Guidelines for the bachelor’s thesis in engineering and science at the Faculty of Technology, Environmental and Social Sciences

The bachelor’s thesis serves as the final component of the bachelor’s degree. The students must integrate the knowledge and skills they have gained throughout their studies, and prove that they are able to acquire new knowledge when solving a problem.

The thesis must be rooted in real societal and industry-related issues, or research and development work. The bachelor’s thesis will give students training when it comes to using relevant methods and the implementation of a project. 

The departments are responsible for every student getting a bachelor’s thesis. How this is done, varies among the different study programmes. At some study programmes, a bachelor’s thesis is assigned to the students. If two or more groups want the same thesis, who gets it will be decided based on who was first, or through a toss-up, unless the study plan says otherwise.

At some study programmes the students can be assigned a thesis from external parties. Theses from external parties must be approved by the department before they can be assigned.

At some study programmes, the students choose their own theme and thesis based on their field of interest. A thesis is chosen in agreement with an academic supervisor.

The bachelor’s thesis is a project with academic supervision where normally 2-4 students work together, unless the study plan says otherwise. A student may be allowed to do their bachelor’s thesis alone, as an exception.

The required prerequisite knowledge is outlined in the course description.

All students studying for a bachelor’s degree will enter into a supervision agreement, cf. Regulations relating to studies and examinations at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), § 11-18 (1).

Supervisors are allocated depending on the programme of study and the thesis topic. The main supervisor must be from HVL and must, as a general rule, be employed by the department. In addition to academic supervision, the main supervisor will also advise the students on the administrative element of the thesis. Several internal supervisors may be appointed. In the case of an external thesis, the student will likely have an additional one or more supervisors from the external environment, who will often then be responsible for most of the specialist subject guidance.

The students and supervisors will sign the supervision agreement at the start of the bachelor’s thesis.

The supervision provided shall cover the academic, scientific and practical aspects of completing the bachelor’s thesis. The student group will receive satisfactory follow-up and will have a minimum of five meetings with their supervisor(s) throughout the duration of their work on the bachelor’s thesis.

In addition to supervision meetings with the student group, the supervision on the part of the supervisor involves:

• Following up on the student group (conducting the supervision meetings, reviewing drafts and similar work), but the supervisor will not contribute as a co-author for the bachelor’s thesis.
• The supervisor may use a project diary, logbook or other tools to stay updated with the group’s work. Group members will then continually document their activities and the hours spent on the project.
• Following up on any laboratory experiments, field work and similar activities.
• Any academic updating.

Supervision is a shared responsibility, and the bachelor’s student must play an active role:

• The student is obliged to prepare in advance for the agreed upon supervision meetings, such that you can, among other things, be able to react to any input provided by the supervisor.
• The student group is recommended to take notes during the supervision meeting, of which they must then send to the supervisor(s) for approval after the meeting.
• The student group hold responsibility for the format and content of the thesis.

Course requirements must be completed and submitted within the given deadlines. See the course description and Canvas.

The bachelor’s thesis should normally be written in Norwegian, cf. language policy guidelines at HVL (in Norwegian only). Other Scandinavian languages or English may be used, subject to the agreement of the supervisor, unless otherwise stated in the course plan.

Theses that are written in Norwegian or another Scandinavian language must have a summary in English or another relevant foreign language. Theses written in English must include a short abstract in Norwegian/another Scandinavian language, unless the Dean provides an exemption for this, cf. Regulations relating to studies and examinations at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), § 11-21 (3).

The structure and scope of the thesis shall be discussed with the supervisor, and this will depend on the nature of the thesis.

Bachelor’s theses are often based on the IMRaD-format (Introduction, Method, Result and Discussion), but several subject areas use their own templates, which can be found on Canvas.

The bachelor’s thesis must contain the following components:

• The HVL front page with the title of the bachelor’s thesis (Norwegian and English), candidate number (for anonymous marking) or full name, name of the bachelor’s programme (department/institute/programme), name of the supervisor and submission date
• A summary/abstract of the thesis in two languages, cf. section regarding languages
• Table of contents with chapter headings and page numbers.
• Bibliography
• Appendices must be numbered and listed in the table of contents. Appendices of more than one page must have page numbers.

Quotations and the bibliography must follow the referencing style guide used by the specific field of study (for example IEEE, APA, Harvard or Vancouver), see website for Search & Write for guidance on the use of referencing styles.

When writing the thesis, one will have all the resources available. Nevertheless, it is important for the work you submit to be your own independent work. If any of the work included can be attributed to someone else, it is important for you to state this clearly in both the text and the bibliography, otherwise this could be classed as plagiarism/attempted plagiarism. 

Read guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence at HVL.

