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1 How long does it take to write the thesis and when should it be returned?

• In most cases, the thesis and seminar are completed in one academic year, but some students migh complete faster, e.g. in 6 months. This depends on various factors, e.g. the student's goals, topic, collection of material, available time.
• Submission dates are once a month (except June). The student prepares a schedule for the project him/herself with the supervisor. 

2. When and how to start the thesis work?

• The thesis work starts by participating in the Master’s thesis seminar. The thesis seminar is meant to be taken during the 2nd year of master’s studies and earliest during the first year's spring. Mostly students start the seminar in the fall of the 2nd year. You can also start in the 2nd year spring, but in most cases, the completion of the seminar and thesis goes to the following fall.
• The thesis seminar includes three compulsory introductory lectures which are organised twice per academic year: in the beginning of fall term and in the beginning of spring term. Thesis seminar also includes obligatory presentations and attendances to other students’ presentations. See the ISM-E5001 Master’s Thesis Seminar course description in Sisu and the seminar MyCourses pages for more information after you have registered for the course.
• You can register for the thesis seminar with course code ISM-E5001 Master’s Thesis Seminar in Sisu. Registration is open the whole academic year.

2.    Do I have to have a topic ready before enrolling to the seminar?

• It is an advantage if the student has at least some initial ideas of the topic when registering for the seminar. The supervisors help to discuss different topic options. The supervisor will accept the final topic.

3.    Can I start the thesis work before the seminar or during the summer?

• Yes, you can. However, you need to speak with one of the supervisors about starting the thesis and about the topic. Not all supervisors are present the whole summer.

4.    Do I have to attend the Master's Thesis Seminar?

• Yes. Master's Thesis Seminar is a compulsory course in the Master’s degree. The thesis seminar consists of introductory lectures (3), presentations, oppositions and active participation in other students’ presentations. More information on required attendances is given on the introductory lectures and on the MyCourses pages.

5.    How is the supervisor for the thesis decided?

• The topic and method often affect which supervisor is most suitable. Typically BA students work with a BA supervisor etc. More information regarding how to find a supervisor is given on the seminar MyCourses pages and in the introduction lectures. If you would like to discuss with somebody before you start attending the seminar, you can contact programme director Matti Rossi.

6.    Does the thesis have to be related to the focus area I have chosen or can I write it to another focus area. For example, if most of my courses are in Business analytics, can I still write a thesis related to Information Systems Science?

• You can. The borders are not very severe.

7. How to choose a topic?

• Some tips for choosing the topic is given in the seminar and MyCourses pages. You can find a list of the research areas of every supervisor on MyCourses. If you are working or you have worked somewhere, think if you can get an idea for the thesis from your work place. Maybe there is a problem or a current issue that could be handled in the thesis. Or maybe you have taken a course that was very interesting and you would like to know more about some theme. You could discuss with the course teacher for some ideas. You can also have a look at the thesis written by our students at .

8.    Who approves the research topic?

• The research topic is approved by the thesis supervisor. Please discuss with your supervisor the topic prior accepting commissioned work to make sure that there is a suitable theoretical  approach that can be employed in the thesis.

9.    If I want to do my thesis for a company/organization, how do I proceed?

• Speak to your supervisor to make sure that the topic and thesis itself will meet the criteria set by the degree regulations.
• Please note that the school/department does not provide agreement templates for company assigned thesis, this is between you and the company/organization.

10.    Can thesis be written in Finnish?

• By default, the language of the thesis is English. Please discuss this issue with your supervisor.

11.    When do I have to hand in my thesis in order to graduate in a particular graduation date?

• Please check the Graduation tab for graduation dates.

12. Finishing the thesis, hand in and evaluation process

• Return the first version of your thesis to your instructor for comments. The instructor gives his/her comments and if needed, you should make the necessary corrections to the thesis. There may be also more iterations.
• Once you consider the thesis is ready, get the permission from your instructor to submit your final thesis (including the abstract which acts as the maturity test). Each thesis will be read and graded by two reviewers, by the reviewer who supervised the thesis and another reviewer. The thesis is submitted to MyStudies platform from where it goes for evaluation and to the Learning Centre electronic archive.
• See further instructions in the Thesis tab.

13.    How do I complete the maturity test?

• You can find information about maturity test in the Thesis tab.

14.    Can master’s thesis be classified confidential?

• According to the decision by the Ministry of Education and Culture that Master’s theses may not be confidential (the principle of transparency) and therefore there is no possibility for keeping MSc theses as confidential.
• All the theses are required to be uploaded to electronic publication archive Aaltodoc. Student can then decide whether the whole work can be accessed online or only the abstract page. However, all Master’s theses can be read either as an online form or as hard copy at the Learning Services. Thus, theses cannot include any confidential information.