General provisions

The course is offered within the Master Programme on International Humanitarian Action 120 ECTS credits.

Entry requirements

75 credits within the Master Programme in International Humanitarian Action.

Learning outcomes

The aim of the Master's Thesis is to provide the students with an ability to develop a scientific approach to a problem of relevance for International Humanitarian Action from a multidisciplinary perspective. After successful completion of the course, students are expected to have the following competences:

• a capacity to formulate a research question or research questions within the field of humanitarian research;
• an ability to independently carry out a scientific research task within the field with the help of relevant methods and theories;
• an ability to develop and present a credible answer to the research question(s) in a systematic way and support it with relevant empirical and theoretical material;
• a capacity to understand and acknowledge relevant and valid critique of one's thesis;
• an ability to offer constructive criticism to another student's thesis.

Content

The thesis can either be based on field studies or be a literature research on a chosen topic that the student and supervisor have jointly agreed upon. The research is mainly individually based but can also be conducted by two students jointly. In the case of the latter, the thesis has to be extended accordingly. It is expected that the student actively explores and pursue his/her chosen topic in an independent manner and conducts the research according to academic and ethical standards.

Instruction

Seminars on how to write a thesis will be given. A supervisor will be assigned to each student with the obligation to supervise according to a given schedule. Supervisors are appointed by faculty and should be members or affiliated members of the faculty. Supervision will be given individually as well as in group during the research period. If the student is not present physically in Uppsala, supervision might be conducted by technical means.

Assessment

The Master's thesis will be presented and discussed at a thesis seminar. Students should be physically present at the thesis seminar. If, however, that is not possible, a video conference will be arranged.

The thesis will be graded by an examiner in consultation with faculty.

Grades: Fail (F), Sufficient (E), Satisfactory (D), Good (C), Very Good (B) and Excellent (A).

If the thesis is given a Fail (F) at the seminar, it can be approved after complementary assignments and improvements.

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.

All work to be assessed must be in English.

Other regulations

Students must write and present their thesis in English.

Transitional provisions

Students retain the right to be examined on the course according to this syllabus for 3 semesters after their course instance has ended. Normally, instruction will be given according to the latest version of the course syllabus only.