SCI Master's Thesis
Welcome to the School of Science Master's Thesis infopages!
Table of contents
Finding a thesis topic, supervisor and advisor
Approval of the thesis topic
Research ethics and integrity
Evaluation guidelines
Publishing a master's thesis
Templates
Languages of the degree and the abstracts
Thesis presentation
Maturity essay
The thesis is ready! Submitting the thesis
Deadlines
Forms and a checklist
GraduationThe thesis is written on a topic usually related to the student's major and agreed upon between the student and a professor who specializes in the topic. On reasonable grounds, the school may also grant permission for the thesis to be written on a topic related to the minor.
It is on the student's own responsibility to find a master's thesis position and topic. This may take time, and therefore it is highly recommended to start searching for the master's thesis position at the beginning of the second autumn at the latest.
The topics of theses vary and they can originate either from the needs of businesses and industries or from the needs of the academic community. The student must agree on starting the thesis with the professor in charge of the major or the professor whose field of research best matches with the topic. Master’s thesis positions and topics are also available in CareerWeb and the webpages of the departments but students can find the topic elsewhere, too.
According to Finnish legislation, a master's thesis is a public document and its contents cannot be confidential. Therefore, the material of the thesis must be chosen so that it does not include any information that could be classified as a business secret.
Thesis supervisor and advisor
The master’s thesis must have a supervisor and it may have one or two advisors. The supervisor can also act as an advisor. The supervisor is usually one of the professors of the School of Science. For special reasons, the thesis supervisor may also be another professor, university lecturer, or senior university lecturer of the school. While the supervisor and the advisor(s) offer support, the thesis is written independently and the student is responsible for the successful completion of the master’s thesis.
When the student finds a topic that interests him/her, the appropriate professor can be found from the list of professors and their research areas on the department’s webpage. Often the professor is one of the responsible professors of the major the student has chosen. Professors who are responsible for the majors are listed in the study guides.
The supervisor ensures that the thesis meets all aims and requirements set by the School of Science. In his/her statement at the end of the thesis work, the supervisor evaluates the thesis and suggests a grade for the Programme Committee.
The advisor is usually from an organization for which the thesis is written and holds at least a master’s degree. The advisor is an expert in the field of the thesis, and he/she can give advice on the content and writing of a thesis. The duties of the advisor are agreed on by the student, supervisor and advisor.
Neither the supervisor nor the advisor may be a relative of the student, or biased in any other way.The thesis topic and the completed thesis cannot be approved in the same committee meeting. The Master’s thesis topic is valid for one year from the date of approval. However, the target time for completing the thesis is six months. Time used for completing the thesis affects the thesis evaluation. Note, that this time period is not calculated from the approval date of the topic but from the actual start date of the thesis as agreed and judged by the supervisor.
If you have problems completing your theses withing the target time, please contact your supervisor as soon as possible. The thesis supervisor can extend the target time if there is a good reason for it.
It’s also possible to do the thesis on your own topic without funding, i.e., your thesis is not done in a company or university research group. However, you should still find both a supervisor and advisor for your thesis.
Once a student has agreed on the topic with the supervisor, he/she has to apply for approval of the topic from the Programme Committee (form 206). It is advisable to keep the topic compact and informative. The final title of the thesis can be changed as long as the topic remains the same. The Programme Committee approves the topic, language, supervisor and advisor(s) of the thesis. Note that the topic and the thesis cannot be approved in the same meeting.
Student can apply for approval of the topic when he/she:
- is enrolled as an attending student
- B.Sc. degree has been approved
- has completed at least 45 ECTS credits towards the master’s degree
- personal study plan (HOPS) has been approvedThe topic is valid for one year from the date of approval. If the thesis is not submitted for evaluation during that period, the topic expires and must be applied for again.
Submit the 206 Request for approval of topic of master's thesis in eAge system. Before filling in then application you must agree on the topic with the supervising professor. The supervisor's written agreement must be attached to the application. Examples of a written agreement include an email conversation, signed memo from the thesis meeting or other written agreement. It is recommended to use the form 206 Request for approval of topic of master’s thesis (pdf) as the supervisor's agreement.
Master’s theses are research publications. Thus, both the research process and the published thesis must follow guidelines for responsible conduct of research. For a concise summary, see the guidelines of the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (in English, pages 30-33). Mainly, it important to be honest about the methods, data and results, and about how much is your own work. There are specific requirements for experiments on human subjects and for handling personal data. When you have questions, talk with your supervisor and advisor.
When starting the thesis work, it is recommended that the student reads:
- Guidelines for master’s thesis evaluation (pdf) - Diplomityön arviointiohje (pdf)
- Typical characterization of theses grades (pdf) - Diplomityön arvosanojen kuvaukset (pdf)
These documents help the student to write a good or even an excellent thesis.The School of Science also recommends that the supervisor use the SCI Statement template for giving the statement of master’s thesis assessment. SCI Statement template (doc) for thesis supervisors (recommended). Lausuntopohja (doc) suositeltu lausuntopohjamalli diplomityön valvojille.
