Programme structure

The structure of the MSc honours programme

The MSc honours programme in Interdisciplinary science studies is an individually composed full degree programme basing itself on your main bachelor subject (please see fig. 1 below for schematic outline). The standard of the degree course is set at 120 ECTS.

Based on the major subject, you develop your central subject from a qualifying bachelor degree with 20 ECTS constituent subjects from either chemistry, physics, nano-bioscience, biochemistry/molecular biology, biology, mathematics or computer science, depending on the major subject.

Interdisciplinary upgrade

In addition, you will take 20 ECTS individual interdisciplinary upgrading. This curriculum is designed entirely individually for each student and is dependent upon choice of thesis and the interdisciplinary crossover. If you have chosen a major subject in Chemistry in order to work with Nano-Technology, e,g., and surface physics, the upgrade is taken in the pertaining area of Physics, combining existent study modules with individual study courses. Thus, the programme comprises standard teaching, individual projects and a significant element of personal supervision.

As a part of the honours profile, you have to acquire knowledge in an independent way at a higher level and at a greater pace than normally expected. There will also be an individual evaluation of the study courses.

Interdisciplinary project

Concomitantly with these courses, an independent study project of 10 ECTS is designed, where 3 to 5 honours students, gathered from across the disciplines, work on a scientific problem that by its very nature requires integration of various traditional disciplines. You and your fellow students will, therefore, as an integrative part of this process have to contribute with your major fields of expertise, and the competence objectives will be to actually point towards a solution model or a method dealing with the problem using an interdisciplinary work method.

The thesis

The programme is crowned with a thesis of 60 ECTS (one year of full studies) in an interdisciplinary field. The thesis takes a prominent place in the programme, and the individual composition of the programme – above all the individual interdisciplinary upgrade – is dependent upon the choice of thesis’ subject. Hence, as a part of the admission process for the MSc honours programme, you have to hand in a preliminary description of the subject area, within which the thesis is planned to be carried out.