Master's thesis

In your Master’s thesis you’ll be specialising in a subject within one of the current research Innovation Sciences themes.

Research subject

Depending on your aspirations and interests, you will focus on one of these research themes and develop your own research subject, with support from your thesis supervisor. In doing so, you will draw on the content of your programme courses.

Supervisor

The first step is to select a research theme and the associated supervisor. Your research can be conducted in an organisation other than Utrecht University, depending on the data needed to answer your research question. In general, you can conduct parts of your MSc thesis work at a wide range of firms and institutions, both within and outside the Netherlands. Although the thesis research work is not generally expected to be experimental in nature, the possibility of including some experimental work in your research project is not ruled out.

The programme’s lecturers keep an updated file of possible topics for research projects. Although students may propose their own topics, proposals will only be accepted if an experienced supervisor for the topic is available. You can find all current topics on Blackboard.

Prior to conducting your research, you’ll have to write a research proposal. The course manual of the thesis (to be found on the BlackBoard community) instructs you on how to go about this. A series of short web lectures offers you assignments to help you with the task. Many students have found these very helpful.

Approval

You must submit your research proposal to the secretariat for approval by the Board of Examiners.

Every months students present the results of their research. You are very welcome to attend these presentations.

At least ten

You have to attend at least ten presentations, in order to be allowed to give your own Master’s thesis presentation. This way you can develop a broad view on various recent research topics. And keep in touch with your fellow students and teachers in the final -sometimes rather solitary- stage of your studies. You should attend at least six presentations of students from your own Master’s programme. The other four presentations may also be from another programme of the Copernicus Institute. You will find the monthly schedules of the presentations - if applicable - on the Blackboard community.

Research topics

Of course you are most welcome to start attending the presentations if you are not working on your thesis yet. Attending and discussing the research of students in their graduation phase, is a useful way to prepare yourself for your own thesis and it might bring you some inspiring ideas on the topics you will want to research yourself.

Registration

You will be required to sign a Statement of Attendance, which contains an overview of the presentations you have attended. This means that you will be responsible for keeping track of which presentations you have attended during your Master’s programme. Keep in mind that you need to attend at least 10 presentations before being able to schedule your own. When asking the Copernicus Institute's secretary’s office for a potential presentation date, you will need to hand in the Statement of Attendance together with the Statement of Originality.

Presentation dates

​The dates that are available for the graduation presentations can be found on Blackboard.

As of period 2 2024/25, the administrative aspects of the Master’s thesis will be tracked in OSIRIS Case (OSIRIS Zaak in Dutch). Currently, when you start the thesis process, you send an email to the secretariat to inform them of your starting date, supervisor and other details of your project. As of period 2 2024-2025, you will start the Proposal Case in OSIRIS. Note that only students of cohort 2023 and later will register their thesis process in OSIRIS Case. Students from cohort 2022 and earlier will have to follow the procedure describe in the thesis manual of 2023-2024.

Due to some delays in the design of the Master’s thesis process in OSIRIS Case, it is very important to realise that, for this year 2024-2025 only, there are different routes to follow, depending on the start date of the thesis process and your cohort. In this document, the different routes will be explained.

First of all, note that there are two processes in OSIRIS: the proposal process and the thesis process. These are called ‘cases’ in OSIRIS.

The proposal case will be ready in OSIRIS as of period 2, 2024/25. The thesis case, however, will only be available in OSIRIS as of period 3 2024/25. At that point, both cases will be linked (so the thesis case will start automatically when the proposal case has been completed). Therefore we need to have a transition period, and make a distinction depending on your cohort, your thesis start date, and whether you work full-time or part-time on the proposal.

A. Students from cohort 2022 and earlier:

• Follow the old process as described in the thesis manual 2023-24, even if you start the thesis in 2024/25 or later. The new process in OSIRIS Case is only for students from cohort 2023 and later.

B. Students from cohort 2023 who start full-time with the proposal in period 1, 2024/25:

• Will go through the proposal process in the old way (because the proposal process in OSIRIS Case will not be ready yet and the proposal will very likely be ready and assessed prior to period 2)
• The proposal will be assessed in the old way (send it to the secretariat)
• Start the thesis case in OSIRIS Case in period 3
• The thesis itself will be handed in and assessed via OSIRIS Case

C. Students from cohort 2023 who start part-time with the proposal in period 1, 2024/25:

• Cannot start the proposal case in OSIRIS Case in period 1, but you will be asked to register the proposal retrospectively in OSIRIS Case in period 2 (because your proposal will most likely be ready and assessed in period 2)
• Start the thesis case in OSIRIS Case in period 3
• Both the proposal and thesis are assessed via OSIRIS Case

D. Students from cohort 2023 who start (f/t or p/t) with the proposal in period 2, 2024/25:

• Start the proposal case in OSIRIS Case in period 2
• Start the separate thesis case in OSIRIS Case in period 3
• Both the proposal and thesis are assessed via OSIRIS Case

E. Students from cohort 2023 who start (f/t or p/t) with the proposal in period 3, 2024/25 or later:

• Follow the entire proposal + thesis process in OSIRIS Case. The two cases will be linked, so the thesis case will start automatically as soon as you have completed the proposal case.
• Both the proposal and thesis are assessed via OSIRIS Case
• In other words: this will be the new regular process from period 3, 2024/25 onwards.

Every time an action from you is required in OSIRIS, you will receive an automatic email from OSIRIS Case. So keep a close eye on your UU mail.
You can always ask your supervisor or thesis coordinator for help if you are unsure about any aspect of the proposal or thesis process. Contact details can be found in the Master’s thesis course manual. The Master’s thesis course manual 2024-2025 describes the new proposal/thesis process as it will be in OSIRIS.

Your supervisor will assess your Master’s thesis using the Master’s Thesis Rubrics & Assessment Form (to be found on BlackBoard). It makes the items the supervisor assesses and the criteria he or she uses transparent. You will receive the form when you start the Master’s thesis process. Please use it to acquaint yourself with the assessment criteria and to assess yourself during the thesis process. Your supervisor is expected to tell you early on which items he or she considers most important and the order they should take in the thesis, so you will not get any surprises later on.

After your thesis has been approved, it has to be uploaded into the thesis archive. One week after the grade is registered in OSIRIS, the student will receive a request by email to upload the reviewed thesis (in PDF format) through OSIRIS Case for the purpose of the thesis archive. The thesis archive is only accessible to employees. If you did not receive an email, contact osiris.geo@uu.nl.