See also the HVL document on cheating policy guidelines

The student holds independent responsibility for ensuring that the work on the bachelor's thesis complies with any research ethics norms, rules and guidelines that apply to the project and subject area. The supervisor must also contribute to this, and help to ensure that this requirement is met.

All projects that include any personal data must be assessed in advance by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD). See Start-up of student projects under the Personal Data Act.

For more details, see the HVL guidelines on research ethics.

The submission deadline will be announced via Studentweb by the date of the registration deadline for assessment (1st September/1st February).

The thesis must be submitted in Wiseflow. The title of the thesis will be written on the diploma, and the student is responsible for registering the title in StudentWeb (in Norwegian only) upon submission.

See more about submitting a bachelor’s thesis on hvl.no.

From chapter 13 of the Regulations relating to studies and examinations at the Western Norwegian University of Applied Sciences (HVL):

• For the grading of bachelor’s theses, two examiners shall be appointed and at least one of these shall be an external examiner 
• For a bachelor’s thesis, internal supervisors can be appointed as one of the two examiners, but the external supervisor can not be one of the examiners based on the requirements outlined for external examiners in § 13-5.
• Examiners must, at a minimum, have a master’s degree within the relevant field of study or prove, through vocational practice, that they are specifically qualified within said field of study.

• In regard to determining grades, the external examiner will have the final say (§13-7 (2) a).

In the guidelines outlined in the National Curriculum Regulations for Engineer training (in Norwegian only, paragraph 4.4), guidance can be found for examiners in regard to bachelor theses for engineering-related subject.

Students’ rights to justifications of grades and appealing against grades are enshrined in the Regulations relating to studies and examinations at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and the Act relating to universities and university colleges.

For more information on assessment methods for the bachelor's thesis, see the course description.

See § 11-17 about the Group Examination in the Regulations relating to Studies and Examinations at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL):

(1) For group examinations, all members of the group must contribute to a joint product. The grade for the product shall be the same for every member of the entire group. If there is doubt as to whether a student has contributed, or has contributed sufficiently to receive recognition for the joint product; written individual statements shall be obtained from all members of the group, as well as the academic supervisor and the course coordinator. The university college may then make a decision as to whether the student shall be considered to have failed to appear for the examination.

(2) For the submission of a group examination, all of the students in the group must approve that the group leader submits the examination assignment on behalf of the entire group. This occurs once the group invitation in the examination system is accepted. For bachelor’s and master’s theses, the approval applies to the entire group and if the group leader approves the agreement concerning publication in the university college’s knowledge archive.
(3) It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that their submission is complete. If the submission is not in accordance with source rules and guidelines for the examination, all group participants may be suspected of cheating, pursuant to Chapter 12.

(4) A successfully completed group examination cannot be improved.

(5) When oral, adjusted oral, and practical examinations are carried out in a group, examiners shall ensure that all students in the group are examined in a scope that provides a sufficient basis for grading the group.

(6) If at least one student has a valid absence, or at least one of the groups have not passed the examination, a new exam will be arranged. If only one student with valid absence registers for examination, said student can sit for an individual examination unless otherwise is specified in the curriculum.

And § 13-13 about New assessment following the appeal of a grade:

(2) Individual students have the right to appeal a group examination grade. A potential adjustment to the grade following a reassessment of the examination grade will only affect the person who has submitted the appeal.

See § 11-19a about Revision of bachelor’s and master’s theses in Regulations relating to studies and examinations at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL):

(1) A student who has been given a failing grade on their bachelor's or master's thesis may submit an improved version to the examiner over the course of the two subsequent semesters. In case of compelling social or medical circumstances, the student may apply to submit their improved version after the two subsequent semesters. Requirements for documentation pursuant to section 11-5 (3) letter c apply correspondingly. Students are only allowed to submit an improved version once.

(2) It is not possible to improve a passing grade on a bachelor’s or master’s thesis in the same programme of study. Exemptions may be made from this rule if the student writes an entirely new thesis with a new topic.

(3) Upon submission of a new or improved version of a bachelor’s or master’s thesis, supervision for the student may be limited

Bachelor’s theses that receive a pass mark of either an A or B may be published on HVL Open. The student decides whether or not they would like the thesis to be published, unless otherwise agreed with a potential client.

You can find more information about terms and conditions for publication on the HVL website on Publication of theses (in Norwegian only) and Terms and conditions of publication on HVL Open (in Norwegian only). Please contact hvl-open@hvl.no for further information.

All students in the group retain the intellectual property rights for the bachelor’s thesis. The supervisor is responsible for ensuring that the ownership of data has been discussed and agreed upon before any work on the bachelor’s thesis starts. This also includes any collaboration with the data after the bachelor’s thesis has been submitted.

This guide will be amended if required, for instance if there are changes to the course description, or any changes are made to the relevant laws and regulations. Editorial changes are carried out by the Faculty Administration, while more significant changes must be approved by the dean of the faculty.