Bachelor thesis Chemistry

The Bachelor's thesis is an aptitude test for the future researcher. The student carries out research and writes & presents a report on it. During the bachelor each student has had the opportunity to practice sub-skills, such as experimenting, writing a report and giving a presentation. These skills will be further refined during the Bachelor's thesis and ultimately assessed.

The Bachelor's thesis comprises a period of independent research (incl. 8 weeks of full-time practical work), which the student carries out within a research group of the Department of Chemistry or at another institution where they can do comparable research. The student works individually on a research project under the supervision of a staff member of the section. The results of this research will be processed in a Bachelor's thesis and presented to the members of the section.

Preparation
Information regarding the Bachelor Thesis and possible places to perform it can be found in several locations:

• In addition to the information found in the course manual, specifics regarding procedures & research groups are also provided during the Sectie Informatie Avond (SIA) (or “Section Information Evening”), organized by Proton in late October. You will automatically find this in your schedule under the relevant SK-BSLBXX course.
• An updated list of bachelor thesis section first contacts can be found after the SIA on the bachelor thesis student website.
• Information on relevant chemistry-related research groups at the UU can also be found at Bijvoet Center for Biomedical Research, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science & Institute for Sustainable and Circular Chemistry. Proton has also listed the sections on their site, in addition to a section booklet with descriptions and thesis experiences from students.
• It is also possible to do your bachelor thesis on the topic of education and didactics at the Freudenthal Institute (see special procedure on the next page). Although thesis work on an educational subject does not involve answering a chemical research question by doing experiments, the criterium remains that students go through the empirical cycle, posing a research question/ hypothesis that will be tested in a real educational environment. In other words, a thesis based only on a literature study is not allowed. If this raises questions after discussing the research plan with your supervisors, please contact the course coordinator.

Once the student feels they have acquired enough information to decide on their preferred research topic, they are expected to contact the bachelor thesis contact of the section where they want to conduct research on their own accord in a timely manner.

Note: Students that would like to start their project in Period 4 should contact the section only after the SIA, but well in advance of their preferred start date, as places can be limited.

Before the start of your thesis, you fill out a contract together with your supervisor in which you determine a number of things, such as working hours, supervision, examiners and assessment. The student should send this contract as a PDF document to science.chem.ba@uu.nl with cc. to the thesis coordinator at science.owc.chem@uu.nl , in order for the Student Desk (Studiepunt) to enroll the student for the SK-BTHESIS course in Osiris and Brightspace.

Please note: the student must ensure that Student Desk receives the contract on time so that the student can be registered for SK-BTHESIS in Osiris. Otherwise, assessment of the thesis cannot be registered.

Doing the thesis at a department other than Chemistry is also an option, but requires more initiative and preparation, as it must be clear whether the thesis can actually be carried out at the other department before starting the project.

To this end, the following points must be taken into account by the student:

1. Is the daily supervisor and/or examiner (the examiner must be a staff member) of the other department able to meet the conditions as stated in this course manual? Consider the length of the internship (8 weeks of full-time practical work) and the requirements as set out in both contract and assessment form (rubrics).
2. Is a second examiner available at the Chemistry Department who can confirm that the project meets the required chemical level and other requirements set by the Chemistry bachelor before the start of the project, and who can assess the thesis work afterwards?

If during your study certain skills were not assessed properly (or if you practiced them less often than you would have wanted), it is possible to take some additional skills training at the Skills Lab, which offers free coaching on academic writing & thesis support, among other things. Additionally the online academic writing training as offered in the Research Project course is also available for all students in this course (see recommended study materials).

For more information on the Bachelor Thesis including course manual, contract form and assessment form, see the online study guide:
https://students.uu.nl/beta/scheikunde/onderwijs/studieprogramma/bachelorthesis 

MLS-students that do their thesis at a Chemistry department can follow the instructions above.
MLS-students that do their thesis at a Biology department can find more information in the online study guide link above. 
Double Bachelor students do their thesis under course code NS-330B.