major

You are admitted to an interdisciplinary programme with a major, usually based on your undergraduate studies. You cannot change the major unless there are very special circumstances. A change of major must be decided by the Director of Studies.

Graduate School cooperates with the departments within the Faculty of Social Sciences for the master’s thesis course. You will write your master’s thesis at the department which corresponds to the major in your Bachelor’s degree.  The master’s thesis should reflect your programme studies and you should use theory and method from your major.

Your will have a supervisor and an examiner from the department which corresponds to your major. The department will choose a supervisor for you, matching your choice of research question with the supervisor. You do not have to find or look for a supervisor yourself.

Supervision

The master’s thesis course starts on your fourth term at Graduate School, always around January 15-20. By course start you will know the name of the supervisor. Most departments and supervisors require that students are present in Lund during the master’s thesis course. Some departments arrange peer review seminars and other activities, which requires the students' presence. You cannot expect to receive distance supervision through Skype or email. Fieldwork should be conducted in agreement with the supervisor. Keep in mind that you yourself are responsible for your research project and for your writing process. The supervisor can offer support and guidance, but you will have to be the driving force.

In addition to the supervision from the departments, Graduate School offers a midterm seminar on programme level in mid-March. This is a great opportunity to receive feed back from your programme coordinator and from your peers.

Submission

At Graduate School we arrange thesis submission in May, August and January each year. Specific dates for submission can be found on the Thesis Portal on Canvas. Submission deadlines cannot be negotiated. Your thesis should be submitted both electronically, on Canvas, and in hard copy (1 copy). The hard copy must be handed in. If you cannot come to Lund in time for the submission, you may send a friend to submit your thesis. You may also send the thesis by post. More detailed information on submission can be found here.

Remember to notify your supervisor before submission and the Graduate School administration by filling out the Status Update webform by the deadline specified. Submitting your thesis a later round will have no bearing on your grade.

Examination seminars

After submission, a schedule for examination seminars will be set up. We have to consider the examiners, the different majors and the localities, therefore we cannot consider individual requests for specific dates. You will receive the exact dates of your opposition and defence seminars via email, and the schedule for all programs will be posted on Canvas. Two examination seminars are mandatory for every new submission: the one where you defend your own work and the one where you are an opponent on the work of a peer. The thesis seminars are open to the public and we encourage students to attend the seminars of their peers. After your defense seminar, you will most likely know if you pass or fail, but the examiner may take up to 15 working days to decide on the grade.

After the seminar

Once you know that you have passed your thesis you may make smaller revisions to your text, according to the comments from your opponent and examiner. You have five working days to make these corrections. Thereafter you should upload the revised thesis in LUP Student Papers. Your examiner will report your grade to Graduate School together with a written assessment of your work. Your thesis coordinator will register the grade in Ladok and send you your written assessment as soon as possible once the grade is registered. Note that this process may take a few days.

Once you have received a passing grade on the thesis course you will need to apply for a degree certificate! You will find more information here.