Master’s Thesis

You must pay the semester fee and register for the master's thesis course through StudentWeb, just as for other courses at MF. For theses written over two semesters, you should register in the first semester. The deadlines for registering are August 25tht/January 15th

• Your chosen thesis topic and Supervision Approval Contract must be filled in with your supervisor and submitted electronically. The contract should normally be handed in the same semester you are taking a course in method. The deadlines for submission of the contract are normally May 2nd/ November 1st.
• Supervision contracts are submitted with this online form.
• Rules for thesis supervision are available here.   
• Note: It is usually not possible to receive supervision during holidays.

Students registered to submit their master's thesis this semester, must perform submission registration within the registration deadline. This is a course requirement.

The registration consists of:
1) Choosing a submission deadline
2) Naming the temporary title for your master's thesis and giving a short description of your topic. This updated description of your topic will be used to find qualified examiners.  

Use this form if you plan to submit this semester. If you want to ask for an extension until the next semester, see the next information box.)

The registration deadline is April 15th (spring semester) or October 15th (autumn semester). The registration opens approximately one month before the registration deadline. A reminder will be given on e-mail. Students who do not do the registration use one exam attempt and will not be able to submit the master's thesis in the given semester.

Exceptions

• If you are asking for an extension until the next semester, you do not need to perform the submission registration. More information on extensions is available further down the page.
• If you wish to submit to the deadline March 15th or October 15th you are required to notify exam@mf.no no later than two weeks before the deadline. If you submit to this deadline, you do not need to do the submission registration, as the submission deadline is to early for the registration.

The deadline for applying for an extension until the next semester is April 15th (spring semester) or October 15th (autumn semester). You can apply for an extension until the next semester by sending an e-mail to exam@mf.no

Please note: You do not have to apply for an extension to submit to the deadline January 15th. If you want to submit to this deadline, do the submission registration instead (see the above information box).

Extensions for more than one semester at a time will normally not be given. Students who do not submit their thesis and who have not applied for an extension will use one exam attempt.

MF has guidelines for the management of personal data in research projects, and standard procedures for the storage of research data. The guidelines also contain information on how to notify Sikt (formerly the Norwegian Center for Research Data -NSD) if you are planning a project where you collect and/or analyse personal data. The guidelines are posted on our research ethics pages.

Do you plan to collect your own data for the master's theis? Our data management plan helps you organise and save your data during the research process and afterwards. We encourage you to use the form in meetings with your supervisor or when asking for assistance and advice from the IT-section.

It will be possible to submit from two weeks before your registered deadline (see "Course requirements and submission registration").

The possible deadlines for submission of your thesis in the autumn semester of 2024 are:

• October 15th at 12.00, noon (result published by Nov 19th)
• November 15th at 12.00, noon (result published by Dec 20th)
• January 15th at 12.00, noon (result published by Feb 26th)

The possible deadlines for submission of your thesis in the spring semester of 2025 are:

• March 17th at 12.00, noon (result published by April 28th).
• May 15th at 12.00, noon (result published by June 20th).
• August 15th at 12.00, noon (result published by September 24th).

Make sure that your thesis is structured according to the following requirements:

• That you have used the cover page in the template for master's thesis. Using the entire template will make it easier to fulfill other requirements on this list.

• That you have used 1½ distance between the lines
• That you have used the font Times new roman, script 12 (10 in footnotes/petit)
• That your margins are normal (app. 2, 5 cm)
• That you use headings consistently
• That you use the same reference technique consistently in your entire thesis
• That your list of references/bibliography is consistent
• That you have used a table of contents (with correct pagination)
• That you have used your candidate number on the cover page (The candidate number will normally be made available in StudentWeb two weeks before the submission deadline. See this picture for the exact location).
• That a word count is given on the cover page, and that the number of words is according to the word requirement given in the course description (under "Final Assessment"). The word count must not include the following: The cover page, any acknowledgment, the abstract, any abbreviation overview, the table of contents, the bibliography, and any attachments must be excluded from the word count. Footnotes must be included.
• That the thesis contains an abstract (200-300 words); a summary of the research question(s), method, and conclusions. The abstract should be placed before the table of contents.
• That your name or the full name of relatives are not mentioned in the thesis (as your thesis should be anonymous to the examiners).

Master's theses are submitted electronically only, in the digital exam system WISEflow. The procedure is the same as on ordinary exams.

You can log on to WISEflow at any time and submit a demo exam as many times as you like (see the user guide for more). Use a recently updated web browser. Do not use Internet Explorer.

At submission:

• PDF: The thesis must be submitted in PDF format.
• Publication: You must decide whether you want MF to publish your thesis electronically. Read more here:

• Academic integrity commitment: You must accept an academic integrity commitment statement (click below for bigger text).

• Restriction: Master’s theses containing information subject to confidentiality must be placed under restrictions, meaning it will not be available to the public in any form. Read more about restrictions:

• Plagiarism check: Note that MF is using a plagiarism checker. It is therefore important to make sure you refer to sources correctly, both in the running text and the bibliography. See the resources for academic writing under 'Resources and links'.

After submission:

• Assessment: Master's theses are graded by an internal and an external examiner. Candidates will get their result published in StudentWeb and will be notified by e-mail once the result is available. See 'Submission deadlines' for announcement dates.
• Publication: The publication date for master's theses in MF Open are normally in mid-March/October, in the semester following the semester when the thesis was submitted.

• The course catalogue (look up your master's thesis course information).
• Guidelines for writing assignments at MF. This document deals with the writing process and how to refer to literature.
• The resources from the academic writing course is available on Canvas (Feide-login required). The video lectures and extra material covers writing theory, use of sources, etc.
• The web sites Search and Write and The Citation Compass provide more information about academic writing. The Citation Compass has a particularly useful overview of how to refer to different types of sources in different citation systems.
• Template for master's thesis (word) with preconfigured headers, table of contents etc. Using the cover page of the template is mandatory.
• List of databases
• MF Open -  MF's open institutional archive
• Information about access to Microdata.