Dear all,
Looking outside my window the summer seems to be over and there are the usual list of suspect issues to discuss and a few new ones arising.
1 Pro Gradu projects. a BEFORE starting your project you need to have a plan approved. There is no set format. It must include your supervisor(s) names, place of work and start date and be of sufficient detail for me to judge (typically 2 sides of typed A4 is enough). Submit this AT LEAST one week before you are due to start and preferably at least 2 weeks before. b Make sure you write up your thesis carefully. The thesis is what gets graded not your experimental work and so if you miss things out or are unclear in the write up your mark will suffer. Make sure you understand the methodology and/or results before you write and if in doubt ask, your supervisor, your peers, experts in the field etc. A recent tips for PhD student writing document can be found at http://www.oulu.fi/suurijakelu/2010/8/Practical_tips.html it is also a very useful read for Pro gradu students BEFORE they start and during the writing up period. c The working time for the experimental work is 6 months from the start date (anything after that date cannot be in the main body of your thesis, though you can add it as an unmarked appendix) and the deadline for submission of the written thesis is 1 year after the start date. Please write in plenty of time and do not push (or exceed) this deadline.
2 Dissertation A No plan or permission is required to do a dissertation, but if you want to discuss any issues/questions please come and see me or drop me an email. B The dissertation is 18op. That is 3 months of full time work AND a very considerable influence on your final grade. Do not see it as an easy way to get credits and make sure you spend the time to do it well.
3 Entrance exam We are considering changes/replacements to the current system to come into effect for students starting in 2012. We will ask students starting this year for their views via a questionnaire (draft attached), we would also like views of current (and past) students as well. Clearly the current system is flawed, but we do not want to put something in place that is worse. Your views are appreciated.
4 Finishing the MSc Please make sure you read the requirements for getting a MSc carefully. We have clarified/relaxed some of the regulations recently, but you can only have 12op maximum of other studies count towards the 120 total. The other 108op must come from S level courses offered by this department or on our lists as acceptable towards this e.g. Biological NMR or Advanced Course for biotechnology. We will be reviewing this list later in the year especially in the light of changes in other departments. If you want to suggest a course from another department that should be on this list (it must be very close to and complementary with our studies) then please contact me. Courses on the fringes or unrelated to biochemistry will always come only under the "12op optional courses at any university".
Best wishes,
Lloyd