The course will lead to a project description for the master's thesis in business administration. The master's thesis is an independent and scientific research work where the students will go in-depth on a problem. It is important to get started early with the processes of finding a writing partner, a topic for the thesis, and possibly a company to work with.

The course covers the following topics: guidelines for writing a master's thesis, formulation of a problem statement, writing a project description, handling research data, privacy and research ethics, and references, citation and plagiarism. Together, this should provide a good basis for planning a master's thesis in line with research ethics norms.

After submitting a preliminary project sketch in the middle of the semester, everyone will be assigned a supervisor for the master's thesis.

When the course has been passed, you should have the following knowledge, skills and general competence.

Knowledge

• You will have knowledge of guidelines for writing master's theses at NMBU.
• You will have knowledge of handling research data, privacy and research ethics, and references, citation and plagiarism.

Skills

• You should be able to write a project plan for a research study.
• You should be able to find relevant scientific articles and previous master's theses.

General competence

• You should be able to identify research issues within business administration.
• You should be able to plan a social science research study.

M0-BIOEC runs over one semester. In the autumn semester, there are lectures, a seminar with student presentations of issues, assignments of supervisors, meetings with supervisors, and writing of project descriptions.

For those who plan to write a master's thesis in the autumn and have not already taken the course, there will be a self-study variant of the course in the spring semester, which uses recordings of the autumn lectures.

The master's thesis shall mainly be written by two students jointly. To write alone, you must get approval from the course coordinator. The project description for the master's thesis to be submitted in this course must also mainly be written by the same two students jointly.

Recommended literature:  

Forskningsmetode for økonomisk-administrative fag (2020) by Asbjørn Johannessen, Line Christoffersen and Per Arne Tufte (or equivalent book in the social science method). 

Masteroppgaven - hvordan begynne - og fullføre (2020) and Inger Furseth og Euris Larry Everett (or equivalent book on writing a master's thesis).

The mandatory activity is valid only for one semester, i.e., if a student would like to retake the course, the mandatory activity also need to be retaken. The mandatory activity must be approved in order to be assessed in the course.

A signed contract between student and supervisor is submitted to the faculty by post-hh@nmbu.no by 1 December for the master's thesis in the spring.

Exceptionally, students can choose to write a master's thesis in the autumn. Then the signed contract between student and supervisor must be submitted to the faculty by post-hh@nmbu.no by 1 May.

Pass or fail based on the project description.

The project description is assessed by the course coordinator based on the template for the project description.

Submission of a signed master's contract to the supervisor and study administration at the Norwegian School of Management.

A signed contract between student and supervisor is submitted to the faculty by post-hh@nmbu.no by 1 December for the master's thesis in the spring.

Exceptionally, students can choose to write a master's thesis in the autumn. Then the signed contract between student and supervisor must be submitted to the faculty by post-hh@nmbu.no by 1 May.