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Guidelines MSc Thesis

General Learning outcomes In general, WU learning outcomes are categorized in four groups: research competence, thesis report, colloquium, and examination. More specifically, learning outcomes as formulated by AEW are: Research skills

• explore the problem by means of studying relevant literature
• critically reading literature
• formulate a theoretical framework
• delineate the research problem
• design a research strategy
• realistically plan all research activities
• collect empirical research data through experiments, measurements, observations, interviews or literature
• efficiently analyze (large) data sets also with models and statistics
• evaluate quantitative results with error propagation
• relate observations to your own theoretical framework
• draw conclusions
• formulate your own opinion on your research
• evaluate the research from a broader perspective

Communication skills

• discuss data and results during the course of a thesis
• discuss problems faced during the thesis
• be open for suggestions from supervisor(s) and/or other students
• accept and deal with criticism

Writing skills

• write a research report or a draft scientific paper
• structure the report or paper (does the title cover the content, are the different chapters in accordance with their importance, presence of readable summary)
• meet criteria for correct language use (choices of words, grammar, spelling)
• take care for scientific verification
• present tables, figures, maps and/or illustrations in the right way
• take care of a proper final lay-out of the report or paper

Presenting skills

• give a structured oral presentation
• schedule the content of an oral presentation
• give a presentation within a limited timeframe
• present readable graphs & tables

General set-up of a thesis The total period spent on a thesis can be divided into 3 phases: proposal writing, performing the research and thesis writing. Different activities will take place with different products for the phases (Table 2).

Proposal writing Usually you start with a general idea about the thesis and you may have had some discussion with your supervisor. A detailed project plan, however, still needs to be written. This phase lasts in general 4 to 6 weeks depending on the kind of topic, your knowledge etcetera. You will explore the background of a given research problem, critically review scientific literature, delineate your problem, formulate scientific questions and reflect on methodology. Table 3 shows most elements that should be in a research proposal. Length of proposal is 5 to 8 pages A4. Furthermore, you will present your plan orally for the chairgroup (start presentation: 5 min talk & 5 min discussion).

Performing the research

After writing the proposal, the practical work starts (field work, modelling, experiment). Data will be collected and analyzed. During this phase the supervisor will be informed regularly on the progress made. If thesis work is done abroad students have to adapt to working conditions such as institutional hierarchy, ethics, dress code etcetera that are often different from Dutch conditions.

Thesis writing

Usually 4 to 6 weeks are needed to write the final report or paper. In close co-operation with the supervisor the choice for a report or paper will be made. The report has to be written in English. When you have a first complete draft of your thesis ready (with all chapters and annexes but some smaller elements may still be missing) ask your supervisor for comments on structure and contents. The supervisor usually needs 1 week for this proof reading. After having discussed the comments with your supervisor, you have at least one chance to improve your draft. Together with your supervisor you make appointments regarding the procedure for proof reading. You have to ask the secretariat from the chair group for a thesis number, that appears on the cover of your thesis. The number of hardcopies will be determined in cooperation with the supervisor. A PDF version of the final report or paper is also required. The task of writing a thesis sometimes lures students into using other’s work, ideas, facts, texts etcetera and presenting it as their own. It is important to understand that plagiarism is considered as a very serious offence against academic norms and, hence subject to equally serious punishment. Therefore, read the Wageningen University & Research plagiarism policy in the Student Charter (2.8 Students and copyright, p. 24-25, and 5.3.3. Fraud and plagiarism, p. 56-47) and Appendices Student Charter (Article 33h, p.117)). The thesis report has the following contents:

• Preface (optional)
• Abstract (max 1 page)
• Introduction: problem definition, state-of-the-art, theory/concepts, objectives, research questions
• Material & Methods: description of how the problem was studied, which materials were used, type of statistical analyses
• Results: what where the findings?
• Discussion: Discuss your findings with those from literature, what are good/weaker points in your study
• Conclusions & Recommendations: answer your research questions and formulate recommendations
• References & Annexes

Click here ( Example Thesis report.pdf ) for an example report.

