Assessment committee
The assessment committee is formed with the help of your supervisor and has to meet the following criteria:
- Contains a minimum of two examiners: One from the BMS faculty and one from the EEMCS faculty
- All examiners hold the PhD degree and have a completed UTQ or equivalent
- At least one of the examiners needs to be a senior examiner
- The daily supervisor is a member of the assessment committee (this can be as an examiner but in case of a PhD student, or lecturer without an UTQ, the commitee consists of at least two other members, both qualified to act as examiner)
- The committee may also have one or more advisory members, for instance a company supervisor
Example
Example: A student from Data Science and Business does an assignment for TNO and the supervising group is DMB. Maurice van Keulen is overseeing the whole assignment as senior examiner from EEMCS. Because you need two examiners, one from each faculty, Maurice has involved Maria Iacob to also join the committee on behalf of BMS. Together they discuss the plans with the student, sometimes both will join every meeting, in other cases one superviser might take more of a lead where the other joins once every few meetings. Then the committe would consist of:
- Two examiners:
- Maurice van Keulen (senior examiner)
- An examiner from the IEBIS chair, e.g. Maria Iacob.
- Two (advisory) members:
- A daily supervisor from TNO
Learning objectives Research Topics
Main objectives of Research Topics are further deepening the understanding of the chosen specialisation and topic within the Master, and further development of the student's research competencies. Research Topics typically entails an initial literature study and aims at the statement of a clear research or design question and planning for the Final Project. Before you start, there should be an initial description of the subject of the Research Topics that has been agreed upon with supervisor and examiner.
- Find and select relevant literature and perform literature research
- Formulate a relevant and specific problem statement
- Study recent scientific developments relevant to the problem statement
- Propose a research method to address the problem stated
The deliverable of Research Topics is a written report covering the above aspects and typically contains at least an extensive review of the relevant literature and an initial project plan/proposal. The grade will be delivered using the these aspects as well as the discussed deliverables between the supervisor(s) and the student.
Learning objectives Final Project
- Formulate a clear problem statement in the field of Business Information Technology,
- identify relevant literature,
- draw up a work plan,
- adjust the problem statement and the work plan if necessary in accordance with interim evaluations,
- analyse different possible solutions and to motivate the choice for one of them,
- communicate the research and design activities both written and in oral presentations,
- reflect on the problem, on the research/design approach, on the solution and on his/her own performance, and
- demonstrate creativity and ability to work independently.
Final grade
The grade of the Final project is based on the written thesis report as well as the performance setting up and carrying out the project and the final presentation. The Final project will be assessed with an assessment form. The criteria used in the form are based on aspects related to the learning outcomes.
Academic integrity
With regards to your final project it is important to uphold the standards with regards to academic integrity and avoid all forms of academic misconduct. As a Master student you might not have been confronted with this issue before. The issue is not addressed in any prior course within the Master programme. If you were a Bachelor students with us, you certainly should have learned about it as part of that programme, but if you come from a different background, this might not be the case, nor are standards the same everywhere in the world. Therefore it is important to know that the UT Student’s charter (Art. 6.11) gives an overview of what we consider academic misconduct and fraud. The EEMCS Rules & Guidelines describe what actions are to be taken in case a student is suspected of academic misconduct.
One form of academic misconduct to watch out for during your final project is plagiarism. You can avoid plagiarizing, by correctly referencing and citing other people’s work. To uphold the standards with regards to academic integrity your report will be checked using a plagiarism checker.
To help you avoid plagiarism and correctly present other work, our University Library offers information and tools to help you https://www.utwente.nl/en/service-portal/university-library/referencing-copyright/referencing-plagiarism. Also UT Career services organizes workshops on for example academic writing for students and presenting.
If you are unsure of the norms, you should always discuss this with your supervisor. If you want to evaluate yourself first, the University of Guelph offers a nice quiz so you can test your knowledge on the topic https://academicintegrity.uoguelph.ca/plagiarism/quiz-plagiarism. It not only tests whether or not you know what it is, but along the way also gives information on how to avoid it and why some practices are considered wrong or right.