Bachelor's thesis
Objectives of a bachelor’s thesis and the supervisor’s responsibilities at the different stages of the thesis process
With a bachelor’s thesis, students demonstrate their ability to apply their acquired knowledge and skills, engage in scientific or artistic thinking and activities and communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, in their mother tongue. Students typically attend a bachelor's thesis seminar while working on their bachelor’s thesis.
Students write their bachelor’s thesis under the supervision of a member of teaching and research staff who holds at least a master’s degree and is familiar with the topic and field of the thesis and the relevant assessment criteria. The supervisor is expected to offer advice on the academic content of the work and the research process and support the student throughout the project.
The stages of a bachelor’s thesis process are outlined below:
| Responsibilities of students during a BSc thesis process | Responsibilities of supervisors/examiners during a BSc thesis process | |
| 1 | consider potential topics in advance (for example, in the spring of their second year with the teacher tutor) | |
| 2 | enroll on a bachelor’s thesis seminar where the student is assigned a supervisor | The thesis seminars are held according to the curriculum of the degree programme. |
| 3 | agree on the thesis topic with the supervisor (who usually also acts as the examiner). Fill in a Thesis Supervision Plan, whish is to be found on the Student's forms page. | The suprevisor prepares a Thesis Supervision Plan. Agree on the goals, schedule, assessment criteria, the frequency of meetings between student and supervisor, the stages of the thesis process and the language of the thesis (decided by student and supervisor) |
| 4 | The bachelor’s thesis seminar includes, among other things, information literacy training. The thesis process progresses systematically based on intermediate goals. The student is expected to take the feedback provided by the supervisor into consideration while writing the thesis. | The supervisor maintains regular contact with the student (intermediate goals, feedback, peer activities) |
| 5 | give an oral presentation on the thesis and provide constructive feedback to peers (opponent) (if the seminar includes attainments) | |
| 6 | Agrees with the supervisor about the time of the maturity test. The maturity test is taken as an electronic exam in EXAM. NOTE! The thesis abstract serves as a maturity test until August 31, 2024. | The supervisor assesses the content of the maturity test and takes care of recording the final grade in Sisu. |
| 7 | The originality check of the of thesis by Turnitin-system | The supervisor conducts the originality check. |
| 8 | Submitting a thesis for examination through Trepo system. Read more from Libguide | The examiner reviews the thesis, provides feedback and gives a grade (=examination statement). The thesis must be examined within 21 or 28 days after the date of submission. The time limit for checking the maturity test is 28 days when the maturity test is an electronic exam and 21 days when the thesis summary serves as the maturity test. The examiner delivers the examination statement to the student services assistant of the faculty that administers the student’s degree programme. Examiners are encouraged to discuss the examination of a bachelor’s thesis with the student. The faculty sends the examination statement to the student. |
| 9 | From August 1, 2022, appealing against thesis assessment will be submitted first to the teacher who conducted the assessment and later, if necessary, to the relevant Faculty Council, see more detailed instructions from the Appeals against grades page. |
The supervisor and student must discuss the student's goals and expectations for the thesis and the relevant assessment criteria. The role of a supervisor is to guide and support the student in the process of engaging in scientific inquiry and the development of scientific thinking. Students are entitled to a reasonable level of supervision. Supervisors and students should be familiar with their respective roles and responsibilities in the thesis process.
Academic guidance and counselling
The supervisor is a person who is a member of the University’s teaching and research staff, holds at least a master’s degree and is familiar with the field and topic of the thesis as well as the assessment criteria of theses. The supervisor’s task is to support the preparation of your thesis in terms of content and research process at the different stages of working on the thesis. In the seminar, you are assigned a thesis supervisor based on your topic.
Discuss with your supervisor the goals and assessment criteria of the thesis as well as your goals relative to the assessment criteria. As the supervisory process starts, you draw up a supervisory plan detailing the aims, schedule and language of the thesis. A common understanding of the scientific requirements of the thesis and of good scientific practice is also formed. The timing of supervision and the stages of the thesis process are also agreed upon.
Your own work and mastering the scientific thinking and practices supported by the supervision is at the core of the supervision process of a Bachelor’s thesis. You are entitled to a reasonable amount of supervision. A sensible number of supervisors is determined in accordance with the faculty’s guidelines and the work plans of the teaching staff.
Other help and support during the writing of a thesis
You are not alone with your thesis. Support is available, for example, on information searching and data management as well as writing and making progress. Support is offered by the University’s joint counselling services, Language Centre and Library and Data Service.
Thesis as work done in pairs or groups
Make an agreement with your supervisor if you want to do the thesis work in a pair or a group. If the thesis is undertaken in a pair or a group, each student must be able to demonstrate his/her own share of the work because the thesis is fundamentally about practising independent scientific work. The thesis is assessed for each student individually.
Language of the thesis
The language of the Bachelor’s thesis is either Finnish, the language defined in the curriculum or the main language used in the studies. The responsible supervisor decides on the use of other languages.
A student studying in an English-language degree programme may write his/her thesis in Finnish. However, if the student wants his/her academic record to show that he/she has earned the degree in English, an English-language thesis may be required.
