Course

M0-EI Planning the Master's Thesis

Course responsible:Frode Alfnes

Campus / Online:Taught campus Ås

Teaching language:Norsk

Course frequency:Annually.

Nominal workload:M0-EI and M30-EI make up a total of 750 hours

Teaching and exam period:This course has teaching and evaluation in the Autumn semester. There will be a self-study variant of the course in the spring semester.

About this course

The course will lead to a project description for the master's thesis in entrepreneurship and innovation. 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.

Learning outcome

After completing the course, the student will have the following learning outcomes, divided into knowledge, skills, and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

  • has knowledge of guidelines for writing master's theses at NMBU
  • has basic knowledge of research design for a master's in entrepreneurship and innovation
  • has knowledge of handling research data, privacy and research ethics, use of AI, and references, citations, and plagiarism

Skills

The student

  • can write a research plan for an investigative work
  • can find relevant scientific articles and justify a current issue

General competence

The student

  • can identify themes and problem areas within entrepreneurship and innovation
  • can plan a social science investigative work within the field
  • Learning activities

    M0-EI 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 will in most cases 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.

  • Teaching support

    There will be lectures once a week in the first half of the semester. The lectures will not be recorded. There will be a workshop where students give a presentation of their planned research problem and data collection about halfway through the semester. In the second half of the semester, it is recommended to have two meetings with the assigned supervisor.

    Students on exchange will be invited to an online seminar for a follow-up of their planned research problem and data collection about halfway through the semester.

    It is expected that the students on exchange follow the same time schedule as other students.

  • Prerequisites
    The course is reserved for students who have been admitted to the School of Economics at NMBU's master's program in entrepreneurship and innovation or specialization in M-ØA entrepreneurship and business development, and who have completed several of the most important subjects in the master's degree.
  • Assessment method
    Pass/fail based on the project description, which is assessed according to the project description template.

    Project description Karakterregel: Passed / Not Passed Project description Karakterregel: Passed / Not Passed
  • Examiner scheme
    The project description will be assessed by the course coordinator and the assigned supervisor.
  • Mandatory activity

    It is mandatory to participate in a workshop on topics and research questions, where students present their master's thesis ideas. Digital meetings will be arranged for exchange students.

    Mandatory activities are only valid for one semester. Students who wish to retake the course must complete it again. Mandatory activities must be approved before the assessment can be taken.

  • Notes

    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.

  • Teaching hours
    Two hours per week during the first half of the semester.