Recent trends in MA thesis defense

Failed Thesis

Every year, 5% (15-20) students fail in thesis defense.
There is a big variation in thesis defense evaluation. It has been raised as an issue and the faculty have been trying to resolve the problem.
However, the thesis that failed are low-quality and the thesis with good quality passes with few exceptions. (low-quality thesis sometimes pass and sometimes fail depending on luck.)
Rule of thumb: Write a good thesis!

Academic contribution is less important. However ...

Academic contribution has been the main source of score variation because the level of academic contribution (for pass) is hard to define and is subject to faculty member.
However, it doesn't mean that a thesis may have zero contribution.
All thesis are still required to have new elements to the literature. New elements can be broadly defined.
Replication, survey, horse racing papers also contain new elements. (Will discuss more on this.)

Effort of students are more important

The thesis should be clearly differentiated from course project reports in terms of completeness, length, and devoted time.
You should have a good understanding of the research question: why the topic is important? / what is the story? / why replicate?
Your thesis should be a complete story.

Format of thesis is important

Plagiarism check: School runs plagiarism check before 1-2 weeks of defense.
- > 40%: Disqualified for defense (no presentation)
- > 10%: Warning. Final thesis should be below 10% or fail.
Structure of paper, citation, references, English, etc. Samples will be audited by ministry of education. (Will discuss more on this.)