Master's Thesis in Technology/Architecture
This page concerns students who are studying in the field of technology or architecture.
If you study in other fields than technology or architecture, please read following page: Master's Thesis
The goals of the master’s thesis and its place in the degree
During the studies, students gradually gain the skills they need to write their master’s thesis. In order to graduate, you should familiarise yourself with the learning outcomes set for your degree and thesis.
The goals of the master’s thesis are:
- the student is well familiar with his/her field and especially the field of his/her thesis topic
- the student possesses the skills necessary for applying scientific knowledge and methods or the knowledge and skills required for independent and demanding artistic work
- the student has good communication and language skills that can be applied in his/her field and other applicable fields
The learning outcomes of these are competence-based and expressed in the curriculum of your degree programme. As you work on your thesis, your research skills, knowledge of the subject matter in your field, academic language and communication skills as well as your scientific debating skills are enhanced through peer learning, peer supervision and the discussion you conduct with previous research. When working on a thesis, students practise independent researching in accordance with good scientific practice.
Students mainly complete the master’s thesis during the second year of studying in the master’s degree programme. It is part of the advanced studies in the degree programme. You must have graduated with a bachelor’s degree or your bachelor’s thesis must be approved before you can start working on the master’s thesis and drawing up the supervisory plan with your supervisor.
The stages of the master’s thesis are outlined below
| Responsibilities of students during a thesis process | Responsibilities of supervisors and examiners during a thesis process |
| consider potential topics in advance (1st year of M.Sc. studies), become familiar with the institutional repository Trepo and look into available thesis placements | discuss potential topics and the student's areas of interest (academic tutor) |
| complete training integrated into the curriculum to develop your research skills and become familiar with the principles of good scientific practice | |
| sign up for the thesis seminar (if available in your degree programme) | The seminar is implemented according to the curriculum of the student's degree programme/field of study. |
agree on the topic and the supervisor(s) and prepare a Thesis Supervision Plan in the kick-off meeting of the thesis.The Thesis Supervision Plan is delivered to the faculty’s Student Services according to the faculty's instructions. The Thesis Suprevision Plan is to be found on the Student's forms page | The Thesis Supervision plan is prepared in collaboration between all the parties. The plan must be prepared within one month of starting work on the thesis A checklist for the kick-off meeting of a thesis project wtih supervisors from partner organisations |
| attend a possible thesis seminar and complete information literacy training as part of the seminar (if the student has not yet completed such training) | Seminar framework or other support for the thesis process, agree on a schedule for the regular submission of written work |
regularly submit written work to the supervisor as agreed, maintain effective progress, make adjustments based on feedback provided by the supervisor. Use the Turnitin originality check during the writing process of your thesis. You may ask for guidance from your thesis supervisor Guidelines and templates: Library guidelines for title leaf (all degrees, in MSc Tech degrees see also the thesis template (e.g. examiners) | maintain regular contact with the student, review the written work submitted by the student and provide feedback; peer activities |
| give an oral presentation on the topic of the thesis and provide constructive feedback to peers (if included to your curriculum) | Students present their thesis to their peers at the thesis seminar and serve as opponents when another student presents his or her thesis. |
| The abstract of the thesis serves as a maturity test if the Finnish or Swedish language is not to be checked. If the language needs to be checked, the supervisor prepares the student's maturity test for EXAM. | The supervisor assesses the content of the maturity test and takes care of recording the final grade in Sisu. |
No later than this stage, the supervisor nominates at least two examiners for the thesis by sending a proposal to the faculty that administers the student's degree programme. The Dean appoints the examiners. | |
| The student must be informed of the appointed examiners. | |
| Submit your thesis to Turnitin originality check through the supervisor's Turnitin Moodle platform. The thesis undergoes an originality check. | The supervisor examines the originality report generated by plagiarism detection software Turnitin. |
| The thesis is deposited to the Library repository Trepo. Student sends the link of the manuscript to the examiners for assessment purposes. Note that you must be registered as present in order to submit a thesis on Trepo. | The examiners review the thesis and prepare a statement in which they propose a grade for the thesis. |
The examiners deliver their joint statement to the faculty that administers the student’s degree programme within 21 or 28 days of the submission of the thesis. 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 three-week countdown begins when the student submits the link of his/her thesis to the examiner. University-wide criteria for evaluating master’s theses in the fields of engineering (In Finnish) University-wide criteria for evaluating master’s theses in the fields of engineering (in English)
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| The student will have the opportunity to submit a rejoinder concerning the grade proposed by the examiners. | |
| The thesis is released into the public domain after it has been approved. If you do not give convent to publish the thesis online, it will be available publicly in the University Library |