GLOBE4091 – Master's Thesis in Development, Environment and Cultural Change

After completing the course, you will have:

• learned how to plan and complete an extensive research project on sustainable development
• learned how to gather and critically systematize and analyse a substantial amount of information on your selected topic
• increased knowledge of relevant interdisciplinary theory and research methods
• gained academic writing skills in English

Admission to the Master's programme Development, Environment and Cultural Change and passing grades in the compulsory courses:

• GLOBE4100 – Research Methods and Project Design
• GLOBE4200 – Advanced Introduction to Development and Environment
• GLOBE4300 – Text Lab

For students who started their DECC Master`s degree before Autumn 2025:

• SUM4100 – Research Methods and Project Design (continued)
• SUM4200 – Advanced Introduction to Development and Environment (continued)
• SUM4300 – Text Lab

Mainly individual supervision (or supervision in groups). The students are assigned a supervisor after the completion of GLOBE4100 – Research Methods and Project Design.

As a general rule, the scope of the supervision relationship should encompass up to 12 hours, beginning with an initial meeting in the student’s second semester and ending with the thesis submission. Meetings between advisor and student are more effective when both parties agree beforehand on the subject of the meeting and the issues or questions to be discussed. In the final writing phase, the subject will usually be drafts of sections of the thesis, which should be submitted to the advisor in advance of meetings.

The course encompasses not only individual supervision and writing the thesis itself, but also participation in Masterlab sessions. The sessions will be divided unequally between the autumn and the spring semester, and attendance is compulsory. Read more about regulations regarding compulsory activities.

AI use

You must familiarise yourself with UiO's general guidelines for how to use AI as a student and the legal guidelines for the use of AI at UiO. For the Master's thesis, GLOBE only permits use of the tools available from the UiO platform with UIO login, to avoid sharing data, sensitive information and copyrighted material in external AI tools. Do note that language models such as ChatGPT cannot be cited. Always use original sources.

The use of generative AI must follow the same principle as for academia in general: You are the author of your Master’s thesis and must be able to defend the full content, from cover to cover, including all text and images. AI can support, but never replace, your understanding, knowledge, and skills. Your Master’s thesis must be your own work and demonstrate your knowledge, which will be tested in your oral defence.

To ensure that AI is only used as support and not as replacement for your own work, students must clearly indicate when and how AI is used when developing the Master’s thesis. Hence, it is obligatory to fill out and submit a declaration of AI use as an appendix to the Master’s Thesis at GLOBE. The declaration can be found here.

Practical information about thesis work at GLOBE.

The final Master`s degree exam consists of an individual Master`s thesis (24000-36000 words - approx. 80-100 pages. Front matter, appendix, and bibliography not included) and an oral examination. A commission consisting of one internal and one external examiner assesses the thesis, and the oral examination may adjust the final grade. The oral examination will only be held if the Master`s thesis is given a passing grade.

For practical information, please read more about Submitting the Master's Thesis at GLOBE.

Assessment guide

A master’s thesis that is not passed may be resubmitted only once, and then within the agreed time and in revised form. A master’s thesis that is passed may not be resubmitted in revised form.

If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline, this will be counted as an examination attempt.