• 15 November-5 December: Short talks with potential supervisors. Write to the supervisor(s) with whom you are interested in having a short discussion of your thesis idea. In this period, you may talk to several possible supervisors to clarify who is the best match for your thesis.
• Deadline, 5 December: Fill out the online formula with your supervisor request and preliminary thesis topic. Here, you can only request one supervisor, although with the option to specify 1-2 alternatives.
  The formula can be found here.
• After the deadline, the study administration and the supervisors determine whether all requests can be accommodated. If your request is not fulfilled in this first round, the director of studies will find you an alternative competent supervisor in the field.
• 15 December: You receive a notification at your AU email address whether your request has been fulfilled, or alternatively who can supervise you instead.
• Write to your new supervisor and make an appointment for the first meeting.

• 15 May- 5 June: Short talks with potential supervisors. Write to the supervisor(s) with whom you are interested in having a short discussion of your thesis idea. In this period, you may talk to several possible supervisors to clarify who is the best match for your thesis.
• Deadline, 5 June: Fill out the online formula with your supervisor request and preliminary thesis topic. Here, you can only request one supervisor, although with the option to specify 1-2 alternatives.
  The formula can be found here.
• After the deadline, the study administration and the supervisors determine whether all requests can be accommodated. If your request is not fulfilled in this first round, the director of studies will find you an alternative competent supervisor in the field.
• 15 June: You receive a notification at your AU email address whether your request has been fulfilled, or alternatively who can supervise you instead.
• Write to your new supervisor and make an appointment for the first meeting.

The role of supervisor

Before choosing a supervisor for your Master’s thesis, you should consider the purpose of the supervision. Should your supervisor primarily be:

• An academic expert well-acquainted with the research and literature in your field?
• An expert on the type of data and methods which you will be using in your thesis?
• A process supervisor who can help you structure the process and set deadlines, but who is not necessarily specialised in your field of research?

Often, the supervisor will offer a combination of the above, but it is important that you reflect on your core supervision needs to succeed with your thesis. The chemistry between the student and the supervisor is important, but it is also very much about balancing expectations.

That is why it may be a good idea to write down what you expect from a supervisor during the Master’s thesis process. It is your own responsibility to find a supervisor among the permanent lecturers at the Department of Political Science. In this connection, it’s common practice to contact a few potential supervisors before you make the final decision. To actually “shop around” for a supervisor by contacting several lecturers - perhaps even several times - before you make up your mind, is not advisable. However, making introductory contact to two or three lecturers about the possibility of Master’s thesis supervision can be a good way of finding a supervisor. 

Supervision plan

The Degree Programme Order specifies that the university is responsible for setting up a Master’s thesis supervision plan for the student.

When you have found a supervisor, the two of you need to balance your expectations and plan the process.

• When is supervision necessary?
• The meeting intervals
• The type of supervision (e.g. process supervision or just constructive dialogue)?
• How much and what parts of the Master’s thesis will the supervisor read during the process?

The division of roles between the thesis writer and the supervisor:

The thesis writer Makes the decisions, does the work	Supervisor Acts as consultant, assessor
Comes up with ideas Makes choices Structures Produces	Challenges/faciliates/limits Makes the student aware of the consequences of his/her choices Provides an overview and specific feedback Marks the thesis in collaboration with the co-examiner

Remember that the thesis will always be “work in progress”, and that a good thesis process is concluded with a thesis which is handed in on time.