Student gets 10 for master’s thesis

Student Véronique Verhagen has received a perfect 10 mark for her research master’s thesis at Language and Communication. Her supervisor Ad Backus said that he has never seen a better thesis in his whole career.

The thesis of Verhagen is about word combinations people unconsciously store in their brains, such as ‘scoring a goal’ or ‘reading a book’. Verhagen wanted to know how well these combinations are stored in the brains and whether there are differences between people.

Verhagen got a 10 for her thesis because, according to her supervisor, she did an excellent statistical study, which included interesting research results, and Verhagen wrote her story in a clear manner and in excellent English. At Verhagen’s graduation ceremony, Backus said that he could not have done better.

Verhagen has also received an NWO PhD scholarship. On October 1, she will start a PhD research project at Tilburg University.