Bachelor's thesis

(Please note! Separate guidelines apply to the preparation of bachelor’s theses in medicine).

This page provides a general overview of the bachelor’s thesis and outlines the stages of the thesis process. Students complete a bachelor’s thesis as part of their coursework for a bachelor’s degree to demonstrate their ability to apply their acquired knowledge, engage in scientific or artistic thinking and inquiry, and communicate in their native language both orally and in writing. 

A bachelor’s thesis carries 10 credits, which are counted towards intermediate studies. Students are recommended to complete their bachelor’s thesis during their third year of study, while attending a bachelor’s seminar. Students must also take a maturity test to demonstrate their familiarity with the subject area of their thesis and their proficiency in the language of instruction.

Bachelor’s theses are examined and approved by a member of staff at Tampere University who holds at least a master’s degree.

Students may also choose to co-author a bachelor’s thesis with one or more of their fellow students, but this arrangement must be agreed in advance with the thesis supervisor. In the case of a co-authored thesis, all students must be able to clearly demonstrate their independent contribution, as the primary purpose of a thesis is to train students to pursue independent scholarly work. Each co-author will receive a personal grade for their independent contribution.

Faculty-specific instructions, thesis assessment criteria and assessment forms are available at the end of the general section on this page, along with information about any required bachelor’s seminars. 

Stages of the thesis process

1. Consider potential topics and prepare for your thesis project: You should start considering potential thesis topics early, such as in the spring of your second year of study. Browse Trepo, the institutional repository of Tampere University, to gain an overview of the types of theses students have previously written and the topics they have explored. The courses you have completed, as well as past summer work experience, may also inspire ideas for your thesis.
2. Register for a bachelor’s seminar and connect with your thesis supervisor: Register for a bachelor’s seminar through the Sisu system and check the requirements for the successful completion of the seminar. Once you have registered, you will be assigned a thesis supervisor, who will generally also be the person responsible for examining and grading your bachelor’s thesis. If the curriculum of your degree programme does not include a bachelor’s seminar, other forms of instruction or activities to support your thesis progress may still be available.
3. Agree on your thesis topic, goals and supervisory practices: You must agree on your thesis topic with your supervisor. Discuss the objectives of your thesis, the assessment criteria and your personal goals with your supervisor. When the supervisory relationship begins, you and your supervisor must agree on the objectives, schedule and language of your thesis. In addition, you and your supervisor must establish a shared understanding of the scientific requirements that your thesis must meet, the principles of research integrity, the frequency of supervisory meetings, and the stages of your thesis project. Together, you need to fill out the Thesis Supervision Plan (if it is used in your degree programme) to agree on the stages of your thesis project. The form for completing the Thesis Supervision Plan is available on the intranet page Student forms.
4. Bachelor’s seminar and thesis writing process: A bachelor’s seminar consists of multiple stages and typically lasts for one academic term. The seminar includes training in areas such as information retrieval and academic writing. The seminar is designed to help you make systematic progress on your thesis. Your thesis supervisor will also provide support, guidance and feedback to help you refine and develop your thesis. During the seminar, you will become familiar with the scientific requirements for a bachelor’s thesis and the principles of research integrity, while also refining your academic writing style, information retrieval techniques and ability to engage in scientific discussion through peer learning. The purpose of the seminar and other forms of guidance is to support your independent work on your thesis. Students are expected to aim for completing their bachelor’s thesis during the seminar.
5. Thesis presentation and peer feedback: You may need to give an oral presentation on your thesis or provide constructive feedback on a fellow student’s thesis during the bachelor’s seminar. This means you take on the role of opponent and both provide and receive constructive feedback.
6. Originality check and thesis submission: Once your thesis is complete, you need to upload it to the originality checker (Turnitin). Your thesis supervisor will conduct the actual originality check. After the originality check, deposit your thesis in the institutional repository Trepo. The University Library will send you a link to your thesis, which you must forward to the examiner of your thesis. If you allow your thesis to be made publicly accessible, you must give your permission to do so.
7. Maturity test: You must agree on the timing of your maturity test with your thesis supervisor. Maturity tests are completed as electronic exams in the EXAM system. By taking a maturity test, students demonstrate their familiarity with the subject area of their thesis and their proficiency in the language of instruction (if the language is Finnish or Swedish).
8. Assessment of a bachelor’s thesis: The examiner will assess your bachelor’s thesis and maturity test, assign a final grade for your thesis, and provide you with feedback. The examiner will also submit the examination statement to the faculty for formal recording. If the maturity test is completed as an electronic exam, the examiner has up to 28 days to complete the assessment. Bachelor’s theses are examined according to the assessment criteria approved by the Faculty Council.

