Master's degree in Sustainability Science and Technology

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Final Master Thesis (TFM)

The TFM is the result of a synthesis of different knowledge areas encompassed by the master programme. The goal is the practical application of the specific competencies developed during classes and workshops of the master on a process that also tests other generic and transversal skills, like working habits and personal synthesis capability. The student prepares an oral defence of 20-25 minutes of his or her master thesis. This presentation is public and takes place before a tribunal, staffed with three professors of the academic programme.

 

Content and format

The result of the work has to be summarized in a document containing a maximum of 100 pages with the format Times New Roman 11 and single line spacing (or an equivalent format), it has to include at least the following sections:

  • Summary (Catalan, Castellan and English) (between 300 and 400 words)
  • Key words (maximum of 6)
  • Definition of the objectives
  • Analysis of background and the viability
  • Methodology
  • Development and analysis of the results
  • Discussion of the results
  • Conclusions
  • Bibliography

 

 

Administrative Process

Release of proposals for master theses

In order to start the administrative process related to the master thesis and its defence, the proposal for the TFM has to be published by the tutor by means of the corresponding form for the release of proposals. In case that the TFM will be done within an international mobility programme, the conditions of the procedure can be found in the section going out (subsection master thesis(TFM) within mobility programmes) within the chapter international mobility of this website.

Enrolment

In order to enrol for the TFM, it is indispensable that it had been assigned to the student before. The enrolment allows the supervision and the evaluation of the TFM, thus, it has to be completed before beginning with the thesis. In accordance with the regulations of UPC, the enrolment is valid for one term. In case that the student wants to extend the elaboration of the defence to the following term, he or she has to enrol again. Thereby, the student only has to pay the enrolment fees, but not the credits. The enrolment period of the TFM can be found for each term in the corresponding calendar.

Delivery

In order to deliver the TFM, the student has to hand in the digitalized document in PDF format with a maximum of 40 MB, with the standardized cover and within the fixed dates,  through the e-Secretariat. If desired, authorisation can also be given to share the document of the TFM at UPCommons. Before this, the tutor must have completed the following form TFM (fita 3a)  with authorisation for delivery and defence of the TFM.

 

Additional information:

Students enrolled in the 2nd term (Q2) that cannot deliver in a course in which they are enrolled, can claim for an additional enrolment in the following term or for an ordinary enrolment in one of the following terms. All the information required to undertake this procedure can be found here (information only available in Catalan).The dates of delivery and defence are published in the academic calendar of the following course. In case of an additional enrolment (the student is enrolled in Q2 but defends in October), the dates for delivery are usually in the middle of September and for defence a month later, in the middle of October.

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

Defence

The period of defences of the TFM can be found in the corresponding calendar. One week before the beginning of this period, the tutor must have communicated the name of the person who acts as president of the tribunal, to the directorate of the MCTS, as well as the chosen date and time of the defence. The tribunal (consisting of members from the PDI of the academic programme) includes a president, a secretary (in this case the supervisor of the TFM) and a spokesperson, who will be drawn by lot from the members of the PDI of the academic programme. In case, that there is a co-supervisor, he or she can be part of the tribunal, but without vote (in any case, this has to be arranged with and issued by the supervisor as secretary of the tribunal).

Most recent information received by the directorate of the MCTS about upcoming tribunals and their members can be found here.

Official information concerning place, date and time of defences, finally, will be published here.

Privacy

Once the TFM has been defended, it is by default publicly accessible with the license of UPCommons. In other cases, the Confidentiality Statement of the professor has to be issued by the supervising professor. This document needs to be filled, signed and attached to the TFM defence record.

TFM within a mobility programme

In order to obtain more information about the procedure of undertaking a TFM within a mobility programme, go to this link.

 

Proposals for TFM

There are three options to define proposals for a TFM:

  • Proposals directly presented by students, in accordance with the professor acting as supervisor.
  • General proposals presented by professors of the Master. Proceed to these proposals (information only available in Catalan) 
  • Other external proposals.  Proposals by companies, other institutions, research groups, etc. In this context, the Master allows to do a TFM in collaboration with one of the following external entities (always regarding the availability of proposals):

 

Previous theses

The following links show final master theses from previous years:

 

Regulations

For more information, see Internal Regulations of the Master Thesis.

 

Rooms for students working on their TFM

The research Institute of Sustainability Science and Technologies disposes over two rooms for studying.

These rooms are intended exclusively for the use of students working on their TFM, they are located within the ISST campus and their use is coordinated in accordance with the requirements of the ISST and its timetable (from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 to 16:30 approx.). Priority evaluations are made at the beginning of each spring term, by means of the necessity declared by the student and the supervising professor.