Master thesis
The Master Thesis is a supervised work that develops a research project, a study, or a memoir in a written form. Its topic should be related to one of the research lines addressed in the program courses. It is especially important to display competence in bibliographical search, research methodology, and analytical and argumentative skills on the subject matter. This course is 15 ECTS credits, meaning that you will need to dedicate it 375 hours. The result will be an original piece of research of 8000 words (without references, appendixes, tables, etc.) that ideally could be published in an academic journal.
The Master Thesis is developed under the supervision of a member of the Faculty of the program. It is also possible to have two supervisors of the program. Exceptionally, the thesis may also be supervised by an external professor, but always with the approval of the student’s tutor, and under her/his guidance. Also keep in mind that, since this is a research MA, all supervisors need hold a PhD. The student’s tutor will help her/him choose a supervisor for the Master Thesis, and the supervisor shall confirm her/his acceptance signing a special form which should be signed also by the student and uploaded to the campus virtual.
The student will choose the topic s/he will be addressing in the Master Thesis, though s/he must obtain the approval of the supervisor. A list of topics and supervisors is available at the Campus Virtual but you can also check professor's research lines at the "Faculty" page.
Students willing to defense their MA thesis in the current academic year must complete a form and send it signed by them and their advisor. The form is provided at the Campus Virtual and it contains the name of the supervisor(s) and a working title for the MA Thesis. The agreement must be signed in the current academic year, if you have enrolled the MA thesis course for second time, you will need to sign the agreement again.
The dissertation cover should be based in the template provided by the university to where the advisor belongs. We also provide word templates that can be useful to organise your work, but their use is not compulsory. In any case, you should follow your advisor's instructions. All the information and documents are also avaliable in the Campus Virtual. We encourage the use of the Sustainable Development Goals icons if your MA thesis adheres to one of them.
Some common formal mistakes in MA thesis format:
- Not numbering the pages
- Using double space between paragraphs and indents. You need to choose one.
- In the case indents are used, indenting all paragraphs. Remember that the first line after a title cannot be indented.
- Not justyfing the text. Left aligment is useful for webpages, but a written document must have a justified alignment.
- Not checking for double spaces " ". Use the finder to look for two adjacent spaces and substitute them for one " ".
The Ma thesis evaluation is done by a examination panel. The grade will be based on 70% the written essay and 30% the oral presentation (see MA thesis defense below).
The final grade of the Master Thesis will be notified up to 24 h after the defense meeting. Honours (Matrícula d'honor) in the TFM course will be awarded to the student that has the higuest grade of the year in that course if they have been proposed by their examining Committee. In the case that two students have the same grade the Honours will be to the person that has the higuest GPA.
All MA theses will be checked for plagiarism using specialized software. MA theses showing signs of plagiarism will be assessed with a failing grade.
In order to defend their thesis, students must have been allowed to do so by their advisor. The Master Thesis is defended in a public meeting before a committee (examination panel) composed of three lecturers out of which 2 must be part of the CCiL MA or PhD program. Futhermore, one of them should be the supervisor of the Master Thesis (if the work has more than one supervisor, only one may be a member of the examining committee). The third member of the committee can be a CCiL lecturer or an external member who holds a PhD (it can be from an external university or even a R&D private company).
The committee shall be appointed by the supervisor of the Master Thesis, acting on behalf of the Coordinator Committee. The supervisor shall inform the student and her/his tutor about the composition of the committee, date and place of the defense meeting, and about the deadline to deliver the work to the committee members, so that the examiners will have sufficient time to assess it before the defense. Students must submit their research work in the format agreed before the deadline.
In the public defence, the student will have a maximum time of 20 minutes for presentation and, after the observations made by the members of the commission, additional time to answer questions. In the assessment of the Master Thesis, the committee will consider aspects of thematic content, as well as methodological and formal aspects, and transversal skills.
The final grade of the Master Thesis will be notified up to 24 h after the defense meeting.
The deadline to defend the Master Thesis falls usually in mid-September (15th September). However, the defense can be held earlier, for instance in July, if the student and the examining committee agree on an earlier date.
Some examples of past MA theses can be consulted here. Only MA theses that have been graded with a 9 out of 10 or more can be added to the diposit.