The degree project (or independent project) is an important part of a students education. All degree programmes include at least one degree project, while long programmes require two degree projects to be completed (excluding MSc in Veterinary Medicine).
Degree projects at SLU must be handled in accordance with the same procedures and responsibilities as other higher education. Degree projects are different to other courses, however, as described here and in related documents.
Common guidelines and template för the Independent project work plan are available in Education planning and administration handbook, section 9. Independent project (degree project).
There is also more information for each faculty:
As a teacher, you can also suggest subjects for degree projects in SLU CareerGate: slukarriar@slu.se.
On the library's website there is general information and guidance for students' writing (see links below).
All independent projects will be checked for plagiarism (in Ouriginal) before being approved. The grading of the student's work should not be affected by whether it will be published or not.
According to SLU's Agreement regarding transfer of the right to publish a work, students need to approve the publishing of student projects. From 1 March 2021, the approval must be documented and archived by the department responsible for the course. The date 1 March 2021 refers to when the work is approved and completed according to Ladok.
The approval can take place in one of the following ways:
If the student chooses to publish the work in full text, the pdf file and metadata will be openly visible, searchable and possible to read and download.
It the student does not approve publishing, the work must still be uploaded to Epsilon for archiving purposes, but only metadata and summary will then be visible and searchable.
SLU uses the Swedish terms examensarbete and självständigt arbete as synonyms. Reference is also made to kandidatarbete and masteruppsats.
In English the terms degree project or independent project are used. The term master's thesis can be used for degree projects (independent projects) at Master's level (second cycle) worth at least 30 credits.