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Working process

  • Public discussion and examination:Encourage the degree project students to serve as an opponent for another student's work early on in the process.
  • 2nd session (around week 2): Review of and discussion on the specifications; instructions for the reading/theory part. Also discuss what is meant by scientific writing and clarify the rules for quotation so that the degree project student is totally clear as to what is their own writing and what is plagiarism.
  • Specification: The students submit a detailed specification.
    • The supervisor and the others in the group read and comment on the specification.
  • 1st session (week 0): Run-through of a) the structure of the supervision, b) scheduling; meetings and deadlines, c) peer feedback on the group's assignments, d) Grading criteria e) Qualitative targets f) instructions for the specification.
  • Schedule five group supervision sessions, loosely structured as described below:
  • Contact, meet with or visit the principal to verify that you have a similar view on what will be done and how, within the degree project. Point out that the important part of the degree project is the investigation and analysis of a problem within the subject, and not essentially routine programming that leads to a finished programme.
  • The examiner issues approval that the proposed assignment is appropriate as a degree project, based on the assignment description submitted by the student.  It may well happen that a student will contact you directly to ask if you can supervise a specific degree project, and you are allowed to discuss the assignment and the possibility of you supervising the student. However, make it clear that it is the examiner who must approve the assignment before you can commit yourself to the supervisor role.
  • Read the instructions the student received on how the degree project is to be carried out and how the degree project report is to be written. 
  • The examiner's approval of the specification: When you feel that the student has worked on the specification in accordance with feedback received from you and the group and the examiner may approve it, the specification is then sent to the examiner.
  • Literature study: The degree project student conducts a background study on theory and previous research (about 4 weeks).
    • This reading stage is to directly guide the degree project and must be integrated into the report. In normal cases, the reading stage consists of a book/ books and/or research articles that are studied before the actual work begins or at the beginning of the work.
    • The reading stage is presented in a report. It is often advisable for the report to be designed so that, to the greatest extent possible, it can be reused as the theory/background part of the degree project report.
    • The supervisor and the others in the group read and comment on the literature study.
  • 3rd session (around week 6): The students present the reading stage through oral presentations.
    • If both written and oral reports of the reading stage (and the specification) are approved, Phase 1 of the degree project is reported to the coordinator.
  • Bones of the report:The student submits a draft of the report presenting the chapters and sections that will be included, as well as brief descriptions of the expected content for those sections as yet lacking finished material.
    • The supervisor and the others in the group read and comment on the bones of the report.
  • 4th session - Half-time seminar (around week 10): Monitoring of how the work is progressing. Review of the bones of the report and feedback on this.
  • Preliminary version: The student submits a draft of the report, which is so complete that the supervisor and others in the group can provide such feedback that results in the report being ready for presentation.
  • 5th session (around week 14): Review of the preliminary version, focused on what is needed for the report to be ready for presentation.
  • Presentation report (around week 16): The student submits a report intended for presentation/public discussion and examination.
    • The supervisor reads it and provides feedback. When the student has addressed the supervisor's comments, the report and the supervisor's evaluation are sent to the examiner for approval (around week 18).
  • Oral presentation (around week 19): All students in the group present their degree project at a  degree project seminar.The examiner must attend; the supervisor should attend.
  • Final report (around week 21): The student sends the final version to the examiner and supervisor for assessment. The examiner grades the report after hearing from the supervisor. 

Keep in mind

  • The schedule above is a guideline to encourage the group to progress at an appropriate pace. It may need to be modified in consultation with the group. Individual degree project students may also, for various reasons, fall behind the rest of the group. If it is not possible to get them to catch up, they are directed to give their presentation at a later scheduled date. Even a student who is not in phase with the rest of the group must participate in the meetings.
  • Make sure that you appear approachable to the degree project student. Try to support the student and express interest in their problems. Be sure to tell the degree project student to contact you if the schedule is significantly pushed back or if the specification for the degree project has to be redone.If the degree project is progressing as it should, contact can be maintained via e-mail, but if any problems arise, you should discuss this over the phone or preferably face to face.

  • Please discuss the degree project with the examiner. If you have doubts about the quality of the degree project during the work period, you must take this up with the examiner.
  • You should offer critique, especially in terms of content and structure, but also in terms of language and typography (although proofreading is not part of your assignment). Keep in mind that the report should be understandable for engineers within the subject area in general. It is to be pedagogically structured and must clearly describe
    • the background to the degree project,
    • the details of the assignment,
    • the methods that have been used to tackle the assignment and
    • why these methods have been selected.
    • Normally, there is also a description of the solution,
    • a presentation of the results and
    • a discussion of these.
    • There must be references.
  • Also remember to check that
    • it is clear what the engineering student has done and what others have done.
    • measured results are separated from the discussion of them.
    • it is clear what conclusions are based on.
    • the bibliography is relevant.