General provisions

The course is given within the Master's Programme in Language Technology and as a freestanding course.

Entry requirements

30 credits at Master's level in language technology, including Advanced Programming for Language Technologists and Language Technology: Research and Development.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, to earn the grade Pass the student should at least be able to do the following, using English or Swedish for the thesis:

• with independent creativity and critical ability carry out an empirical or theoretical study of an issue within the field of language technology (computational linguistics), thereby showing an ability to work in a scientific way using state-of-the-art research as the point of departure;
• independently take responsibility for the planning and execution of the thesis work;
• present the results of this study in an academic thesis of professional quality following the guidelines of a given scientific journal;
• in the background chapter of the thesis give an overview of relevant research;
• defend the thesis in a seminar and publicly discuss an equal essay within the subject area, in both cases addressing an audience of student peers.

Assessment

The assessment of the degree to which the student has reached the intended learning outcomes is based on (1) an assessment of all relevant aspects of the thesis, which is the main "product" of the course project, and (2) the report by the supervisor(s) on how the student has managed the thesis project and to what extent the thesis text actually demonstrates the student's individual abilities. Furthermore, the assessment will also take into consideration the student's performance (in a seminar setting) (3) defending his/her own thesis and (4) leading a critical discussion of another thesis.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.