Graduation in steps

The committee consists of at least two persons, with at least one member who is involved as course manager or instructor in: The core courses of the first year of the student’s master programme; the Master Thesis Preparation course of the relevant programme; the first-year Track courses in the CoSEM programme (only for CoSEM students).

First and Second Supervisor

A member of the scientific staff of TPM, appointed by the Board of Examiners as an examiner (UTQ qualified and having an educational task). The first supervisor is the first point of contact for the student. The first supervisor provides guidance throughout the thesis project and has the most frequent contact with the student among the committee members. The second supervisor also provides guidance to the student, but less frequent than that of the first supervisor. Students can contact the second supervisor if they want additional feedback. Both the first and the second supervisors are present in the formal moments of the graduation (i.e., kick-off, mid-term, thesis defence). The first and second supervisor should come from different research groups (“secties” in Dutch).

Chair

Preferably, the First or the Second Supervisor takes the role of Chair. Alternatively, the role of Chair may be taken by an additional member of the committee but the Chair must be a permanent staff member of TPM who is full professor, an associate professor (UHD-profile), a current or former Director of Studies from the Faculty of TPM or any other supervisor appointed by the Board of Examiners (according to the overview "Examiners authorized to sign" on the graduation portal). The Chair is in the end responsible for the thesis process and the assessment and provides an additional quality assurance to the thesis output. The Chair is present in the formal moments of the graduation (i.e., kick-off, mid-term, thesis defence) and is responsible for signing the formal documents (e.g., kick-off forms). 

Advisor

Optionally, an advisor might be appointed to support the student under the supervision of the assessment committee. An advisor cannot assume any responsibilities of the first or second supervisor or chair. 

You are advised to start searching for a topic about 2-3 months before starting your graduation project (or even earlier). A good place to start is the list of Graduation Projects, the Thesis Circles and Curius career on the portal. If you wish to graduate on a topic that you define yourself, then you are advised to formulate a preliminary research proposal that you can use when contacting a Graduation Coordinator (step 1C: How to compose your Graduation Committee)

You can explore a graduation topic during the Master Thesis Preparation Course. If you choose to graduate on the proposal that you develop during the Master Thesis Preparation course, you will usually have to further elaborate and refine this proposal during the first four weeks of your graduation project.

This short movie is made for TPM students who consider doing their thesis project at a company. In this movie you will find tips and experiences of other students who did this. Attention: when you want to graduate at an external institute? Arrange a graduation agreement - for more information check step 1. If you have any further questions regarding this topic, you can contact a graduation coordinator.

Starting conditions for the master thesis project are formulated in the Teaching and Examination Regulations (TER), Appendix 2. Implementation Regulations: Article 2 - Master Thesis Project

Fulfil the prerequisites

1. A student can start the Master Thesis Project when all other study units of the curriculum have been completed.
2. If the requirement in subsection 1 has not been met our first advice is to visit the academic counsellor.
3. When the Master Thesis Preparation course has been completed and if you have up to and including 9 EC left,  you can send in a request to the Board of Examiners to ask for permission to start with your master thesis. These requests will be handled outside the meetings of the Board of Examiners.

The MSc graduation project (course code MOT2910 (MOT), SEN2331 (COSEM) or EPA2942 (EPA)) is the masterpiece that completes either one of the three Master degree programs offered by the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM) of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Before you start, please enroll this course in Brightspace.

In short, the rule is: The maximum duration of an MSc Thesis Project is 25 weeks. 

The nominal duration of the MSc Thesis Project is 21 40-hour weeks = 840 hours = 30 EC. The Kick-off Meeting is taken to be in week 4 of the project by definition.

Two dates must be planned during the Kick-off Meeting:

• the Green Light Meeting, preferably in week 17 (= 13 weeks after the Kick-off Meeting);
• the Thesis Defence Meeting, preferably in week 21. 
• optionally, the committee can also schedule a mid-term meeting to assess the progress of the thesis project. A suggested period for such a meeting would be between weeks 9 and 13."

There are several ways to find a master thesis project:

• You can find a graduation theme or project via this site. See: Graduation Projects, Thesis circles or Curius career;
• Choose a graduation coordinator that you think fits your interests best. The graduation coordinators are your contact to find a suitable First Supervisor.
• You may be able to find a graduation topic yourself within an external organisation: contact a graduation coordinator for assistance in finding a first supervisor. If you plan to do a thesis project within an external organisation, note that you will need a tripartite graduation agreement (further details in the next sessions).
  If you want to do a thesis project at the same company as for your internship (elective), please be aware that the assignment/the topic and your supervisors must be different. For additional questions about a thesis project at a company contact Joost Groot Kormelink. For additional questions about an internship as an elective check the study guide and/or module manager, Juan Duran, of TPM593a
• You may have an interest in the research of one of a (associate or assistant) professor or PhD candidate: discuss your interest with hem/her to discover whether they can provide you with a master thesis project.