Final presentation

After the draft thesis is finished, the student has to give a colloquium. Reserve a date with your supervisor in time. Presentations at AEW are scheduled on Thursday mornings and reservations can be made at the secretariat. Twenty minutes are reserved for the oral presentation followed by 10 minutes discussion. It is strongly advised to have a test colloquium a few days before.

Final meeting

In a final meeting, your supervisor will question and discuss your thesis, its relevance, and your opinion about your own work. During this meeting the mark will be given.

The standard form Thesis evaluation Wageningen University & Research (click here for downloading) will be used. The standard rubric for the assessment will be applied by your supervisor (click here for downloading).

BSc-MSc Thesis and Internship Projects, Wageningen University

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Master thesis in wageningen – part 1.

By Arun Krishna

At the heart of every two-year master’s degree offered in Wageningen is the master’s thesis which starts in the second year. I started mine two months ago, in September. In this article, I will briefly take you through the important things to know before starting a thesis in Wageningen. 

Compulsory Courses

If you are new to Wageningen or are planning to start your masters here, then you should probably know that the academic departments in Wageningen offer a few compulsory courses to students in order to start a thesis with them. Once you join Wageningen, you will be assigned a study advisor. Take their help to find out more about the compulsory courses that you will have to take for the departments that interest you. I would suggest to do it as soon as you arrive here.

Most of the time, students end up taking these courses towards the end of their first year. So, you still will have lots of time in choosing the department where you wish to do your thesis.  If these courses are not completed on time, it could potentially delay the start of your thesis within a department.

Finding a topic of interest

While this might also seem straight forward, it might often not be the case. A student can easily get lost in the many options that are available to him/her.  Each department in Wageningen(for example Environmental Technology) has different chair groups that work on specific societal goals(like reusing water, recovering metals). I looked at the societal goal that appealed to the most and applied to that chair group. This might be a nice way to filter out topics, especially for confused brains. It is also good to talk to people(seniors, student peers, professors, PhDs ) who are studying or have studied similar topics before you to gain more insight into what topics are currently relevant to research on.

Each department also has a thesis coordinator that helps students find topics. Another way to look at the topics is by searching on the department website. Always look out for department thesis markets, where various topics are put in display and are often presented by the people working with them.

Try to start finding topics that interest you around four to six months in advance . For students that start their thesis in September, that is around March-April. There might be situations where more than one student might be interested in one particular topic, and in that case, students might have to compete with each other. So it is always better to start early, to get the topic that you like. Once you find out topics that interest you, find out how the application for the department of your interest works. The application for every department works very differently .

Thesis Contract

This is very important! Once you have completed your prerequisite courses and found a topic of interest, the next step is to find a supervisor who can supervise your thesis on the very same topic. Contact t hem at least three months prior to the start of your thesis (I did just before the summer vacations, starting my thesis on September).

Your supervisors are generally PhDs and their supervisors (professors) who are working on the same topic. You will have to sign a thesis contract before you start your thesis. This contract contains the starting date and finishing date of your thesis. It also contains the signatures of your supervisors and the study advisor assigned to you.

Tips from my Experience

In a thesis, you not only learn about your topic. You also about other important things like time and project management. If you can develop your scientific writing skills beforehand, it will be very helpful for you when you start a thesis. Learning how to use Microsoft Word properly can come in handy especially while writing your thesis proposal and final report. I have also attached a youtube link if you wish to learn a few tricks that can help you write reports in Word.

Stay tuned for more about a thesis in Wageningen in part 2 🙂

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Hi there, I come from Chennai, India. I joined Wageningen for my masters in September 2018 and I study Environmental Technology here. My journey has been incredible so far and I wish to share a few of my stories with you :-)

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There are 2 comments.

Hi Arun I’m Anjana I would like to do my masters in organic agriculture from WUR.can u plz tell about the scholarship and funding.

Hey my brother mam looking great. Help me push for masters biotech

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