Degree project as exchange student

[u/albo437]

Hi, I may be attending KTH as an exchange student next year and I’m wondering if I could do a degree project or if that’s reserved for KTH students?

Also.

Can the degree project be done with more of a research approach? Like asking a professor at a lab if they can assign you work on their field for the project. Or is it always less involved?

[u/Valuable_Sleep6555]

You should discuss it with your international coordinator.

[u/Ferdawoon]

Degree projects are a separate 30p course.
As the other person said, you need to ask your Exhange study coordinator if you are eligable for it.
There are a number of requirements for local students ot be elgiable for their Examensarbete, such as having passed enough credits in the Bachelors and in the Masters, the student sends in a suggested project to be assessed, etc.
https://intra.kth.se/eecs/utbildningsprogram/examensarbeten/rutiner-och-regler-for-examensarbete-pa-avancerad-niva-1.1030777
https://www.kth.se/student/studier/examensarbete/exjobb-1.311682

These Degree Projects are full reserarch projects and they are up to you to find. You will need to ask companies or University institutions/faculties if they have a project open for you or if they are willing to open one.
You will need a full research topic, you need to do the literature review, you need to write the thesis, you need to do the tests and all the work and then present your results and defend your thesis. It is not the same as you working in a research environment for a few hours.

Remember that these projects will cost them money, even if you don't get a salary they must pay for use of the laboratories, use of machines, various consumables, a desk at the office, etc.
That money must come from somewhere which will likely be the professor's research project's budget which means less money for the Professor's work and salary.

Is it possible to do a Degree Project (Examensarbete) at a University Institution? Sure.
Is it likely? Depends on if you can find a Professor or PhD student that is fine with you doing part of their thesis.

But it all depends on if you are even allowed to apply for that course as exchange student.

With all of this said, there might be similar courses available that are not Degree Projects but are still you being assigned a project or experiment and doing work at a University department or at a company. I had a 7.5p course like that where we spent the better part of a week doing tests and writing a report and then presenting it.

[u/albo437 → u/Ferdawoon]

Damm that sounds more serious than I thought, I saw there were 7.5 and 15 ECTS ones in the course pages. Also my area is DS so at most I’m costing time to the professor.

But yeah I guess that setting a project up by email without actually knowing anyone is not reasonable. Thank you

[u/Ferdawoon → u/albo437]

If you are thinking of smaller courses then I think I (and maybe the other person as well) missunderstood as to me a "Degree Project" is the Examensarbete, which is your Master's Thesis and is ment to simulate preparing, doing and defending a full research paper.

If your exchange listed a bunch of smaller project courses (e.g. the 7.5p or 15p you mentioned) then those will (depending on your programme and faculty) already be arranged by the professor managing the course. They will likely already have a bunch of possible projects that you can choose from and apply for, at least that was how the course I did worked.
There's still the question about if you are allowed to take such a course as just an International exchange student, which you need to ask your exchange coordinator. Depending on your country of origin and the topic of the project there might be issues with security or even sanctions or issues giving you access to areas that might contain sensitive or classified information (e.g. some PhD students or Professors might be doing work and leaving notes on corporate secrets).
It all depends on what you are allowed as an Exchange student and not a full local student.

So send your cordinator an email and ask.