15 ECTS credits
450 h study time
Offer 2 with catalog number 6024298FNW for working students in the 1st and 2nd semester at a (F) Master - specialised level.
In an introductory lecture, the master thesis’ coordinator explains the concept and all practical issues with regard to this course. This information will be available in the Canvas course in the form of video recordings, slides and documents.
In this course the student executes a practically-oriented assignment or conducts a research relevant for legal science in the field of social law. The assignment or research topic should be connected to one of the courses of the study programme. Students choose the subject of their assignment or research themselves or select a topic from the list available in the Canvas course.
The practically-oriented paper can for instance consist of the writing of a statute proposal, a policy advice, the implementation of an enterprise’s occupational pension plan, etc. In their paper (35-40 pages, including a reference list), student describe and analyze the executed assignment and reflect critically about it. They formulate the legal questions which have arisen, explain and motivate the applied methodology, and present the results of their work. Students formulate solutions or propositions and indicate the limits or uncertainty thereof.
For additional information, please contact the master thesis coordinator Guido Van Limberghen and consult the master thesis guidelines of the program. In the first weeks of the academic year an introductory master lecture will be organized.
The course unit cannot be taken with credit contract.
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Master Thesis determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Master Thesis category, the following assignments need to be completed:
The oral presentation and defense determines 25% of the final mark, the written part 75%.
The paper determines 100% of the mark for the written part.
The use of generative AI is allowed only for spelling and grammar checking and for translations.
STUDENTS MUST OBTAIN AT LEAST 50% OF THE POINTS FOR THE WRITTEN PART AND 50% OF THE POINTS FOR ORAL PART.
Students who failed in the first examination time, hand in a new version of their paper in the second examination time (August-September). They will be submitted to a new presentation and defense. They are not allowed to change this course for the course Master Thesis SORE with internship between the first examination time and the second.
Students who obtained at least 50% for the written part, can, if they wish to do so, keep that mark, and are presumed to take this option in case they don’t submit a new paper. In this case, they are submitted only to a new presentation and defense.
Students who fail in the second examination time can, in the following academic year, either present and defend a new paper or submit a further elaborated version of their paper, or switch to the course Master Thesis SORE witht internship.
EVALUATION CRITERIA AND METHOD
1. Oral presentation and defense
Presentation: attractive and well structured; replying to the critique in the evaluation reports.
Defense: knowledge and insight shown by answering the question on the written part.
Evaluation: master thesis jury by means of a scale of values.
2.2. Paper
Evaluation: supervisor and commissioner by means of an evaluation form and a scale of values
The supervisor and commissioner state the reasons for their evaluations in a report communicated, via MaThis, to the students, not later than 3 days before the presentation and defense.
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Social Law: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)