Collaboration with an external party in the degree project
Collaboration with an external party in the degree project
Your degree project can be focused on solving an engineering or artistic problem at an external company. If you wish to carry out your degree project at a company, it is your responsibility to find the company and specialisation, as well as a supervisor and examiner. Sometimes questions arise about agreements that regulate the work to be carried out. This page outlines in more detail some aspects that are important to consider.
The principle of public access applies to degree projects
As a rule, degree projects at LTH are to be public, i.e. they should be published openly and available to everyone. Transparency is a prerequisite for the exercise of public authority, such as in assessments in which the degree project forms the basis for the grade. By law, the degree project is to be archived at the University and, based on the principle of public access, it becomes a public record when submitted for assessment. This is impossible to waive by means of an agreement.
Agreement between student and company
Often the external party wishes to establish an agreement to regulate the ownership of results and issues relating to confidential information. Before starting the project, it may therefore be relevant for you and the company (possibly with the help of the supervisor and examiner) to specify what kind of information cannot be included in the degree project and what kind of information will need to be included in the degree project in order for it to be possible to examine it. If no agreement can be found, you should consider whether it is even possible to conduct that degree project.
Usually, it is the company that requests the agreement and it is usually with the student the company wishes to enter into an agreement. Lund University (the supervisor) is not to be party to the degree project agreement – such an agreement can only be entered into by the student and the company. In this context, you as the student are deemed external to the University and cannot independently enter into agreements that force the University to handle information in a certain way. If the agreement states that you cannot pass on certain information to third parties, this means that the information cannot be provided to the University. This can lead to several undesirable consequences, such as difficulties in supervision and collaboration with relevant lecturers and other staff at the University. In the worst-case scenario, the agreement may make it impossible to assess or archive the degree project.
As mentioned above, it is not uncommon for confidentiality agreements to be considered for degree projects carried out at companies. It is important to emphasise that it is you who personally commits to a confidentiality agreement and therefore, before signing, you must ensure that the terms of the agreement do not prevent you from being able to carry out the degree project.
For these reasons, LTH recommends using the agreement template below. Please note that since you enter into the agreement as a private individual, the University takes no responsibility, provides no assistance and does not undertake to represent you in any future dispute with the company.
Confidentiality at the University
University supervisors and examiners can only be subject to an obligation of confidentiality in the performance of their duties as is regulated by law. Supervisors and examiners are not permitted to sign any confidentiality agreements beyond this.
In very exceptional cases, LTH may sign confidentiality agreements with companies in which it is stated that LTH will keep information from the company confidential (based on what is possible for LTH to do within the framework of the Swedish Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act). In these cases, a confidentiality agreement template is used, which you can find in the list of available agreement templates. However, the individual supervisor or examiner never signs such an agreement, but rather the person who is authorised to do so according to LU’s delegation rules, which is most often the head of department.
List of available agreement templates
Templates for degree projects conducted in collaboration with an external party
An agreement template has been created that will give you an idea of how to draft a suitable degree project agreement. You can find in in the list of available agreement templates.
Please note that it is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with the content of the agreement. The University takes no responsibility, provides no assistance and does not undertake to represent you in any future dispute with the company.
List of available agreement templates
General advice on the degree project report
It is often possible to write a public degree project report for assessment even if the project deals with confidential information. It is important that there is an agreement between you and the company you are collaborating with on what information is to be treated as confidential before the project starts. There are several measures that can be taken to avoid revealing the company’s data in the report, in a way that still ensures assessment can take place. One option is omitting the name of the company or hiding certain details, for example by codifying chemical substances or confidential specifics. Another is to manipulate certain values in equations, but only under the condition that they are still scientifically correct. Another example is removing certain images.
FAQ
A confidentiality agreement is an agreement that regulates the handling of specific information. In most cases, this means prohibiting the sharing of information with people who are not parties to the agreement.
Yes, you can, but make sure the terms of the agreement do not prevent you from sharing information with the University or your work being assessed.
No, they cannot. Only information that is explicitly protected by law may be considered confidential and be tried before a court. Like all other Swedish public authorities, the University is subject to the constitutional principle of public access. The principle of public access involves an obligation to provide public records upon request.
As a first point of call, you should contact the person who sent you the agreement. If you are still unsure, you should contact a legal advisor outside the University (Lund University lawyers and other members of staff are not in a position to offer advice). For example, the union Engineers of Sweden offers its members legal advice and Juristjouren offers legal advice to students. Do not sign any agreement until you feel you have received sufficient guidance. To avoid the issue of confidentiality agreements altogether, you can always choose to write a degree project that is not linked to an external organisation.
As a rule, degree projects are always public and accessible. This means that projects submitted to the University for assessment cannot be considered confidential. There may sometimes be different ways to deal with this, and as a student, you should work with the company to find a workable solution (see examples under the question “How do I avoid taking on a project with confidential material?”). When the degree project is submitted for examination, it is classified as a public record and access to it may be requested by the general public according to the principle of public access.
It is important that there is an agreement between you and the company you are collaborating with on what information is to be treated as confidential before the project starts. There are several measures that can be taken to avoid revealing the company’s data in the report, in a way that still ensures assessment can take place. One option is omitting the name of the company. If not all information is required for the purposes of assessment, some of it may be concealed, for example by codifying chemical substances or confidential specifics. Another is to manipulate certain values in equations, but only under the condition that they are still scientifically correct. Another example is removing certain images if they are not required for assessment.
You always have the option to write a degree project that is not linked to an external organisation.
Yes, depending on the terms and conditions. The degree project submitted to Lund University is a public record.
Yes, it can. Make sure that you do not sign away the right to future income that any invention may provide.
Yes, it does. This can have negative consequences for both supervision and assessment. Talk to your examiner about what this might mean for you. If there is a risk of the assessment being delayed, the agreement should specify reasonable compensation to be paid to the student. Only when all the courses that form the basis of the degree have been approved and reported, is it possible to apply for a degree certificate.
As a student with residence permit for studies a delay in assessment could cause serious problems for your residence permit situation. Please contact your coordinator if you need advice regarding your residence permit.
Lund University is a public authority and is subject to the principle of public access to records. This principle means that information and documents received or created at the University are public records, and everyone has the right to access them. This means that when a student submits material for assessment to a University staff member, the documents become accessible to the public.
For more information on public access to records and secrecy, see Chapter 24, Section 5 of the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (SFS 2009:400) and for restrictions to the public accessibility of documents, see Chapter 2, Section 2 of the Freedom of the Press Act (SFS 1949:105).
At LTH all degree projects must be uploaded in LUP Student Papers, as part of the work process, but you can choose between three different access levels. The access level determines the degree of visibility. The report can be available in full to anyone (open access), available within LU/LTH, or available only to the author, reviewer, and administrators. There is also the option to set a date after which the report is made fully available to all readers.
The choice of accessibility only affects how easy it is to access and search for the report. Even if the report is published with limited visibility in LUP Student Papers it is still a public document and must be made available to anyone who requests to get access to the report.