Master's degree in Sustainability Science and Technology

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Master's thesis (TFM)

The master's thesis is the result of synthesising the knowledge areas covered by the master's degree. The goal is the practical application of the specific competencies developed during classes and workshops on the master's degree, in a process that also tests generic and transferable skills, such as work habits and personal summarising abilities. Students prepare an oral defence of their master's thesis lasting 20-25 minutes. This presentation is public and takes place before an examination committee, composed of three academics.

 

Content and format

The result of the work must be summarised in a document that must include at least the following sections:

  • Abstract (Catalan, Spanish and English)
  • Table of contents, list of tables and figures
  • List of acronyms
  • Definition of objectives
  • Analysis of background, state of the art, and viability
  • Methodology
  • Development and analysis of results
  • Analysis of the sustainability and ethical implications of the work following the 'Guide to incorporating sustainability analysis and ethical implications in TFEs'. Given the nature of the theses developed in this master, this section should only explicitly address those aspects outlined in the guide that have not been implicitly covered throughout the work.
  • Conclusions
  • References

  

Administrative process

Proposals for master's theses

To start the administrative process for the master's thesis and its defence, a proposal must be published by the tutor via the corresponding form for proposals. If the thesis is to be carried out on an international mobility programme, the conditions for the procedure can be found in the section Mobility applications (subsection "Master's theses one mobility programmes") in the international mobility section of the website.

Enrolment

To enrol for the master's thesis, a topic must have been assigned to the student beforehand. Enrolment allows the master's thesis to be supervised and assessed. This process must be completed before the thesis is started. In accordance with UPC regulations, enrolment is valid for one semester. Student who wish to extend the preparation of the defence into the following semester must enrol again. In this case, they pay the enrolment fees but they do not pay for credits. The thesis enrolment period for each semester can be found in the corresponding academic procedures calendar.

Deposit

Students must deposit the master's thesis as a PDF file with a maximum file size of 40 MB and a standardised cover before the fixed dates, through the e-Secretaria (only available in Spanish). If desired, authorisation may be given for the thesis to be shared on UPCommons. Before this procedure, the tutor must have completed the thesis monitoring report (fita 3a)  that authorises the deposit and defence of the thesis.

 

Additional information:

Students enrolled in the second semester (S2) who cannot deposit their thesis during the academic year in which they are enrolled may request additional enrolment in the following semester or ordinary enrolment in one of the following semesters. All the information required to undertake this procedure can be found here (information only available in Catalan).The dates of deposit and defence are published in the academic calendar for the following academic year. In the case of additional enrolment (the student is enrolled in S2 but defends the thesis in October), the deposit deadlines are usually in mid-September, and the defence a month later, in mid-October.

Support: by e-mail to SIAE-Camins: masters.camins@upc.edu, with the subject line "Incidència Entrega Digital".

Defence

The period for defending the master's thesis can be consulted in the corresponding calendar. One week before the beginning of this period, the tutor must have communicated the name of the chair of the examination committee to the directors of the MCTS, as well as the chosen date and time of the defence. The examination committee (consisting of members of the academic programme's teaching and research staff) includes a chair, a secretary (in this case the thesis supervisor) and an ordinary member, who will be drawn by lot from the academic programme's teaching and research staff. Co-supervisors may participate in the examination committee, but they cannot vote. (In any case, this must be arranged with and accepted by the supervisor, as the secretary of the examination committee.)

The most recent information received by the directors of the MCTS on upcoming examination committees and their members can be found here.

Official information concerning the place, date and time of defences is published here.

Confidentiality

Once the master's thesis has been defended, it is by default publicly accessible under a UPCommons licence. In other cases, the supervising professor must issue a confidentiality statement has to be issued by the supervising professor. The statement must be filled in, signed and attached to the thesis defence record.

Master's theses on mobility programmes

For more information on the procedure of undertaking a master's thesis on a mobility programme, see this link.

 

Proposals for master's theses

There are three types of proposals for a master's thesis:

  • Proposals presented by students, in agreement with the professor acting as supervisor.
  • General proposals presented by professors on the master's degree. See these proposals (information only available in Catalan) 
  • Proposals in the context of the UPC - Campus Lab Project. See the TFM proposals in this link.
  • Other external proposals.  Proposals by companies, other institutions, research groups, etc. In this context, the thesis is carried out in collaboration with one of the following external entities (depending on the availability of proposals):

 

Previous theses

Follow the links for master's theses from previous years:

 

Regulations

For more information, see the Internal Regulations on Master's Theses.