Dissertation seminar [ LARKE2890 ]

The student is invited to consult previously made master thesis, and get a methodological vademecum (Règlement pour le mémoire de master et le travail de fin d'études approved by the Conseil de commission de programmes ARKE, October 5th 2007, available online). He also gets documentation from his/her director.

The thesis support seminar assists the student in completing his/her master thesis (Master's degree 120) within the deadlines set, i.e. to achieve it in June Master 2 session. This seminar is to be completed during the Master 1 year. The student has therefore to demonstrate his ability to achieve a master level research both regarding form and content.

 

The main objectives of the thesis seminar supervisory is to develop the students capacity :

- to define the subject of the study and/or a relevant project of research ;

- to make adequate methodological choices and heuristics research according to the subject of his/her thesis ;

- to collect and to process the useful research data ;

- to exchange about and to discuss those choices and the state of progress of the current research with the thesis director and with other students ;

- to understand and to respond to the epistemological, methodological and editorial observations and criticism made by the thesis director.

No later than the end of the seminar, the subject of the thesis will be decided by common agreement by the director and the student. A provisional plan and the bibliographical list will be established. The work progress is to be presented to the director before the end of the first year of the Master degree. The director, considering it, the frequence and the quality of the individual meetings, and the eventual participation to the collective sessions, validate the seminar completion at the end of the first year of the Master degree. No marks are awarded for the seminar.The assessment of any task by the student during the second year of the Master degree will be included in the mark allocated to the final Master thesis.

 

The thesis support seminar consists mainly of regular individual meetings with the thesis director and/or of one or several collective sessions organized according to the research fields.

 

1 °- The individual meetings take place on the initiative of the student each two months during the first year of the Master degree. The aim is to help the student to progressively become independant in his/her research. The meetings are ideally to be pursued once a month in the second year of the Master degree.

 

The subject of the thesis, or its main domain, will be firstly decided. The student also chooses a thesis director according to his/her speciality. Both must be registred through the website of the University or using the appropriate form before mid-October of the Master 1 year. The second step is the completion of the heuristics, of a work plan and of a previsional table of contents. The individual meetings allow the director to frame or to reorientate the research. He helps the student to achieve its goals and to conduct an independant research. Every meeting is recorded on the appropriate supervisory form.

 

2 °- According to the speciality of the director or to the fields of research, collective seminar sessions can be organized during the second semester. The students in the first year of the Master degree, completing their seminar, shortly introduce their research topic, heuristics and its perspectives. They also attend the presentation made by the students in the second year of the Master degree wich consist of a work progress summary, a methodological developpement and the awaited conclusions. These presentations and the associated discussions help the students, respectively as a speaker and as a listener, to develop their ability to communicate and to deliver useful criticism. Students belonging to the third year of the Bachelor degree may attend to these sessions before choosing their study speciality or defining their own thesis project.

 If no decision has been made on the subject of the thesis, or no choice on its director, or if any of the requirements specified upper isn't satisfied before the end of the first year of the Master degree, the student will have to assume the completion of his/her seminar before the next exams period. He will therefore carry out specific tasks and give regular research reports to his/her director, according to his requirements. At the end of the second year of the Master degree, the student will be allowed to submit his/her thesis and to enrol for the test examination, only after the validation of the seminar by the director.