Information for supervisors (English) 2026-2027

• The student is expected to spend 50% of the time on the practical component (200 hours) and 50% of the time on writing the report including preparing the presentation (200 hours). Which is also reflected on how heavily the components count towards the final grade: 50% for the practical component, 40% for the report and 10% for the process and ownership, including the presentation. The writing of the report and practical work may intertwine.  
• The students follow two online lectures: one about course requirements and one about writing the report. Both are mandatory for the students. These lectures are organized in the beginning of the course period. https://students.uu.nl/beta/biologie/mijn-studie/studieprogramma/afstudeerproject-en-onderzoeksproject-plus-bsc/cursusrooster-en-deadlines
• All the course materials and documents, and deadlines are available on this website: https://students.uu.nl/beta/biologie/mijn-studie/studieprogramma/afstudeerproject-en-onderzoeksproject-plus-bsc

• Reseach report: As part of the ‘Afstudeerproject’, the student writes one research report based on their practical and literature research. The report includes a literature research based introduction, methods and material, results, literature research based discussion and a conclusion, relevant figures/tables and references. Both the introduction and discussion should provide a in depth analysis of the topic. In contrast to the brief introductions and discussions typical in scientific publications, both sections are expected to be written as comprehensive chapters that reflect a thorough understanding of the literature and their own research findings of the practical component. In this scientific report a research question is posed and answered based on the students’ practical component and scientific (mainly primary) literature research. The end product should exceed the level of a (literature) summary (should be ‘opinion style’) and should integrate the practical research and literature findings for which a critical perspective is required. The rule of thumb is that is about 20-25 pages (6000-8000 words) with at least 20 references. However, quality is leading.

• During the practical component of the ‘Afstudeerproject’ course, the student gains practical experience on a biological subject that is in line with the report topic. A ‘biological subject’ may be interpreted in the broadest context. For example, fieldwork, policy research, or lab work may be done. But also, for example, educational research or statistical analyses of existing (biological) datasets is usually sufficient as practical component. Of course, it must be of sufficient (scientific) level. The intention is that the student experiences the research cycle at least once, either independently or by accompanying the daily supervisor or an (experienced) master's student, so that the student learns to master (basic) research techniques and apply them. If it is too complicated to familiarize your student sufficiently with the techniques within the limited number of weeks available to be able to independently conduct a relevant experiment, it is also sufficient if the student is involved in an ongoing experiment. If the student can contribute ideas, follow the experiment and/or can partially perform/analyse the data, a large number of elements of the course are met.
• The student reports on their practical work in the final research report. How the methods/materials, results and figures in the final report look like is dependent on the habits of your field/discipline. It must be clear that the student is able to translate a scientific problem into an (experimental) research and to analyse and interpret the results in relation to the relevant literature and societal context. It is important that is described what is done by the student, how the experimental cycle is fulfilled, and it should be clear that the student understands what has been done. We advise to include an appendix with a record of the work done per day for clarity. The primary supervisor (you) monitors the quality and helps the student in their learning efforts.
• It is in principle allowed that students perform the practical component in couples, but the report should be always their own unique work (provided that some data, figures and material and methods may be identical). If two students perform a research project together, it must be made explicitly clear what the individual contribution was to the practical work and report. If not clear, no credits shall be awarded. It is for this reason strongly advised that both students attach an overview of the work performed per day (a diary/logbook).

The Students’ ownership of their project needs to be explicitly assessed. Students demonstrate ownership for instance by being able to explain their progress, content of their obtained data and texts and (interim) products during progress meetings, by effectively incorporating feedback on products (project plan, first draft) and during a mandatory final presentation. How the presentations are arranged is up to the groups: it can be for example a general symposium session at the end of the course, presentations during the group’s work discussion or a separate presentation / interview with the assessors. In any case, a critical interrogation is required to judge ownership.

• The ‘Onderzoeksproject PLUS' course (7.5 EC, 200 hours study load) is an elective course supplementing the Afstudeerproject course and is followed in a subsequent (or preceding) education period. You do not have to offer this elective course, but offering a long(er) period for practical work may be interesting for you and the student.
• During Onderzoeksproject PLUS, the student gains additional practical experience on top of the short practical component of the Afstudeerproject, by deepening and expanding the practical component. It is explicitly NOT allowed to offer a different project than in the practical component of the Afstudeerproject course and only one report is expected. When students follow the Onderzoeksproject PLUS course, they spend an additional 5 full-time weeks (so in total 10 weeks full-time) on the practical component, spread over a maximum of 20 weeks (two 10-week education periods).
• The grade awarded for Onderzoeksproject PLUS is equal to the final grade of the compulsory Afstudeerproject course. 

• Extensive project plan: 
  Writing of an extensive project plan is mandatory for the ‘Onderzoeksproject PLUS' course. The template of the project plan can be found on the website under Documents and forms. The student submits this to the supervisor and the course coordinators approximately one week after the start of the practical component.
• Extensive research report: 
  An extensive research report must be written if the student follows the Onderzoekproject PLUS: A more extensive report of the methodology, data processing and results, and a thorough and in-depth discussion in which the self-obtained results and insights are evaluated against relevant scientific literature, along with a look at (societal) relevance, application, and concrete follow-up research.

