Master's thesis
Writing a Master’s thesis is a compulsory part of the Sustainable Business and Innovation Master’s programme and will earn you 45 credits. The thesis is intended to train you to conduct research independently, and to become a specialised change agent who can help firms transition to more sustainable business models.
The administrative aspects of the Master’s thesis are tracked in OSIRIS Case (OSIRIS Zaak in Dutch). When you start the thesis process, you start the Proposal Case in OSIRIS.
- Follow the proposal and 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
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. More information can be found in the Master’s thesis course manual (available in the Brightspace community of your Master).
Your research can take place in an organisation other than Utrecht University; your choice will depend on the data you need to answer the research question. In general, a wide range of firms and institutions are possible locations to perform your project, including those in other countries. The first step, however, is to select a research theme and supervisor.
More information (including the Master's thesis Course Guide) on Brightspace in the SBI community
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. This way you will be able to develop a broad view on all kind of current research topics, and to keep in touch with your fellow students and teachers especially in the final, sometimes rather lonely, stage of your studies. Of course you’re also most welcome to start attending them if you’re not working on your thesis yourself 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’ll want to research yourself. Six of the ten presentations you attend have to be by other Sustainable Business and Innovation students. You will find the monthly schedules of the presentations - if applicable -on the Brightspace 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.
Graduation presentation dates
The dates that are available for the graduation presentations can be found on the Brightspace community.
Your supervisor will assess your Master’s thesis using the Master’s Thesis Rubrics & Assessment Form. It makes the items the supervisor assesses and the criteria used transparent. You can find the form in the community of your Master's programme on Brightspace. 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 which items will be considered 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, but you can choose to publish your master’s thesis In that case your thesis is made public and accessible via Google/WorldCat.
If you did not receive an email, contact osiris.geo@uu.nl.