Students must demonstrate language and communication skills in their field in connection to their thesis. The demonstration of language skills in relation to the thesis is described in more detail in the section on the maturity test.
Thesis seminar
The thesis seminar focuses on the scientific requirements and good scientific practices of the thesis, academic writing and language and communication skills, information seeking, and scientific debate through peer learning. The seminar, together with other supervision, supports the student’s independent work on the thesis. The aim should be to complete the thesis during the seminar.
Adherence to good scientific practice
Learning outcomes related to good scientific practice are included in all theses and the seminars cover the topic. Review the guidelines for sound scientific practice and, if necessary, seek guidance from your supervisor. As part of supervising the writing process, the supervisor should ensure that you are familiar with good scientific practice and able to act accordingly.
Also remember the accessibility of the thesis.
The originality check of a thesis
During the writing process, you may use the originality check tool that is found on your supervisor’s Turnitin section on Moodle. It will give you a comparative report on your text that helps you to evaluate the appropriateness of your citation practices. You can always ask your thesis supervisor for advice on interpreting the comparison report.
The student and the thesis supervisor agree about the point when the thesis is ready for the official originality check and the subsequent assessment proper. You enter the text of your completed thesis in the originality checking software and the supervisor reviews the originality report. After the supervisor has checked the originality report, you may submit the thesis for the actual assessment process.
From 1 August 2019, the electronic originality check is done to all theses and dissertations at Tampere University.
Commissioned theses
The thesis can be done as a commissioned study for a principal that can be a company or another party. The thesis is a piece of scientific work that is evaluated according to academic criteria. Thus, the principal must also be aware of the academic nature of the work and the publicity of the completed thesis. The student, the supervisor and the principal agree on the topic, schedule and objectives of the thesis. The responsible supervisor at the University is in charge of the scientific supervision of the thesis. The principal may appoint a contact person to deal with matters related to the thesis. The principal may also participate in the supervision of the thesis. The student agrees in writing with the principal on any fee paid to the student.
As a basis for such discussions, a guideline has been drawn up that applies to Master’s theses but which can also be applied to Bachelor’s theses.
Copyright of the thesis
Copyright issues are also related to the publicity of the thesis. The student is responsible for the contents of the thesis and ascertaining his/her rights to it. The author of a published thesis must have full copyright to the thesis, including any pictorial, table or other material included in it, or have the right to publish such material online.
Further information on copyright is available on the Library’s Open Access guide and on the following website:
- ImagOA: Open science and use of images: a guide on the Aalto University website
- Kopiosto
- Kopiraitti
- Kuvasto
Publicity and confidentiality of the thesis
Under law, a thesis is a public document (1999/621). A thesis becomes public as soon as it has been approved. Confidential information cannot be included in a thesis. Publishing the thesis or its parts elsewhere – for example as articles – does not change the publicity requirement.
If confidential information is processed in relation to the thesis, its use should be prearranged with the supervisor and the possible principal. The actual thesis should be written in a manner that allows the publication of all parts. The possible confidential information should be incorporated in the appendices or background data that are not published. Such separate data is not archived at the University.
Submitting the thesis for assessment
Make an agreement with your supervisor on submitting the thesis for assessment. By submitting your Bachelor’s thesis for assessment, you also confirm that the originality check has also been completed. You also decide what kind of a publication permission you give for your thesis.
Submit the thesis for evaluation via the Library’s publishing archive Trepo. Use your tuni basic user account to login via Haka login. After the Library’s inspection (within 3 working days), the publication archive sends a message to both the student and the faculty saying that the thesis has been submitted. It is the student’s responsibility to inform the supervisor that he/she has submitted the thesis for evaluation. The supervisor gets the thesis from the publication archive. Please note that you must be registered as present in order to submit a thesis on Trepo.
If there is any suspicion of fraud in a thesis that has been submitted for examination, the matter is dealt with in line with the University’s protocol on suspected fraud.
Maturity test
Visit the maturity test section for further information.
Assessment and grading of the thesis
The examiner of the thesis has 21 days to assess your thesis after you have submitted it for assessment (i.e. when you have sent the link from the Library to the examiner) or 28 days if you are taking the maturity test in connection with the examination of your thesis. The results on theses submitted for examination during the period from 1 June to 31 August may take longer to be published. For justified reasons, the Dean may make an exception to the deadline. Students are informed about such exceptions in advance.
The Faculty Council decides on the assessment criteria of theses. Bachelor’s theses are assessed with the grading scale of 0 – 5. In addition, the examiner issues a written statement. The grades are 1 (sufficient), 2 (satisfactory), 3 (good), 4 (very good) and 5 (excellent).
A student cannot submit a new thesis to replace an already approved one.
Rectification requests
See more information on the Appeals against grades page.
Electronic archiving and publishing of the thesis
All Bachelor’s theses are electronically archived and stored for ten years. Tampere University’s Library is in charge of archiving theses and dissertations on the university’s publication database.
All theses and dissertations are public and stored on the university’s publication database Trepo. According to the University’s strategic alignment on open science, all theses and dissertations are openly published unless the publisher’s conditions prevent it. All theses may be read with the computers in the Library and online if the student has granted permission to publish on the internet.
After approval, all theses are stored in the comparison database of the originality checking software.