1. If you do a specific project (here) or join a thesis circle (here), turn to the contact mentioned in the description for the formation of your committee.
2. In all other cases, the Graduation Coordinators (GC) are your contact to find a suitable First Supervisor. Choose the GC that you think fits your interests best (see the list of GCc). The GC can connect you to a First Supervisor (or to another GC to take over).
3. Your First Supervisor is your contact to complete your graduation committee. Your First Supervisor may contact an intended Second Supervisor directly, or ask you to contact them. Alternatively, your First Supervisor may refer you to the GC of the section of choice to find a suitable Second Supervisor.
4. If an intended Supervisor rejects the request, always return to your previous contact (GC or First Supervisor).

Please note: If you want to conduct research at a company, you may be asked to sign a declaration of confidentiality or a non disclosure agreement (NDA) to specify that you will not release any confidential company-related information. However, this can cause problems for your study programme. After all, the study programme must be able to assess your work and to do this, your supervisors at TPM must be able to gain insight into your activities, progress, data and results. Don't sign a confidentiality agreement without consulting your graduation committee and a legal check (see below). 

You can find our  default tripartite graduation contract with explanation under forms. This is in principle the only confidentiality agreement that the TU Delft is prepared to sign. Any deviations from this model agreement must be approved by the legal department.

Guidelines for human research

Does your research involve human  subjects (for example: interviews, online questionnaires, serious games or brainstorm/workshop sessions)? In that:

• your research has to be in accordance with the guidelines of the Human Research Ethics committee of the TU Delft (HREC) i.e.: Safety, Informed Consent by the participants, Data protection in line with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation);
• your research protocol will have to be reviewed by the HREC. You will have to provide them with at least a data management plan (for GDPR compliance), the consent document (informed consent form, or opening statement) you will present to the participants, and the HREC Risk assessment checklist.  You can find the details and the checklist of the process here. You need HREC approval before starting your data collection. The faculty data steward can assist you in finalizing your data management plan (DMP).

Please consider the following etiquettes:

External organisations​

• Always remember that you are in a way representing TU Delft and TPM faculty vis-à-vis an external organisation, so please observe the proper courtesy forms in your contact.
• If you are simultaneously exploring options at various organisations, let them know that you are looking around elsewhere as well, transparency is expected and appreciated.
• When you have definitely chosen for a graduation project at one of the organisations, you need to correctly inform the other organisations that you will not join them. 

TPM internal  

• If you discuss your options with several staff members: let them know that you do so, transparency in this is expected and appreciated.
• Keep them informed of your final decisions and acknowledge their efforts in helping you.
• If you have found a graduation project: don’t “shop around” for supervisors. Think about which sections would be most suitable to supervise your graduation project before approaching each and every section. The graduation coordinator of the sections can advise you on the composition of the graduation committee
• If, for some reason, you are unable to work on your thesis project for a longer period of time, please notify your supervisors​.

By doing an external graduation project it is implied that the student takes responsibility for a timely start, progress and finalization of the project. In our experience the organisation takes 2-3 months and usually delays graduation. If you will conduct research at a company or other external institute, a tripartite graduation agreement has to be signed by the dean of the faculty (see Forms for the model contract). To this end, please send the draft of this contract including all annexes (including the description of your research and approval of your assignment by your first supervisor) to J.B.J. Groot Kormelink.

Warning/advice:

Some companies may ask you to sign a bilateral contract or Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) or may not agree with our default contract. In such cases, first ask for advice. Note that the HREC will require a signed contract before they will give approval.

You will explore the topic of your graduation project with your first supervisor and (re)write the project proposal that you developed during the module Master Thesis Preparation. Use the review form of the Master Thesis Preparation course for self-checking your project proposal.

If your first supervisor thinks that your proposal is sufficient, you can plan the Kick-off Meeting in which the full committee will meet to discuss your proposal. In principle, you need to take the lead to plan this meeting.

First read: Preparing for kick-off (download document)

During the Kick-off Meeting your project proposal will be discussed. All members of the committee will provide you with feedback.

If you work with human beings (interviews, surveys, workshops,...), the committee members will check if your plan is aligned with GDPR and Human Research Ethics (HREC) guidelines of TU Delft and its associated time constrains (up to 3 weeks for review).

Be aware that you have completed the HREC documents, you can discuss the content of these documents during the kick-off meeting with the committee (long term data archival, personal data deletion,...). If you have not yet filled in the documents, ensure that you know what will be required, and ensure that you have access to all template documents you will need to fill.

After the meeting you will make a report on the feedback and revise your project proposal accordingly. The chair of your graduation committee will sign the kick-off form which has to be sent digitally to SPA-TBM@tudelft.nl. The student administration will check whether you comply with the rules for starting a graduation project and informs your first supervisor on this.