The proposal is a reaction to the fact that several degree programmes have seen their thesis period reduced from six months, which has previously been the norm, as a consequence of the study progress reform. This applies to AU and several other universities.  

The possibility of incorporating the third semester of a Master’s degree programme in the Master’s thesis process is in practice presently reserved for natural science and health science students due to time-consuming laboratory experiments.

Students at the other faculties ought to have the same opportunity to ensure the necessary time for in-depth specialisation.

At the same time, the vision behind the proposal is one that sees many more Master’s thesis students combining research with a close relation to the job market, explains pro-rector at AU Berit Eika.

"The goal of the Master’s thesis is first and foremost to give the students the opportunity to test their subject’s theories and methods on an delimited academic subject. If this is a specific issue in a private or public sector company then that’s great," she says. 

The management at AU hope that sixty per cent of all Master’s theses at AU will be one- year theses by 2020.

Student Council: Master’s thesis proposal not a cure for the study progress reform

Chairman of the Student Council at AU Sune Koch Rønnow approves of the vision of giving more students the opportunity to choose a one-year Master's thesis.

But at the same time, he warns against seeing the proposal as a solution to the pressure that the study progress reform is placing on the students.

"As I understand the proposal, overall you don’t get the time back that was taken from the Master’s degree programme due to the study progress reform. Even though it will be possible to incorporate a third semester for the Master's thesis, you have to expect that the workload and the requirements for ECTS credits will remain the same relatively speaking," he says.

Translated by Peter Lambourne.