CME Master Thesis

The CME Master Thesis consists of individually conducting a research, development or design project in the field of your Construction Management and Engineering graduation domain*. The thesis project is based on the thesis proposal approved by your thesis committee as part of CME5100 Master Thesis preparation.

During the CME Master Thesis, you are to demonstrate the capacity to conduct your research, development or design project at the academic Master level by showing the ability to be able to independently plan, execute and manage your thesis project. During the thesis project you are additionally expected to demonstrate the ability to apply relevant theory, to set-up and execute a sound methodology, to critically interpret and reflect on obtained results and to present your findings in a well-structured manner through written and oral communications in proper English.

As the CME Master Thesis is worth 30 credits, you are expected to finalize the thesis project in approximately 6 months when including some free time for holidays etc, or net 21 weeks observing a 40-hour work week. This excludes the time spent on CME5100 Master Thesis preparation.

*) The thesis topic must be chosen within the scope of your CME graduation domain, which is either Design & Integration (D&I), Projects & People (P&P) or Systems en Decision Support (E&S). Each graduation domain may have specific requirements regarding the thesis topic: please check the CME community Brightspace for the corresponding information.

At the final graduation session, the members of the graduation committee together determine the CME5200 CME Master Thesis grade during a closed meeting and without presence of the student. This meeting is part of the final graduation session and succeeds both the final presentation and the Q&A session. The assessment of the Master Thesis is performed by the examiner members of the thesis committee taking into account the final attainments of the CME program and using the rubric for CME5200 CME Master Thesis. University members that are not appointed as examiner by the Board of Examiners and external (company) members only have an advisory role. If the examiner members cannot find consensus on the grade, the committee chair determines the grade based on the input of the other members of the graduation committee.

The CME5200 CME Master Thesis rubric distinguishes the following three main aspects:

1. Content/Product: Quality of research, development or design presented in the Master Thesis; This aspect has to be sufficient in itself to lead to a sufficient overall score.

2. Process: Working and learning attitude during the thesis project.

3. Presentation and Communication: a) Report, b) Oral presentation and Defence