Degree Projects at the VH Faculty

The degree project (independent project) must be carried out according to the SLU Guidelines for independent projects.

A degree project of 15 credits must be equivalent to 10 weeks of full-time studies and a degree project of 30 credits must be equivalent to 20 weeks of full-time studies. The project can be carried out at one of the faculty's departments or elsewhere, but regardless of which, the student must be formally registered on a degree project course and be assigned a main supervisor at a department.

Responsible departments at the VH Faculty:

• Animal Biosciences (HBIO)
• Applied Animal Science and Welfare (THV)
• Clinical Sciences (KV)

Below you will find information about the procedures that apply for degree projects at the VH Faculty.

Applications are made at universityadmissions.se. Deadlines for applications are 15 October for spring courses and 15 April for autumn courses. Before applying, the student must have been in contact with a supervisor, with whom an agreement must have been made about an appropriate project.

Course codes for independent projects at the VH Faculty

• EX0866 Independent project in Animal Science, G2E, 15 credits
• EX0868 Independent project in Biology, G2E, 15 credits
• EX0870 Independent project in Animal Science, A2E, 30 credits
• EX0871 Independent project in Biology, A2E, 30 credits
• EX1002 Independent project in Bioinformatics, A2E, 30 credits

When notifications of selection results arrive, the student will be listed as "Conditionally admitted" to the course (see below under Registration).

The students are conditionally admitted to the course. Registration will be made after the course leader/department director of studies has signed the registration form, thereby confirming that the student has fulfilled the entry requirements to the course and has been appointed a supervisor.

If the student begins some project work early, before the formal course start, the responsible department must ensure that insurance applies. The student can either be (part) registered on the course in advance, or be registered full-time on other courses within his/her programme. Freestanding students must be registered on the course before beginning the project work.

For all independent projects, a work plan must be established.

During the project, the student is entitled to reasonable supervision time. In addition, the supervisor will be reviewing the written work. The supervisor and student should agree beforehand on at which stages of the project or at which specific dates supervision and reviews will be made, e.g. in a schedule in the work plan.

If the course leader has announced deadlines, time frames or other instructions on how the project should be carried out, these should be entered into the work plan and followed.

The examiner's role is not to supervise, but only to assess the final version of the project work.

The SLU Library document templates should be used. If there are course specific instructions for the written report, these will be posted on the course webpage.

Any deadlines that have been agreed upon in the work plan must be kept. The stated date of submission of the written report in the work plan applies as the first occasion for final assessment.

The oral presentation can not take place until the written report is basically finished and the supervisor has given their consent. Oral presentations should be announced in advance so that interested parties can participate. Opportunity for discussion will be given.

In order to pass the course, the student must take part in the public discussion of another student’s project at their oral presentation. The course leader is responsible for coordinating the presentations.

The examiner must attend the presentation.

When the final version of the project has been approved, the supervisor completes the form Data for reporting in Ladok, which includes the dates for: examination for plagiarism, oral presentation and submission of final version of the thesis to supervisor. The supervisor certifies that the degree project has been completed according to submitted work plan. The examiner fills in the grade decision/approval and signs the form. Supervisor or examiner submits the completed form to the Ladok administrator for final reporting in Ladok.

The examiner may also report/attest the project directly in Ladok, thereby certifying that all of the above is correctly done in accordance with SLU guidelines and regulations.

Course leader/department director of studies is responsible, together with the Ladok administrator, for converting the final version of the independent project to PDF format, and depositing it in Epsilon according to the Library instructions.

Regulations for regular or delayed publication are found in the Education planning and administration handbook 9.4.

Note that the deposition in Epsilon must be done, even if the publication is to be subject of a delay or not published at all. The administrator sets the dates of the embargo period upon admission of the PDF file, so that only the information on the project work can be viewed, while the actual file may not be opened until the embargo period has expired.