Written dissertation
The master’s dissertation is a written report of the scientific research the student has conducted.
General guidelines
- View the general guidelines here
- Academic writing style and language, logically structured text and clean layout
- Language: see art. 59 §1 5° of the Education and Examination Code
- Lay-out: there are no specific requirements regarding font type, font size, spacing or citation style at FBE. However, the typographic choices must give the text a neat and well-organized look. Appropriate font types are Arial, Calibri, UGent Panno Text, Times New Roman; appropriate font size is 11 or 12 pt.
For the international joint programmes specific lay-out rules may apply at your current institution. Check and comply specific rules, as well as specific master dissertation programme guidelines! - Responsible use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is permitted. What does that mean?
- As a student, you are and remain responsible for the content of the submitted text and your use of the source material;
- The basic literature must remain known;
- You are obligated to search for a reliable, unambiguous source (which can still be consulted months, years later for verification by others) and to read references if 'ideas/inspiration' for topics are provided by GAI;
- You are responsible for the correct use of the source material and the references in the text to that source material;
- You can and may use GAI to generate a better written formal grammatical text than the text you would write entirely on your own;
- You must honestly and clearly indicate (e.g., in 'Materials & Methods') that you have used GAI (ChatGPT and others) as a tool. ChatGPT (or other GAI) should not be included in the references. Questions posed to ChatGPT are not traceable. Even if the same question is asked, the answer may be different.
- Be careful with confidential and personal privacy-sensitive information: you should not import it into open source AI!
- You upload your Master's dissertation in the application.
Cover page per programme
Print appropriate version (listed below) on white slightly thicker paper, do not add or delete logos
- Cover page MSc in Food Technology
- Cover page International MSc in Health Management in Aquaculture
- Cover page International MSc in Rural Development
- Cover page International MSc in Environmental Technology and Engineering
- Cover page International MSc in Sustainable and innovative natural resource management
- Cover page International MSc in Soils and Global Change
- Cover page for all other Master programmes (UGent, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering)
- Cover page exchange students
Master's dissertation of two students with the same subject
A Master's dissertation by two students with the same subject is possible under following conditions:
- The work must be submitted in separate volumes.
- The defense is individual, so separated in space and time.
- For each master's dissertation, a separate Board of Examiners is appointed, so a separate written assessment is required.
- If a common title is used, this has to be complemented with a separate and different subtitle.
- In the introduction of each masters dissertation, the cooperation should be mentioned and the similarities and specificity of the work have to be described.