Research and writing process

A thesis provides you with the opportunity to strengthen your research capabilities, deepen your subject knowledge, refine your academic language and communication skills, as well as develop scientific argumentation through peer learning, guidance and engagement with the existing body of knowledge relevant to your chosen topic. The purpose of a thesis is to train students in conducting independent scholarly research in accordance with the principles of research integrity. 

By attending the bachelor’s seminar, you will receive personalised support from both your thesis supervisor and the seminar instructor. Your supervisor will support you in selecting a research topic, defining your research questions, reviewing relevant literature, preparing a detailed research plan and conducting your research. You are expected to take initiative and responsibility for progressing your research work independently. 

The research process begins with you identifying a research topic, theme or problem related to your intermediate studies and exploring it in greater depth. You need to review relevant literature and source materials and use them to refine your topic into a clear research question that interests you. At the beginning of the bachelor’s seminar, you must agree on your final thesis topic and the language of your thesis with your supervisor. Theses may be written in Finnish, in a language specified in the curriculum, or in the primary language of instruction of the degree programme. The choice to write a thesis in any other language requires formal approval from the primary supervisor.

Students enrolled in English-language degree programmes may choose to prepare their thesis in Finnish. However, students who wish to have English formally recognised as the official language of their degree may be required to write their thesis in English. 

As part of your thesis project, you are also required to demonstrate your language and communication skills within your specific field. To find more information about the demonstration of language skills, please visit the intranet page titled Maturity test and demonstration of language skills in degrees.

Once you have agreed on your thesis topic with your supervisor, start by exploring your subject in depth by reading relevant literature and research articles. After you have developed a solid understanding of your topic, you can prepare a research plan. This plan outlines what you intend to investigate, why your research is significant, what research data you will use, and how you will collect, process and analyse your data. Your plan must also describe how you will present your findings.

A key component of your research plan is a thorough, analytical review of the existing body of knowledge related to your chosen theme or problem. Developing a strong research plan requires an in-depth understanding of the current research literature related to your topic.

Based on your analysis and research plan, you will write a research report, which will ultimately form your bachelor’s thesis. Training in academic writing, which is provided during the bachelor’s seminar, will support your writing process. 

The principles of research integrity are integrated into the learning outcomes of all theses and are also addressed during the bachelor’s seminar. Make sure you are familiar with the principles of research integrity; please contact your thesis supervisor if you need further guidance. As part of supervising your thesis writing process, your supervisor is responsible for ensuring that you understand these principles and know how to apply them appropriately.

Use of AI

As a general rule, students are permitted to use AI applications to support their learning. Any use of AI, including how it is acknowledged, must comply with Tampere University’s guidelines. You must agree on the principles for AI use during your thesis project with your primary thesis supervisor. More detailed instructions on the use of AI are available on the intranet page How to use AI in studies. 

While writing your thesis, you can use the originality checker available in your supervisor’s Turnitin area in the Moodle learning environment. This checker will provide you with a similarity report, which you can use to assess whether you have cited your sources appropriately. You can always ask your supervisor to help you interpret the similarity report. 

You must also ensure your thesis meets the accessibility requirements.

Submitting a thesis for examination

You and your thesis supervisor must jointly determine when your thesis is ready for an official originality check and subsequent formal examination. You need to upload your completed thesis to the originality checker, and your supervisor will review the similarity report generated by the system. After your supervisor has reviewed the similarity report, you may submit for thesis for examination and grading. 

