SCI Master's Thesis Guide 2023-

What is a maturity essay and how its done?

• According to the Universities Act 794/2004, students are required to complete a maturity essay as a part of the thesis. The maturity essay demonstrates a student's language skills and competence in the study field of their thesis.
• The abstract of your master’s thesis will serve as the maturity essay (except for Industrial Engineering and Management students - see your instruction here). 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.

Languages for the abstract

• 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.

NB! 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.