• Assessment of the practical work, the ownership and the project report is always conducted and agreed on by two assessors, of which at least one is a formal examiner (see below). For the assessment filling in rubrics is required. This rubric is available from the website under ‘Documents and Forms’. Assessment of this type of course contains subjective elements, like how spelling and grammar errors are judged. Moreover, the learning gain and/or progress may be judged differently by different assessors. The rubric describes criteria for all parts of the thesis, each with an outcome of insufficient – sufficient – good. It is a tool for the assessment of many aspects and has the advantage that all students are assessed in the same manner. Additionally, it makes clear to the student how the assessment came into being. The rubric is not a calculation table; ultimately, the grade is the judgement and the responsibility of the assessors.
• The supervisor and student timely ask a second assessor for the assessments. The second assessor/examiner should spend maximally 2 to 3 hours to read the report and to grade it, independent of the main supervisor. In addition, the 2^nd assessor is present at the presentation and interrogates the student to judge project ownership. The two assessors discuss - and agree on - the final mark, yet the second assessor/examiner of course cannot assess the learning curve and motivation of the student directly. The role of the 2nd assessor is therefore generally affirmative. If the assessor and supervisor disagree strongly, the matter should be handed over to the Board of Exams after consulting and mediation by the coordinators.
• In any case, at least one of the two assessors should be examiner of the course (see Examinatoren Afstudeerproject Biologie - Biologie - Students UU  for a list of examiners). Most UU biology course coordinators and permanent staff members are qualified as examiner. If you are in doubt, please ask the person you have in mind directly or contact us via Scriptie.bio@uu.nl. The formal examiner can be the primary supervisor, or the 2nd assessor. Daily supervision may be done by an experienced PhD student or postdoc. The PhD student or postdoc may also grade the student and sign the assessment, but in all cases the signing examiner is ultimately responsible for the grade.

The ‘Afstudeerproject’ and/or 'Research project PLUS' are officially finished when the following documents (with their requirements) are handed to the coordinators by mailing it to scriptie.bio@uu.nl. All up to date documents and AI-guideline and a can be found under Documents and forms.

• a signed and filled-in assessment form,
• filled-in rubris,
• a digital final project report including an academic integrity statement
• the final report should have been checked for plagiarism,
• every component has to be sufficient: an insufficient grade (<5.5) for either the report, research or ownership component may not be compensated for with a sufficient grade of the other component(s)
• If at least a 4.0 is received for each of the components and all effort obligations are met, the student is eligible for a repair/retake. The examiner in this case requests the course coordinator to administer an 'AANV' on Osiris. Make clear arrangements and agree on deadlines. Advised is to update the 'project plan' on this matter.

The project report must be checked for plagiarism. This is the responsibility of the examiner. If everything is in order, you must indicate on the assessment form that there is no plagiarism.

• The plagiarism check can be done via Osiris Zaak Thesis (preferred) or via the standalone version of Turnitin. You can access Osiris Zaak by logging in via http://www.uu.nl/osirisdocent. Additional information on how to submit the thesis in Osiris Zaak can be found in this manual. In Osiris Zaak Thesis the examiner has to upload the report. The student cannot do this.
• If you use the Turnitin stand-alone, the student can submit the report, but for this you first need to share an classID and enrollment key with your student.
• Tip: Submit report without the reference list for the plagiarism check. Otherwise, the software will mark all your references as ‘plagiarism’.
• General information about the plagiarism detection process, manuals, and a current link to the Turnitin standalone can be found here: http://plagiaatcontrole.sites.uu.nl/en. This website also includes separate pages on how to handle confidential documents or how to exclude a previously submitted version of a document.

The deadline for handing-in the report by the student to the supervisor is the last day of the course period. If the 'Research project PLUS' is also followed, the research report has to be handed-in on the last day of the education period in which the last of the two courses (either ‘Afstudeerproject’ or 'Research project PLUS') finishes. Deadline for handing-in the report, filled-in assessment form, and rubric(s), as specified above to the coordinators (via Scriptie.bio@uu.nl), is 10 working days after the end of the course period. However, deadlines can be a bit flexible if both student and supervisor agree. Please inform us in the case of agreed delay of more than two weeks via Scriptie.bio@uu.nl.

The project report will in principle not be published or shared by the bachelor programme/faculty/university (with the exception of confidential sharing with internal- and external committees for reasons of quality control). The report however will be centrally archived in ‘Osiris Zaak’ and a secure cloud. The student will has to upload the report to Osiris Zaak after the course coordinators approved and administered the grade to receive the definite mark. Nevertheless, a supervisor/faculty/or the bachelor program may see reasons for publication. Do you want to publish the report? Then we ask you to contact Study affairs: science.bio.ba@uu.nl. If in exceptional cases publication is considered by the faculty or bachelor programme, then you will of course be consulted in advance to discuss this.