Suggestion for alternative third semester

Our 3. semester has the form of Specialization courses. The students
choose a specialization of about 20sp, aiming for a thesis topic. Instead
of courses, we could offer an alternative form, a Specialization project
of 15sp. In addition, they have to choose a 5sp course from the general
field of the project and electives of 10sp.

The specialization project would resemble the form of a bachelor thesis
and the report would be graded. The work would be a prelude to the master
thesis.

There needs to be a coordinator for each specialization and there needs to
be worked out specifications and requirement for this new "course", i.e.,
the project is defined in a new course description. 

The standard is still expected to be specialization through courses, but
if an advisor and a student are interested, they may define a project in
cooperation with the coordinator.

The option of a Specialization project is very close to how IPT-NTNU
organizes their last Fall semester, see file "Petr-eng-Petr-geosc.pdf" and
description of the project starting on page 618 in the file
"studiekatalog-siving-07-08.pdf".

Perhaps the form of the report could follow the SPE Style Guide and
specifications.

Svein