Context dependent

“Students must know what they want to achieve. They have to ask the right questions, and answer them. The appropriate supervisor can help them accomplish this. It’s an illusion to think that a Master’s thesis is a scientific paper and context-independent (developing knowledge that draws you closer to “truth”). Everything has to do with context, relations among people, relations to data, relations to science itself. Students must be clear what they are buying into, before starting research. The challenge is that students often do not know which questions are relevant, as these emerge during the process. Besides the supervisor, the institution of the university (and how it organizes this process of match-making and helps the student to ask the right questions etc.) is important in helping them solve this issue.”

(Urs Jäger)