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Master degree project rules and routines

This page presents the rules and routines for degree projects at second cycle at EECS.

Courses and course coordinators

The degree projects are organised in courses. Each master's programme has a dedicated degree project course, the name of the programme is included in the name of the course. Programmes with tracks that belong to different major subjects ("huvudområden"); Electrical Engineering or Computer Science and Engineering, have a degree project course for each major subject.

In addition, there are dedicated courses for

  • double degree students
  • master of science in engineering students ("civilingenjör") who do not follow any master's programme
  • exchange students. 

List of degree project courses

If any questions, contact the course coordinator of the given course.

Roles

  • Master coordinator: Student administrator handling the course admission.
  • Course coordinator: Has administrative responsibility for a degree project course (or several courses). Provides information about the degree project process to the students as well as for the examiners. Coordinates the application process, the assignment of examiners and supervisors, and if needed the presentations and oppositions.
  • Examiner: Ensures the quality of the project based on the project plan, and grades the completed project. Only teachers who completed an examiner course can be examiners. To be examiner in a degree project course, the person has to be added as examiner to the course.
  • Supervisor: Follows the work of the student through the entire project, meets the student regularly. Ensures the scientific and technical quality of the work. The examiner and the supervisor have to be different persons. The supervisor can be a doctoral student.
  • External supervisor: Follows the project at the external partners, usually supports the day by day work of the student.

On-line resources

Information for the students that they need before starting the project is published in the shared Canvas course for managing the master degree projects. A new page is started each year.

For 2024 see: canvas.kth.se/courses/47414

For 2023 see: canvas.kth.se/courses/40135

For 2022 see: kth.instructure.com/courses/33514

For 2021 see: kth.instructure.com/courses/25434

Before the degree project

Information to the students 

Students receive information about the requirements for and processes around the master degree projects on dedicated meetings, or as a part of the programme integrating courses. The information is also available in the Canvas room for the current year.

Requirements for admission to degree project 

To start a master degree project, at least 60 credits for second-cycle studies must be fully completed. These 60 credits have to contain courses that are relevant to the thesis, including a course on philosophy of science and research methodology. 

If the student is enrolled in a master of science in engineering (civilingenjör) programme, all courses required for the bachelor's degree must be completed.

The school's office of student affairs evaluates the basic requirements of completed courses on first cycle, 60 credits second-cycle courses, including the philosophy of science course. The examiner is responsible to ensure that the student has courses that are relevant to the thesis.

Process for admission to the degree project course

Students get admitted and registered to the course through the following steps.

  1. The student finds a degree project. The student can also agree with an examiner and a supervisor, if the student prefers to do so. Some programmes require that the student finds the examiner and the supervisor.

  2. The student applies for the degree project by submitting the project proposal through a web interface (KTH Forms). If the student already has examiner and supervisor, the student also adds this information. At the same time the student uploads the form about the DiVA publication. The link to KTH Forms, the template for the projet proposal and the DIVA form are available through the Canvas page of the degree project. For projects in the spring term the students are asked to submit the application by 15 December, if possible, but of course, applications arriving later are accepted too.

  3. The master coordinator at the school's office of student affairs performs the basic eligibility check.
  4. The course coordinator starts the process where teachers can sign up as examiners and supervisors for the submitted projects. The examiner checks that the student has courses related to the thesis topic and that the thesis proposal is suitable for a degree project. Based on the information in the submitted thesis proposal, the examiner checks that the student has courses related to the thesis topic and that the topic of the thesis is suitable for a degree project.
  5. Once examiner and supervisor are confirmed, the school's office of student affairs admits the student to the respective course. The student registers to the course via Ladok for students, as for other courses. After registration, the student gets access to the closed part of the Canvas course.

Students from other schools/EECS students carrying out the project at another school

For students who come from another school within KTH and want to do a degree project with someone at EECS, or the opposite, a student at one of our programmes wants to do a degree project offered by another school, there are in these cases two possible solutions:

  • The student stays at the “home-school”, registers for the degree project course of the programme, and gets an examiner from there. The supervisor comes from the school giving the degree project. The “home school” compensates the supervisor for the work. 
  • The student takes the degree project course outside the “home-school”. If the student is from EECS, both the programme director (PA) and the director of first and second cycle education (GA) have to agree. The PA may need to accept this again when the student applies for the degree. Not all schools at KTH allow this solution.

During the degree project

The main steps of the project, according to the course syllabus, are the following:
Note that the degree projects at second cycle have to be individual projects. Each student needs to submit their own individual plan, perform the thesis individually, and write a single-author report.

  • The examiner informs the supervisor about the rules and procedures of the degree project.
  • The examiner informs the student about the requirements of passing the degree project.
  • The student prepares the individual plan for the thesis project, that includes the problem description, as well as the discussion on the implementation of the project. The examiner needs to accept the individual plan. 
  • If the degree project is performed by an external partner, the examiner ensures that the external supervisor is aware that the thesis report will be a public document. If possible, the examiner or the supervisor from KTH meets the external partner, or at least contacts the external supervisor via e-mail.
  • The student performs an extended pre-study, including the discussion of methodology and literature study on the theoretical background of the project. This should serve as a draft for the respective chapters of the final master thesis report. The supervisor, and for some programmes the examiner, from KTH needs to accept the pre-study.
  • The student performs the individual work of the master degree project, where knowledge, methodology and skills gained in the master's programme has to be applied. The supervisor from KTH follows the process.
  • The student is present and is actively participating at two presentations of advanced level master degree projects. The participation is acknowledged by the examiner of the presented project.
  • The student performs written and oral opposition of a master degree project on advanced level. The opposition is acknowledged by the examiner of the presented project.
  • The student plans the oral presentation, and presents the results of the master degree project. The examiner accepts the oral presentation.
  • The student prepares a written report of the master degree project, where the student describes and discusses the final results of the project, as well as the theoretic results and arguments that support these. The report also needs to motivate the selected methodology and if appropriate discuss sustainability and ethical issues.
  • The examiner performs plagiarism check and accepts the written report. 
  • The student performs a self-evaluation of the master degree project, according to a given template. The supervisor and then the examiner comments and accepts the self-evaluation.
  • Finally, the examiner grades the degree project. The examiner reports the grade and submits the report with cover page but without TRITA number to the school's office of student affairs, education-support@eecs.kth.se .
  • The school's office of student affairs registers the grade, adds the TRITA number, and uploads the report to DiVA.
  • The canvas course is used to archive compulsory material, such as individual plan, pre-study, opposition report, material for oral presentation, and self-evaluation report. The student is responsible for posting these.

Requirements for passing the degree project

  • Individual plan for the degree project. 
  • Pre-study, including discussion of methodology and literature study.
  • Written and oral opposition of another degree project at second cycle. 
  • Active participation at two master thesis presentation on second cycle. 
  • Written report, with abstract both in Swedish and in English. 
  • Oral presentation. 
  • Self-evaluation rapport. 

All course moments have to be passed within one year of the start of the degree project. Otherwise the degree project is closed with grade fail, unless specific circumstances motivate the delay. In each of the cases, the school's office of student affairs contacts the examiner to make a decision.

Forms and templates

The following forms and templates are provided for the students through the Degree Project Canvas page:

  • DiVA publication form 
  • project proposal template
  • individual plan template
  • information for students and employers ( KTH Degree Project Portal )
  • report template (to come)
  • certificate of participation (pdf for live presentations, on-line procedure otherwise)
  • self-evaluation form.