According to Finnish legislation, a master's thesis is a public document and its contents cannot be confidential.
Students who are preparing their theses should keep in mind that the thesis is a public document. The thesis submitted for evaluation may not contain any secret information, as information about the thesis can be retrieved from the Aaltodoc portal. Archived copies of the thesis itself may be viewed at the Learning Centre in electronic or in printed form. In addition, theses produced in a digital format will be electronically sent by the Learning Centre to anyone requesting a copy.
If a thesis is produced on commission for a business, any parts of the thesis containing commercial secrets must be left as part of the background material, and not be included in the actual thesis for evaluation.The so-called metadata (i.e. name of author, title of thesis, name of thesis supervisor and advisor, keywords) of each thesis is published in the Aaltodoc database at https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi. In addition to this, all approved theses are archived in the Aaltodoc publication archives. Full versions of the electronically archived theses can be accessed at the Learning Center and electronically sent by the Learning Centre to anyone requesting a copy.
With the student's permission, the thesis abstract and/or full text are published on the internet. Possible permission for electronic publishing is given on the electronic application form 207. It is possible to postpone the date of online publishing by a maximum of one year from the date of thesis approval, i.e. the date of the committee meeting, due to reasons related to other publications, for example. However, the student should keep in mind that the thesis is always a public document from the date of the committee meeting where it has been approved, and accessible soon after approval in the Learning Center as mentioned above. Notably, a patent application claiming priority to any results reported in the thesis must be filed before the date of that committee meeting.
The PDF/A file of the thesis cannot be corrected or changed after the approved thesis has arrived in Aaltodoc. Consultation with the legal counsel of the Aalto University has contributed to this practice. However, the metadata of the thesis will be corrected according to the author’s wishes also after it has arrived in Aaltodoc.
The School of Science does not require using a certain template even though there are several available. There are no strict rules for marginal, spacing etc. The student can check approved master’s thesis from Aaltodoc and in the library. Below are some models and templates that show, for example, what information should be in the abstract page.
Aalto Thesis LaTeX Template (wiki.aalto.fi)
Aalto Thesis Word Template (wiki.aalto.fi)
Model of the title page: English, Finnish, Swedish (word)
Model of the abstract page: English, Finnish, Swedish (word)
LaTeX template (the result with hints as pdf, the template as zip)The language in which the student writes his/her master’s thesis determines the language of the degree. If the master’s thesis is written in Finnish or Swedish, the language of the degree is Finnish or Swedish accordingly, and the student receives the degree certificate in either Finnish or Swedish and an English translation of the certificate. If the master’s thesis is written in English, the student receives two original degree certificates: one in English, and one in Finnish or Swedish.
The language of student’s school education determines the required abstracts: if the student's language of school education is Finnish, the thesis has abstracts in English and in Finnish. Similarly, if the language of school education is Swedish, the abstracts are in English and in Swedish. If the language of student's school education is other than Finnish or Swedish, the abstract is written in English only.The master's thesis includes a seminar presentation or an equivalent presentation. The student should arrange the time and place for the presentation with the supervisor. After the presentation, the student submits the thesis presentation form to the student services of the programme. The last possible date to complete the thesis presentation is the deadline for submitting theses and applications for evaluation. Thesis presentation form (pdf)
During the remote teaching, please agree the date, time and method for the online presentation with your supervisor. After the presentation, please, ask your supervisor to send his/her approval to the grades-sci(at)aalto.fi.
According to the Universities Act 794/2004 students are required to complete a maturity essay. The abstract of your master’s thesis will serve as the maturity essay (except for Industrial Engineering and Management students, please see instructions below). When you submit your thesis with the abstract(s) in the required languages, the maturity essay is considered done. When your supervisor submits a statement approving the thesis, also the maturity essay is considered approved.
Write the abstract in English and either in Finnish or in Swedish, depending on the language of your basic education (=koulusivistyskieli). Students educated in languages other than Finnish or Swedish need to write the abstract only in English.
Students who received their general or upper secondary education in Finland but completed their bachelor’s degree abroad: Students who have not demonstrated their language proficiency in national languages during their bachelor’s degree must do so when submitting their master’s thesis. In practice, this means that Student Services will send the abstract of the master’s thesis in Finnish or Swedish (koulusivistyskieli) to language evaluation by the Language Center. To avoid delay in the graduation process and to get feedback from the Language Center before submitting the thesis, students belonging to this small group should contact Student Services (studentservices@aalto.fi) early in the master’s thesis process.
Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management students: Please see section Industrial Engineering and Management.
