Bachelor Thesis

It’s your responsibility as a student to find a Bachelor Thesis Project by contacting group leaders from research groups to inquire about the internship possibilities.

To find the bachelor thesis project of your liking we suggest you ask yourself these questions: 

• Which topic in modern-day Life Sciences inspires me the most?
• Which course and researcher/teacher inspired me?
• Which research and research environment fits best with the MBLS profile I like best?
• Which Master’s programme and/or career path do I want to pursue?

You can also get informed and inspired about the research labs for your Bachelor Thesis by:

• Discussing this with your tutor. Remember that your tutor is, and will remain, your personal coach throughout your programme. Make use of this!
• Attending events and symposia that will be organised by U.L.S.V. Amino. Such as the annual Thesis Information Evening (around the 3^rd week of October) or the biennial Career Day (around the 3^rd week of November)
• Visiting research seminars or symposia from affiliated research institutes that will be announced via the bachelor.mbls@uu.nl email

It’s also useful to browse websites of research institutes and labs closely linked to MBLS and other research facilities at Utrecht Science Park (LINK), and research labs elsewhere in the Netherlands, or even abroad. Below we provide several links which can help in your search.

• Science 4 Life
• Institute of Biodynamics & Biocomplexity
• Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research
• Institute of Environmental Biology
• Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Experimental (bio)physics groups within the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials
• Research groups in the Life Sciences at the University Medical Center Utrecht 

Summary of the MBLS bachelor thesis format:

• The topic of the project should lie within the scope of Molecular and Biophysical Life Sciences.
• 15 EC (10 weeks, full time, 38-40 hours per week).
• Performed at the Faculty of Sciences, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, or the Hubrecht institute or Princess Maxima Center (internal project), or at another university in the Netherlands or abroad or in a biotech or pharmaceutical company (external project).
• Students conduct the bachelor thesis project individually*
• 5-7 weeks of research in a laboratory or, for computational, bioinformatic, data science projects, on a computer.
• 3-5 weeks of reading/writing/(literature) analysis
• A single report formatted as a research paper (~250 words abstract, ~1.5-2p introduction, ~3-4p results (excluding figures & figure captions) , ~2-3p discussion, methods section, reference list). A literature study can be part of the thesis; in this case it should address a question that is closely related to the research topic and be integrated into the text of the report (e.g. as extended introduction)
• The report includes a Laymen’s abstract and a GenAI statement.
• A final presentation in the research group.
• All partial Grades are determined by your first examiner / supervisor, with consultation of the daily supervisor when involved. The second examiner independently grades the report/writing part and will be appointed by the MBLS thesis coordinator.
• The final grade is the weighted average of the practical work (50%), report (40%), and presentation (10%). In order to pass all partial grades should be ≥ 5.5.

*Because of limited capacity of certain research groups (mainly within the Biology Department) and for projects in the Biotechnology and/or Biomedical Research HUBs), you may work together in a small group of students (max 3, preferably 2) on a similar project, guided by one supervisor. However, each individual student addresses an individual research question and delivers an individual written report.

Once you have found an internship, you start the application procedure. A staff member (Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor) will be your first examiner and supervisor. The group leader, who is a faculty staff member (Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor) will be your first examiner and supervisor. Make sure to inform them about the MBLS Thesis format (see below), which is also on the cover page of the application form.

Follow these steps:

1. You as a student do NOT need to register for the MBLS-399 course yourself through Osiris, we do that for you once the application procedure is completed.
2. Download the application form [Word file] and together with the first examiner fill in all required fields.
3. You as a student send the application form as a word file to thesiscoordinator.mbls@uu.nl)
4. The MBLS thesis coordinator reviews the application form and the topic that will be investigated for final approval.
5. Once the application is approved, the MBLS thesis coordinator assigns a second examiner, adds this second examiner to the application form, and initiates the signing procedure for all parties using the Valid Sign app.
6. Once the application form is signed, the MBLS thesis coordinator informs all parties by email and requests the MBLS student desk to register the student for the MBLS-399 course (Bachelor Thesis Project) in Osiris.

