Bachelor thesis:

These regulations supplement the general Thesis Rules and Regulations and specify details specific to theses written in the English Department. 

1. A successfully completed BA thesis is 10 ECTS.

 2. 120 ECTS of the Bachelor programme must have been completed. This should include all the courses that students of English are obliged to take.

 3. The student must produce a thesis proposal (a hard copy) which he/she submits either to the secretariat of English Literature (for theses focusing on literature and/or culture), or to the secretariat of English Language (for theses focusing on linguistics). The English Literature secretariat is located on the 5th floor of the Bungehuis. The English Language secretariat is located on the 4th floor of the Bungehuis.

The proposal should demonstrate that the student knows what he/she plans to do and that the project is feasible within the scope of the BA-thesis. The thesis proposal must include the following information:

a) The student's name and student number. 
b) An address (postal or electronic) where the student can be contacted. 
c) A statement of not more than two typed A4 pages providing:
- A clear indication of the goal and the scope of the project. 
- The rationale for the project. (Why is it worth doing?) 
- An indication of the relationship between the student's thesis project and scholarly work already published. 
- The student's plan of approach, including a brief time table. (What will be done first, what second?) 
d) The student's preferred supervisor (optional). 
e) A preliminary bibliography. 
f) The number of ECTS credits obtained, and a list of courses still to be completed.

4. The Thesis Committee of the relevant 'leerstoelgroep' accepts or rejects the proposal, and will inform the student in writing as soon as possible. They also appoint the supervisor.

5. In case a proposal falls outside the direct expertise of the staff, the Board of Examiners (Manon van der Laaken) should be contacted as soon as possible.

6. The proposal can be handed in at any moment, but the final deadline for submitting the proposal is January 20, for a thesis to be completed before the end of the academic year.

7. The Bachelor thesis will usually contain 6,000/8,000 words (not including title page, table of contents, bibliography, and appendices if any). This amounts to approximately 20-25 pages, double-spaced, ca. 330 words per page.

8. The thesis should be written in English. The required level of written English is C1 of A Common European Frame­work of Reference:

Report & Essays: Can expand and support points of view at some length with subsidiary points, reasons and relevant examples.

Grammatical accuracy: Good grammatical control; occasional "slips" or non-systematic errors and minor flaws in sentence structure may still occur, but they are rare and can often be corrected in retrospect.

Vocabulary control: Has a good command of a broad lexical repertoire ... Good command of idiomatic expressions …

Orthographic control:  Layout, paragraphing and punctuation are consistent and helpful. Spelling is accurate, apart from occasional slips of the pen.

9.   The final deadline for submitting the finished thesis is June 29. Two printed copies of the finished thesis should be handed in to the supervisor by this date. The supervisor will pass one of these copies on to an anonymous second reader. A digital version of the finished thesis has to be submitted as a pdf-file via e-mail to the Student Administration  (see address below)  before the award date. 

10.  Supervision will usually not exceed one semester.

11.  The thesis will be assessed within 28 days of submission by the student. After the assessment period, the student will be informed of his or her grade and can ask the supervisor for feedback.

Last updated: September 2011

Master thesis (one year programme)

These regulations supplement the general Thesis Rules and Regulations and specify details specific to theses written in the English Department.

 Master thesis (one year programme):

1. A successfully completed MA thesis is 20 ECTS.

2. The student must produce a thesis proposal (a hard copy) which he/she submits either to the secretariat of English Literature (for the MA track in English Literature), or to the secretariat of English Language (for the MA track in English Language). The English Literature secretariat is located on the 5th floor of the Bungehuis. The English Language secretariat is located on the 4th floor of the Bungehuis.

This proposal is intended to show that the student knows what he/she is plans to do and that the project is feasible within the scope of the MA-thesis. The thesis proposal must include the following information: 

a) The student's name and student number. 
b) An address (postal or electronic) where the student can be contacted. 
c) A statement of not more than two typed A4 pages providing:
- A clear indication of the goal and the scope of the project. 
- The rationale for the project. (Why is it worth doing?) 
- The indication of the relationship between the student's thesis project and scholarly work already published. 
- The student's plan of approach; a brief time table. (What will be done first, what second?) 
d) The student's preferred supervisor (optional). 
e) A preliminary bibliography. 
f) The number of ECTS credits obtained, and a list of courses still to be completed.

3. The Thesis Committee of the relevant 'leerstoelgroep' accepts or rejects the proposal, and will inform the student in writing as soon as possible. They also appoint the supervisor and a second reader.

4. In case a proposal falls outside the direct expertise of the staff, the Board of Examiners (Manon van der Laaken) should be contacted as soon as possible.

5. The proposal can be handed in at any moment, but the final deadline for submitting the proposal is December 15 for a thesis to be completed before the end of the academic year.

6. The Thesis Committee accepts or rejects the proposal, and will inform the student in writing as soon as possible. They also appoint the supervisor.

7. The Master thesis will usually contain 12,000/16,000 words (not including title page, table of contents, bibliography, and appendices if any). This amount to approximately 40-50 pages, double-spaced, ca. 330 words per page.

8. The thesis should be written in English. The level of written English should be excellent (C2 of A Common European Framework of Reference).

9. The final deadline for submitting the finished thesis is June 29. Two printed copies of the finished thesis should be handed in to the supervisor by this date. The supervisor will pass one of these copies on to a anonymous second reader. A digital version of the finished thesis on CD/DVD also has to be handed in to the Student Administration (Spuistraat 210, room 017). 

10. Supervision will not exceed one semester.

11.  The thesis will be assessed within 28 days of submission by the student. After the assessment period, the student will be informed of his or her grade and can ask the supervisor for feedback.

Last updated: September 2011