{"id":1156,"date":"2020-07-07T07:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T07:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/business-economics\/?p=1156"},"modified":"2020-07-08T13:24:22","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T13:24:22","slug":"the-masters-thesis-defenses-went-virtual-and-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uantwerpen.be\/business-economics\/the-masters-thesis-defenses-went-virtual-and-public\/","title":{"rendered":"For the first time ever, the Master’s thesis defenses were held virtually and publicly"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The University of Antwerp, and higher education in general, had to get creative due to the pandemic. Professors and students alike had to adapt to online teaching within a matter of weeks. Exams were hosted both online and offline in large event halls. And now, for the first time ever, even the Master\u2019s thesis defenses were held online instead of on campus.<\/strong><\/p>

The Department of Transport and Regional Economics went one step further and made good use of the opportunity by opening the defenses up to the public. This way, friends, family and other interested parties could support the students while learning something new at the same time.<\/p>

In total, 51 students defended their thesis online within this department. Among them were Lauranne Ruymen and Josip Vermeiren.<\/p>

Josip Vermeiren<\/h2>

\"\"\u201cWriting a Master’s thesis is always a very intense process and the coronacrisis in my opinion only made this worse. As soon as we went into lockdown in March, I started working on my thesis non-stop. At times, it wasn\u2019t easy to step away from it and just relax.<\/em><\/p>

The online defense however was a positive experience. I was in my room,\u00a0 in my own familiar environment\u2026 I probably would have been more stressed if I had to do a defense in an auditorium on campus.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Lauranne Ruymen<\/h2>

\"\"<\/em><\/p>

“The fact that the defense was online did not change my preparation. Still, it was exciting to present online because it makes it harder to assess the reactions of your promoter and assessor. In addition, the unexpected visitors created extra pressure, especially because you cannot see them and you do not know who they are. <\/em><\/p>

Luckily, there were no problems during my online defense. Nevertheless, I prefer a (classic) defense on campus.”<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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