Each master thesis will be assessed by a master thesis committee. This thesis committee consists of two members: a coach and a second assessor.
Thesis committee criteria:
- The members of the thesis committee must be appointed as an examiner by the Examination Board.
- The coach must be a member of the academic RSM personnel associated with the department offering the student’s MSc programme: this includes tenured and tenure track staff as well as senior PhD candidates (third year or beyond) and untenured lecturers if they are appointed as an examiner. An exception can be made for former faculty members or PhD candidates who were associated with the department offering the MSc programme concerned: they may continue to act as coach after the termination of the employment contract for a maximum of one year.
- At least one of the members of the thesis committee must be a tenured or tenure track RSM examiner. Hence, pairs consisting exclusively of PhD candidates and/or untenured lecturers are not allowed.
- The composition of the thesis committee must ensure that the thesis will be assessed independently, objectively and without bias. Consequently, some combinations of coach and second assessor are deemed unsuitable such as PhD candidate and (co)promotor, job appraisers with job appraisees without a PhD degree.
Experts
Furthermore, at the request of the thesis coordinator, an internal or external expert may be temporarily appointed as a second assessor of a thesis committee. This person must meet the following requirements:
- a completed PhD, or a university master´s degree with demonstrable extensive experience in performing scientific research.
- this examiner may act as a second assessor only.