You must agree with your supervisor when to submit your bachelor’s thesis for examination. Please note that when you submit a thesis for examination, you confirm that your thesis has undergone an originality check. You must also decide which type of publishing permission to grant for your thesis. If you allow your thesis to made publicly accessible, you must give your permission to do so.

Submit your thesis for examination through the University Library’s institutional repository Trepo. Log in to Trepo using your HAKA username and password. The University Library will carry out an initial review within three working days. After this, Trepo will automatically send a message to both you and your faculty, confirming that your thesis has been submitted for examination. It is your responsibility to inform your thesis examiner that the submission has been completed. The examiner will retrieve your thesis directly from the institutional repository. Please note that you must be registered as attending at Tampere University in order to submit a thesis for examination and have the credits counted towards your academic record.

You also need to agree with your supervisor on when to take the maturity test. Maturity tests are completed as electronic exams in the EXAM system. By taking a maturity test, students demonstrate their familiarity with the subject area of their thesis and their proficiency in the language of instruction (if the language is Finnish or Swedish). 

Grading a thesis

The examiner will assess your bachelor’s thesis and maturity test, assign a final grade for your thesis, and provide you with feedback. The examiner will also submit the examination statement to your faculty for formal recording. If the maturity test is completed as an electronic exam, the examiner will have up to 28 days to complete the assessment. If you submit your thesis for examination between 1 June and 31 August, the release of your grade may take longer than this. For a justified reason, the Dean may approve an extension to the assessment deadline. You will be notified in advance of any extensions. 

The date when you submit your thesis for examination via Trepo is recorded as your thesis completion date in the Sisu system. Bachelor’s theses are assessed against academic standards based on the assessment criteria approved by the Faculty Council.

Bachelor’s theses are graded on a scale of 0–5. In addition to the numerical grade, the examiner will provide a written examination statement. The grading scale is: 1 (=Sufficient), 2 (=Satisfactory), 3 (=Good), 4 (=Very Good) and 5 (=Excellent). 

Once a thesis has been approved, it is considered final and cannot be resubmitted. 

Students who are dissatisfied with the grade awarded for their thesis may submit an appeal, initially to the examiner and later, if necessary, to the Faculty Council. More information about the appeals procedure is available on the intranet page Appeals against grades. Before submitting an appeal, students are advised to discuss their grade and the assessment criteria with the examiner.

Digital archiving and publication of a thesis

All bachelor’s theses are archived in digital format and stored for a period of ten years. The University Library is responsible for archiving theses in the institutional repository. 

All theses are public documents and deposited in Trepo, the institutional repository of Tampere University. In accordance with Tampere University’s open science guidelines, all theses are made openly accessible, unless restricted by the terms and conditions of a publisher. All theses can be accessed on computers located in the Library. They are also made freely available online if the author has granted permission for open-access publication. 

Once they have been approved, all theses are also stored in the originality checker’s database of previously published works. 

Copyright

You must take copyright requirements into account when preparing your thesis. As the author, you are responsible for the content of your thesis and for ensuring that you do not violate the copyright of others. You must hold full copyright to your published thesis and to any images, tables or other materials included in your thesis. Alternatively, you must have permission to publish these materials online. 

To learn more about copyright, please refer to the University Library’s Open Access Guide or visit the following websites:   

• Copyright in Finland - Ministry of Education and Culture
• Kopiosto (Finnish copyright organisation)
• Kopiraitti (only in Finnish)
• Visual Arts’ Copyright Society Kuvasto
• ImagOA (Aalto University’s instructions for citing images and information about open science) 

Publicity of a thesis and confidential information

By law, your thesis is a public document (Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities 1999/621). Your thesis enters the public domain once it has been formally approved and therefore must not contain any confidential information. This principle of publicity applies even if your thesis, or parts of it, are published through other channels (for example, as scientific articles). 

If you need to process confidential information while working on your thesis, you must agree on this in advance with your thesis supervisor and any commissioning party. Your actual thesis must be written in a way that allows it to be published in full. Any confidential information must be included in separate attachments or background documents that are not made public. These separate materials are retained by the University for archiving purposes. 

Degree programme specific instructions