• The student is able to develop a coherent design for the topic, method and structure of a master thesis on research master level and is able to present this to a multidisciplinary audience in a transparent and appealing way.
• The student can conduct independent research within his field of specialisation, and write a thesis that comes up to the requirements as specified in the assessment matrix of the HLCS-researchmasters.

Students will write a research thesis that draws on the knowledge acquired during the bachelor's programme and master's programme. Students will begin the initial preparations for their thesis during the second semester and must submit a completed version at the end of the fourth semester.

The preparation exists of two seminars and one individual meeting with the chosen supervisor to design and discuss the thesis subject. After these seminars and meeting the thesis agreement will be signed by two instructors (supervisor and second reader) and the student.

1^st meeting: plenary information seminar about writing a master thesis (January; coordinator research master)
2^nd meeting: disciplinary seminar with presentation and discussion of the thesis subjects (February; program coordinators HS, LS and AVC)
3^d meeting: individual tutorial on the research question and structure of the thesis; thesis agreement (soon after 2^nd meeting; supervisor)

The presentation part consists of a conference-like workshop in June in which students present their thesis to fellow students from all three HLCS-programmes and a wider audience. The organisation of this workshop is the responsibility of the students.
Students may write a portion of their thesis under the supervision of another university at home or abroad or at a Dutch research school. In exceptional cases, students can appeal to the Board of Examiners to write the entire thesis abroad.