At the beginning of the academic year, students will be provided with an updated Guide on Writing the Master’s Thesis, which will outline the key aspects of writing the thesis, its progress monitoring, and its evaluation. All students are required to read this guide in order to produce a thesis that is appropriate in both form and content.

During the first semester, students will have access to a list of topics and advisors, and will be able to select their preferred research topics within the specialization module(s) they are taking. Approximately during the months of October and November, topics will be assigned, and each student will be responsible for contacting their respective advisor.

Students must attend at least four follow-up sessions with their assigned advisor. During the first meeting with the advisor, the terms of the advising relationship and the schedule must be established, and the research topic will begin to be defined. Throughout the regular meetings arranged between the advisor and the student, the advisor will guide the student in their research. All follow-up sessions (tutorial sessions) with the advisor must be recorded on the tracking platform provided by the UAB.

In addition, a series of sessions will be held with guest experts on current issues relating to the EU, as well as methodological sessions designed to provide students with the basic tools to meet the formal and structural requirements necessary to produce a Master’s thesis that is correct and in line with current academic standards. These sessions will take place throughout the academic year; they are compulsory and will contribute to the final mark for the thesis (1 point).

At the end of June, Master’s theses will be submitted via the official channels, which will be explained by the module coordinator at the start of the academic year. Once the theses have been submitted, the module coordination responsible will schedule the oral defence sessions during the first weeks of July. The examination commission will consist of two professors holding a PhD, who will assess the Master’s theses.

There is a single session for submitting and defending Master’s theses during June and July. If a student is on an exchange programme at another university, they will be permitted to defend their thesis on alternative dates.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

The assessment of the Master's Thesis for the Master's in European Integration consists of an objective review of the work by an assessment committee composed of UAB academic staff with doctoral degrees. This committee will assess both the written work and the oral defence.

The assessment will take into account the dedication and effort during the various supervision sessions, as well as the final result (the written thesis itself). It is not sufficient to summarise the texts that have been read, nor to produce a descriptive account of what happened during a specific period or event. Students will be required to conduct extensive research into the relevant literature; define a question or hypothesis to guide their work; structure their work, organise their ideas and the available material; where appropriate, obtain and analyse data; draft their work and take care with the presentation of the final version. The work must therefore be centred on a specific research question and address the significance of this issue in academic debates. This involves demonstrating:

• Knowledge and critical understanding of academic debates on a topic
• Ability to focus the work on a specific issue;
• Ability to make connections between theory and specific examples or cases

Supervisor's Preliminary Report

Once the Master's Thesis Project has been completed and submitted by the student via the platform provided by UAB, supervisors will be required to prepare a guidance report on the student's progress during the project's development. The content of the report may include aspects such as the student's ability to analyse and synthesise, the progress of the research, the student's monitoring and engagement, their capacity for work and discernment, an assessment of the sources and bibliography used, or any other comments that the examiner considers of interest to the assessment committee.

Under no circumstances will the tutor numerically assess the work or provide the student with the mark. The work is assessed by the assessment committee, which holds exclusive authority.

Defence, composition and functioning of the assessment committee

The TFM will be assessed by an assessment committee composed of two UAB academic staff members with a PhD, who will be appointed by the TFM module coordinator of the Master's in European Integration. The written work (4 points), the defence itself (5 points) and the student's progress monitoring (1 point) will be assessed.

Given the growing availability and widespread use of artificial intelligence tools that can automate many of the tasks associated with the writing and structuring of an academic paper, this course will place a special emphasis on the student's ability to communicate the results of their research clearly, rigorously and with sound reasoning. Particular emphasis will be placed on the oral presentation and defence before the panel, as well as the ability to respond appropriately to questions and comments raised. For this reason, 50% of the final mark for this module will be based on the presentation and argumentation of the topic chosen by the student during their oral defence.

The Master's thesis will be publicly defended before the Assessment Committee, from which the thesis supervisor will be excluded. The oral defence sessions will take place during July. Students will be called at a specific time on one of the two days designated by the coordinator. The assigned date and defence time cannot be changed, except in cases provided for by the UAB Academic Regulation. The Master's Thesis coordination will be responsible for setting up the various panels, assigning the theses, and drawing up the defence timetable, as well as managing any issues that may arise.

The oral defence of the thesis will be structured as follows. First, and for a maximum of 10 minutes, the student will have to present orally the aspects they consider most relevant of their Master's Thesis. This must include, at a minimum, the research objectives, the hypotheses, and the main contributions and conclusions. Afterwards, a dialogue will be opened between the members of the assessment panel and the student, during which the panel will evaluate the thesis and put any questions or make any comments they consider relevant to the student. This second part will last for approximately 20 minutes. Once the public defence of the thesis is concluded, the examination board will deliberate and communicate the mark to the module coordinator via the platform provided by the UAB.

Assessment Criteria for the Master's Final Project

Maximum score: 10 points

• Coherence between the working hypothesis and the content of the research (maximum 1 point)
• Conclusions (maximum 1 point)
• Appropriate management of information sources and coherent organisation of bibliographic references, official documents, legal texts, case law or other materials (maximum 2 points)
• Presentation and defence of the thesis before the Examination Board (maximum 5 points)
• Student supervision: attendance at methodological sessions and submission of supervision activities (maximum 1 point)