Arrange a timetable with the supervisor for the evaluation and approval of the thesis. The supervisor needs about a month to read the finished thesis and write a statement. The Programme Committee approves and grades the thesis based on the statement(s) given by the supervisor and the advisor. The supervisor and advisor may write either a joint statement or separate statements.
The thesis can be approved when:
- The student is enrolled as attending.
- The topic of the master’s thesis is approved and valid.
- The thesis supervisor approves the thesis to be submitted.
- The student has given a
seminar presentation and written a maturity essay.
The last possible date to complete the thesis presentation and maturity essay is the deadline for submitting theses and applications for evaluation.
The date of approval of the thesis will be the deadline for submitting the applications, although the approval of the thesis will not be processed by the Degree Programme Committee until after the deadline for submitting theses and applications for evaluation.
Even though the theses are submitted for approval only in electronic format, the supervisor might still require theses bound in black covers (binding model pdf). The student must agree upon this with the supervisor.Submitting the thesis and applying for its approvalSubmitting the electronic version of the thesis and applying for its approval is done through the eAge system as follows:
- Filling in the application form according to the instructions given in eAge and uploading the final version of the thesis into the system. The file must be saved in PDF/A format.
- The file name should not have any Scandinavian letters (e.g. ä and ö) or special characters. The name should be in the following format: school's abbreviation_publishingyear_lastname_firstname.pdf (for example student with the name Jan Järvinen would name the file as sci_2013_jarvinen_jan.pdf)
- The uploaded version has to be final and identical to the version given to the supervisor, with all corrections included.
- If needed, the student should submit a bound copy of the thesis to the supervisor.
Learning Centre’s instructions on converting the file into a PDF/A-format. The only valid and acceptable versions are PDF/A-1a, -1b, -2a and -2b. Instructions (PDF/A-format).
207 Approval and grading of the thesis (eAge system). Make sure you have sent the exactly same version to your supervisor for evaluation.
Appealing against a grade
Students dissatisfied with the grade of their thesis may appeal against the decision in writing to the Aalto University Academic Appeals Board (Aalto-yliopiston tutkintolautakunta) within 14 days of receiving notification of the decision. Address: Aalto University Academic Appeals Board, Registry, P.O. BOX 11000, FI-00076 AALTO.
Deadlines for submitting applications:
Evaluating the Master's thesis
Graduation dateProgramme committee meetings:
Evaluating the Master's thesisThur 31.12.2020 week 4 (25.-28.1.2021) Mon 22.2.2021 week 11 (15.-18.3.2021) Mon 26.4.2021 week 20 (17.-20.5.2021) Mon 24.5.2021 week 24 (14.-17.6.2021) Fri 30.7.2021 week 34 (23.-26.8.2021) Mon 27.9.2021 week 42 (18.-21.10.2021) Mon 22.11.2021 week 50 (13.-16.12.2021) Fri 31.12.2021 January 2022
- Preferably, do not use MacOS Preview application to fill in the form, because it can cause problems with forms. Use Acrobat Reader DC instead.
- 206 Request for approval of topic of master’s thesis (pdf). Submit the signed form as an attachment in eAge system.
- Thesis presentation form (pdf)
- 207 Approval and grading of the thesis (eAge system)
Make sure you have sent exactly the same version to your supervisor for evaluation. - Request for degree certificate, see Graduation (into.aalto.fi)
Checklist
After you and your supervisor have agreed on the topic of the thesis:
- Submit the master’s thesis topic application (form 206).
- Submit the master’s thesis topic application (form 206).
- When you think your thesis is almost ready:
- Check that the thesis topic is valid (it is valid for one year from the date of approval).
- Present your thesis. The last possible date to complete the thesis presentation is the deadline of application.
- Ask your supervisor if she/he wants a bound copy of the thesis.
- When your thesis is ready (your supervisor approves the thesis to be submitted):
- Submit the eAge form "207 Approval and grading of the thesis" and upload the thesis in PDF/A format in the system. Make sure it is the final version. Send exactly the same version to your supervisor for evaluation.
- If you are graduating, please follow the instructions below.
Remember that you have to be enrolled as attending.
More information available on the Into page Graduation (common page for all SCI master's programmes).
Starting from 25 May 2021, Sisu will be the only channel for graduation requests. On Sisu, graduation requests are based on students’ personal study plans (HOPS).
If you have completed all other requisite studies for your master’s degree, you can submit your thesis for evaluation at the same time when submitting the request for degree certificate. The thesis and the degree will be registered for the deadline for submitting the applications -date, although the approval of the thesis will not be processed by the Degree Programme Committee until after the deadline for submitting theses and applications for evaluation.
Example: It is possible for you to graduate on 31 December 2021, because the official date of acceptance of the thesis will be registered as 31 December 2021, even though your master’s thesis will be processed by the Degree Programme Committee in January. The deadline for submitting the degree certificate request is the official date of graduation, which will be printed on the degree certificate.