Student blogs

Students in their final year of a Global Master’s programme are now facing the challenge of writing their thesis. It might seem like a huge task to write a thesis, but once you start it’s really not so bad!

The first step of writing a thesis is choosing the topic you will research and write about. In my opinion, this is the most important step, because if you do not like the topic it will feel like a very difficult task to write a thesis about something you are not interested in.

I’ve received several questions from students regarding the thesis, so thought this blog might give a little more clarity on how to choose a topic!

Top tips for choosing a thesis topic:

1. Start early
From my experience, it’s never too early to start thinking of a topic for your thesis. A few people in my class arrived on the master’s program already knowing what they wanted their thesis to be about, but I had no idea and that is ok too. I would recommend writing down any topic areas from lectures that you find particularly interesting. This way, you’ll have a shortlist by the time it comes to choosing a thesis topic.

2. Learn from others
Remember, you are not the first person ever to write a thesis. Look at theses from previous years to see what sort of projects are possible and the format of a thesis. This will help you to start thinking if any of your topic ideas are feasible.

3. Make connections
KI is world-renowned for its research. There are many inspirational researchers affiliated with KI conducting research both in Sweden and abroad. From my experience, researchers never mind an email from an interested student asking about their research. So email people, ask if there are projects available, and make those connections!

4. Keep an eye on the available project list
I’m not sure if this is available on other courses, but on the global health course, we have access to a list of available projects to choose from. There are not enough projects here for everyone, but if you find one that particularly interests you then you can reach out to the researcher on the project. This is a good way to connect students to researchers, and the list is updated regularly so there are always new projects to investigate.

5. Talk to your friends
As people start reaching out to researchers, they may be investigating more than one potential project. This means that there are lots of potential thesis topics out there that end up not being used. As a class, we made a spreadsheet where we shared any projects that we had looked into and then not accepted so that others could contact researchers about these topics. This was a useful way for some people to find topics that interested them.

Hopefully this shows you that it is possible to secure a thesis in a topic that you are interested in! With these tips, I hope you will find it less stressful to begin the journey of the master’s thesis.