Guidelines for distribution of student projects and employment of summer students at IMA - Kunnskapsbasen
Guidelines for distribution of student projects and employment of summer students at IMA
The following information is specific for student projects at master level at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (IMA), i.e., specialization projects and master’s theses.
Course codes and timeline
The course codes for the different projects are as follows:
- Specialization Projects - TMT4500
- Specialization project MTNANO - TMT4510
- Master theses MTKJ - TMT4900
- Master theses MTMT - TMT4905
- Master theses MTNANO - TMT4910
- Master theses MSMT - TMT4920
- Master theses MSCHEM - MT3900
The timeline for distribution of student projects are as follows:
What | When |
---|---|
Registering project proposals | Deadline approx. mid Feb. |
Proposals are made available for students | Start of March |
Student’s deadline for requesting projects | Deadline approx. mid-March |
Supervisors’ deadline for choosing summer job applicants | 1-2 weeks after student’s deadline |
The final list of assigned projects are made available to supervisors and students | Approx. early to mid-April |
Project proposals
Project proposals are registered in February. A form for registering your proposal(s) is sent by the administration. Precise deadlines are simultaneously given.
The following information is requested when you register a project proposal.
- Project title
- Project description (as a pdf)
- Main supervisor
- Co – supervisor(s)
- For whom is the project relevant (which study programs)
- Financing (see Principles for financing for more information)
- If the proposal is in collaboration with an external company/organization
- If the external company/organization is contributing with financing - If the project is reserved for a student
- If a summer job in connection with the project is offered (please note that the job must be funded either by a collaborative partner or through your own project funds)
Each professor / associate professor may have up to four project proposals.
Each professor II / associate professor II may have up to two project proposals.
Employees in other positions may be permitted to supervise student projects by the Head of the department.
If you agree to supervise a student with their own project proposal the project will count towards your quota of project proposals.
Assigning projects to students
Students are asked to register up to three projects they would like to do in order of priority in a list they receive from the administration. The projects are assigned to students based on their requests, with a few exceptions mentioned below. This work is done by Deputy of Education (Hilde Lea Lein) and Executive Officer (Andreas Fjeldstad).
Students with their own proposal, with or without collaboration with an external company / organization, will be guaranteed their own project and is not required to register their priority.
Summer job in connection with student projects
For projects with a summer job offered the supervisor may decide which student will receive the project, based on a list of applicants. The students are asked to both apply for the summer job and request the project in two separate processes. This process is done before the assigning of projects to ensure students are available for the project. You will receive the following information on applicants:
- Full name
- Study program
- A short motivation letter (max 4000 characters)
- The applicant’s priority of the project (one to three where one is highest)
- CV
- Transcript of records
There are no common guidelines to follow when hiring and the supervisor can decide what to emphasize when deciding which student to choose.
You will either have to fund the job with your own project funds or through an agreement with an external company / organization. Costs related to a summer job should be clarified with the department and/or external company / organization before registering the proposal.
If the project and summer job is in collaboration with an external company/organization, it is important to clarify with the company/organization if they have their own process for hiring in the related position. If so, the project is not deemed to have a summer job option and should not be included as such when registering the proposal. In this case it may be more suitable to ask if the person hired in the position is interested in the related project.
Supervision and deadlines
The standard contact period with the supervisor is 25 hours for master theses and half of this for specialization projects. For master theses in MT3900, the contact period is 50 hours. Any contact between supervisor and student beyond this, depends on the supervisor’s choice of supervision methodology. It is expected that the student works independently beyond the standard contact period. Any external organization/company is required to contribute with a co - supervisor.
Specialization projects usually have the deadline on Thursday in week 51 for the autumn semester and Thursday in week 19 for the spring semester, for a total duration of approx. 18 weeks from semester start.
Master theses have deadline 20 weeks after the agreed upon start date, plus 1 week for Easter or Christmas if this falls within the period.
MSCHEM-students (MT3900) have a fixed deadline – 15. May the second year of their 2-year master’s degree.
More information on writing and submitting a master’s thesis.
Please note that this information is written mainly for students.
You may supervise up to four students at all times. This includes specialization projects, master theses, exchange students and students on internships. Candidates in MT3900 will count towards this quota only in the second year of their thesis work. Exceptions from this quota may in certain circumstances be granted by the head of the department.