Apply deadlines

The deadlines for the different teaching periods are:

• Period 1: 15^th June (before the summer break to start in September!)
• Period 2: 15^th October
• Period 3: 15^th December
• Period 4: 15^th March

Once your first examiner agreed with the final version of your report, the assessment procedure (see steps below) starts.

Follow these steps:

1. After approval from  your first examiner, send the final version of your report in one email to the first examiner and the second examiner (check your application form), and include the thesis coordinator thesiscoordinator.mbls@uu.nl in cc.
2. Make sure your first examiner has all the necessary forms to finalise the bachelor thesis project; assessment form first-examiner [Word file]; rubrics to provide feedback [pdf]; and if needed instructions for the plagiarism check using Turnitin (see dropdown menu below this one)
3. The first examiner and second examiner need to send their assessment form (independent from each other) to the bachelor thesis coordinator thesiscoordinator.mbls@uu.nl.
4. The thesis coordinator will coordinate the signing of the final assessment by the first and second examiner and by the student (for notification only), and will inform all parties (student, first and second examiner) about the completion of the bachelor thesis project, and will ask the MBLS student desk to record the final grade in Osiris.
5. The Student Desk performs graduation checks every month around the 15^th. If your bachelor thesis grade is registered in Osiris before the 15^th, and all other grades are complete, you will officially graduate by the end of that month. Please note: this is especially important for period 4, because otherwise you cannot start your master's programme in September!
6. The upcoming MBLS graduation ceremonies are usually on Thursdays or Fridays in the third week of September and first week of April. Please go to graduation (LINK) under my study for more information about the gradation procedure and the specific dates of the graduation ceremonies.

UU employees (with a SolisID) can perform the plagiarism check via Osiris Case by following these instructions:

1. Log in to Osiris via http://www.uu.nl/osirisdocent and click on ‘Student’ (not ‘Case’)
2. Set the standard student selection (located under the green SEARCH button) to ‘Docent standaardselectie (Faculty)’
3. Look up the student by typing their name or their student number (student’s name and number is mentioned on the report and MBLS-399 application form)
4. Once in the file of the student click on ‘Zaken’ or ‘Cases’ located in the left-side menu.
5. Next click on ‘start nieuwe zaak’ or ‘start new case’ at the top-right of this window.
6. Select Plagiarism scan in the pop-up menu and click ‘start’
7. Select the programme Molecular & Biophysical Life Sciences when you have options to choose from
8. Next upload the report without the reference list and the plagiarism check will be executed by Turnitin.
9. The results can take several hours or sometimes even a day. You will receive an email when the plagiarism scan is done.
10. Log in to http://www.uu.nl/osirisdocent to find the plagiarism scan in your main dashboard.
11. Go to the plagiarism scan by clicking on it, review the results, and once you approve download the pdf (bottom left). Please note that the plagiarism scan pdf has the same file name as the report, so rename before saving onto your computer.
12. You can click on ‘gezien en zaak afsluiten’ or ‘reviewed and close this case’, and you are done.
13. Please send the pdf of the plagiarism scan together with the other documents (first examiner assessment file, the word version, and Rubrics) back to thesiscoordinator.mbls@uu.nl to finalise the grading of the bachelor thesis project. 

Some other reference material and considerations for the plagiarism check:

1. Need more help? Instructions for submitting a thesis are available in this manual.
2. In case you do not want to share confidential information with Turnitin, check this webpage on confidential documents. Only the standalone option can be used for documents with confidential information!
3. If a previous draft of the same document is hindering the plagiarism check, then check out how to exclude the old draft.
4. Explanations why the plagiarism scores in Turnitin are higher than Urkund, and what to do about this (https://plagiaatcontrole.sites.uu.nl/scores-turnitin-vergeleken-met-ouriginal)