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Writing your master's thesis at IFI

Here you will find help for everything related to choosing and writing the master's thesis itself, resources, the supervisor relationship, and expectations.

Available resources and assistance

Find help with searching, writing, submitting, referencing, publishing, copy rights and more on the University of Oslo Library's dedicated page for master's students.

How to find an available Master's projecs

Information meetings will be held in September and October every year, where the different research groups will present their research and available thesis topics. Find available Master's projects

Short or long thesis?

Some of the Master's programs offer both short and long theses, others only one of them. Find out what applies to your program under "Programme structure".

Long thesis (60 credits)

A long thesis should be completed over two or three semesters, but work should begin during the second semester. The departmens has two set deadlines for long master's thesis. The theoretical component of the study program consists of 60 credits. You can choose between a predefined thesis, or define your own thesis in collaboration with your supervisor(s). A long thesis should be approximately 100 (+/- 20) pages. 

June 1st: Deadline for handing in your essay

During the second semester, you are required to write an essay that will help you get started with the thesis and can be included as part of the master's thesis. The essay is assessed by your supervisor with the grade scale pass/fail.

Your supervisor will assist you in finding a topic for the essay. It can be related to your master's thesis and is usually a discussion of research questions from at least two scientific articles or books, and a personal assessment. The essay should be between 10 and 15 pages.

You may hand in a draft or first version and get feedback. The deadline for submitting the final version of the essay is by the end of the semester after you were admitted to the master's programme. The administration needs feedback from your supervisor about the assessment of the essay. You need to pass the essay at the start of your second semester of writing the thesis at the latest. 

Short thesis (30 credits)

A short master's thesis should be completed in the last semester of your master's studies, after you have passed all your courses. You will be expected to work on your master's thesis for 17 weeks. The thesis has a set starting and completion date. You should not write a short thesis if you are are studying part time or for various reasons cannot follow full study progression the semester in mention.  A short thesis should be approximately 70 (+/- 20) pages. 

If your thesis has not been submitted by the deadline, it will be considered a fail. Should you require a different starting date for your thesis, you and your supervisor can apply to the program board. Your submission deadline is set accordingly. 

Collaboration on the master's thesis?

For both long and short master's theses, it is possible to collaborate on a project, even if you are not writing the actual thesis together. If you wish to co-write, you can be a maximum of two students on the same program.

Collaborating with an external company or project?

It is possible to associate the thesis to an external company or project you are in contact with. If you choose to pursue this, you typically have an external supervisor from the company or project. The external supervisor must have at least a master's level education. Additionally, you must have an internal supervisor from IFI to approve the study plan and master's thesis. The internal supervisor is responsible for ensuring that the master's thesis is conducted in a academically sound manner.

Supervision and responsibility

During the execution of the long thesis, you could expect to get approx. 60 hours of counseling (1 hour a week for 20 weeks through 3 semesters). Those with short thesis, should normally expect to get two hours of supervision per week. 

It is primarily the supervisor’s responsibility to make sure it is possible to complete the thesis within the standardized time limits. In cases where it would be difficult to estimate the time needed to complete the thesis in advance, there has to be a plan set up that will result in partial results that can be completed and/or improved if there is still time. Should there be any uncertainties surrounding the scale of the thesis, the Department Board will investigate the estimate.

It is the responsibility of both the supervisor and the student that the  study plan is followed, both in terms of content and progress. Student and supervisor must familiarise themselves with the rules and guidelines currently in force for supervision, implementation, copyright and other matters relating to the master's programme.

Use of personal data in the master's thesis

Please read UiO's principles for pricacy and processing of personal data in research.

Are you writing your thesis in Overleaf?

If you want to write in Latex and need some help getting started, you can follow this guide for Overleaf.

Published Sep. 5, 2012 10:29 AM - Last modified Feb. 21, 2024 9:52 AM