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Collaborate with students

A student comes equipped with new research-based knowledge and can often come up with new perspectives, solve problems and develop your organisation. Are you looking for students for degree projects, do you need to recruit employees, or do you want to showcase your organisation on campus?

This is how you can get in touch with students

Book an exhibition space at the Västerås or Eskilstuna campus

At MDU's campus in Västerås and in Eskilstuna, exhibition space is available where you as an employer can showcase your organisation and make contact with students and future employees. Here, you will have the opportunity to meet students, inform them about job vacancies, degree projects, work placements and receive applications of interest.

Please fill in your details in the form to send an application to book an exhibitor space in Eskilstuna or Västerås.

Advertising job vacancies

Through our advertising portal, you can advertise job vacancies, summer jobs, scholarships, trainee places and part-time jobs both in Sweden and abroad, free of charge.

Guest lecturers

A guest lecture can be a good opportunity to get insight into what the students are studying, and an opportunity to present your organisation and get in touch with both students and teachers.

Arrange study visits

Arrange study visits to your organisation by inviting the degree programme students or contacting the relevant programme association and inviting them to a study visit at your company.

Högvarv in collaboration with the Thesis and degree project days

Högvarv, which is the Mälardalen Student Union's job fair in collaboration with MDU's Thesis and Degree Project Days, creates an arena which allows for several interfaces between employers and students. Whether you're looking for new employees, students for degree projects, students on placements or just want to showcase your company or organisation – this is the space for you.

Companies, municipalities, regions, and organisations will be offered exhibition spaces, and the opportunity to hold lectures and networking events. Whether you're looking for students to take on summer jobs, students for degree projects, students on placements or just want to showcase your company – this is the place for you!

Students for degree projects and theses

All students carry out an independent project at the end of their education which is called a degree project or a thesis depending on the subject's specialisation and tradition.

The degree project can be based on a proposal from an employer but can also be a study on the student's own initiative. For the student, the degree project is an opportunity to test their knowledge under supervision.

Advantages of allowing a student to complete their degree project at your organisation:

  • You will gain valuable knowledge and the student will be better equipped for the labour market.
  • A student with recent research-based knowledge will often come up with new ways of looking at a problem or an issue.
  • The student is used to taking the initiative, working independently and critically reviewing information.

  • The degree project student must have a supervisor from the University and one from the current organisation. For a thesis project, you will just have a supervisor from the University.
  • When the student and the organisation have agreed on the degree project, the supervisor from the University must approve that the work can start.
  • The degree project comprises 10 or 20 weeks of full-time study.
  • The project must be carried out on a disciplinary foundation, which in brief means that there are scientific sources on which the work is based, that there is a theoretical model as a basis for analysis and that information is collected and analysed systematically.
  • The project must lead to a report or thesis that is then discussed during a seminar, which is open for anyone to listen to. At this seminar, an examiner assesses the quality of the project.

  • The student must work independently and without influence.
  • The student needs good conditions to be able to collect information and documentation for their project. This means, for example, that the employees involved are allowed to participate in interviews and can leave their work duties during that time.
  • It may also mean that the student participates in meetings or other activities, as well as gets access to material related to the realisation of the degree project.
  • In certain cases, the student may need their own workplace or location to perform tests or experiments.
  • It is important that the organisation's supervisor is interested in being a supervisor.
  • The supervisor of the organisation will receive a briefing before the student begins their project.
  • Some of the supervisor's most important tasks are to guide the student in the right direction and be available when the student asks for help.

  • As the client, it is your organisation that must come up with the assignment.
  • You will get the best results if you, together with the student, formulate the issues, identify the problem and go through needs and expectations.
  • The student must adhere to the academic requirements that apply to the independent project work and define the scope of the work, in discussions with the client and their supervisor at the University.
  • Tell the student what you in the organisation already know about the problem, what solutions you have tried before and what you think would be possible.
  • If you spend time on this at the start, the student will gain a deeper insight into the area and thus have better conditions to achieve a good result.

A degree project is part of the study programme and can be compared to a crucial test that must be carried out and approved. Therefore, the degree project must be presented in a specified format for the University, usually as a written report. The report or the thesis that the student will produce will be available at the University for anyone interested in reading it.

The principle of public access to official documents

The University has limited possibilities to keep degree projects confidential because they are subject to the principle of public access to official documents. Therefore, it is important that the student and the client determine if the thesis will contain sensitive information that the company wants to keep confidential. Often it can be solved, for example, whereby the information that the company does not want to be published can be blackmarked in the report or be placed in a separate Appendix which is not attached to the copy submitted to the University for archiving. An option is to write two different versions of the degree project and submit one to the University and one to the organisation.

Before the degree project starts, the organisation and the student should make a plan for how the results of the degree project will be presented. One suggestion is that the student give a presentation to the organisation. It is positive for the student if the result is acknowledged by the organisation.

Most higher education institutions have a policy that the student will not receive a salary while the degree project is in progress. But sometimes students may ask for a salary on their own initiative, then this is a matter between the organisation and the student. However, it is common for the organisation to cover costs such as mailings and travel.

The more the client involves the student in their operations, the greater the possibility that the student will remember you as a positive workplace. Therefore, some organisations try to offer students the chance to participate in trade fairs, customer visits and other activities that can be perceived as an extra "bonus".

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