Thesis and graduation

What is a Master’s Thesis?

Towards the end of your Master’s Degree studies, you are required to write a thesis on a topic approved by a professor of your major subject. The master’s thesis is a piece of written academic work in which you demonstrate your familiarity with the subject matter as well as your capability of independent academic thought and work. Once you have completed your thesis, you are required to take the maturity test – an exam to demonstrate your command of the thesis topic. You may also undertake your master’s thesis project jointly with one or more other students. For more detailed thesis writing guidelines, please consult your professor.

Guidelines on research integrity >

Grading criteria

You can find the grading criteria for each faculty in the respective course catalogues.

Faculty of Art and Design >
Faculty of Social Sciences >

If you are not satisfied with the grade awarded for your master’s thesis, you should submit a request for grade reassessment to the Head of Study Affairs of the relevant faculty. The request is reviewed by the Faculty Council.

More information on grade reassessment is available in the University of Lapland's Regulations on Degrees >

1. Register for and participate in the Master’s Thesis Seminar. During the seminar, you will receive instructions on the thesis process and your work will be discussed regularly throughout the seminar. You will also become familiar with the Master’s thesis style sheet, i.e. the formatting and layout instructions for preparing the thesis manuscript for publication. The duration of the seminar is about one academic year.
2. Complete the body of the thesis manuscript.
3. Put the following details of authorship on the title page in this order:
   Author's name
   TITLE
   Master's thesis
   Subject and/or master's degree programme
   Academic term and year (e.g. Spring 2023)
4. Write an abstract for your thesis. Familiarize yourself with guidelines on thesis abstract. 
   
5. Submit your thesis for Turnitin plagiarism detection service in Moodle. Turnitin Student Guidelines can be found here. 
6. Once the Turnitin result has been approved, you will receive a publishing permit for the Master's thesis from your supervisor. Your supervisor will submit a pdf version of your Master's thesis and report the Turnitin result and another examiner to the faculty. Instructions for the artistic sections of the Master's thesis of the Faculty of Arts and the partial concealment of Master's thesis can be found here.

7. Sign up for the maturity test on Peppi system. You may take the maturity test on the general exam dates of your faculty or as an electronic exam. Familiarise yourself with the alternative methods of examination available for the maturity test.
8. The dean of the faculty will appoint two examiners who will give a statement about your thesis. You will receive the statement electronically before the submission of your thesis to the Faculty Council. Should you not be satisfied with the statement, you have the opportunity to submit a rejoinder to the statement to the Faculty Council or ask your thesis to be withdrawn from assessment in order to make corrections to it.
9. The Faculty Council will assess your thesis according to the statement provided by the examiners.
10. Once your thesis has been assessed and approved by the Faculty Council, upload the thesis to Lauda, the University of Lapland's institutional repository. Familiarise yourself with the instructions. When submitting your thesis to Lauda, you agree that your thesis will be made freely available for anyone to read without compensation. If you wish, you can print paper copies of your Master's thesis at your own expense in the University of Lapland Printing Centre.

Review your study attainments

Make sure that you are registered as an attending student, your personal details and contact information are correct in Peppi, and that the study attainments you have completed are correctly recorded in the study register.

If you do not want to include all your study attainments in your degree, write the course codes and names of the studies that will not be included in your degree to the degree certificate application. Please note that studies included in one degree cannot be transferred to another degree later. If you want to include all your study attainments in your degree, the process described above is not required.

Information for the students required to pay tuition fees

If you are required to pay a tuition fee and have received a scholarship from the University for the second year of your studies, you are required to graduate by the end of the two-year scholarship period (by the end of the academic year, 31 July). However, if you have not graduated within the abovementioned timeframe, you have the opportunity to finish your studies in 3 months without incurring any additional tuition fee charges. However, you are required to pay the Student Union fee for the additional semester in order to be registered as an attending student, which is a prerequisite for graduation.

Fill in the electronic degree certificate application

• Graduation application >

Degree certificates will be ready according to schedule above. Your graduation date will be the date your application was received for processing, the date the last study attainment completing your degree studies was registered, or some later date you desire in your degree certificate application form. When your certificate is ready, you will receive a downloading link by email. Use it within 30 days to download your degree certificate. 

Please notice that your university user account will cease to function two weeks after your graduation date. It is advisable to save your files on Moodle, online folders, and emails you wish to keep before submitting your degree application to avoid being caught off guard by the closure of your user account.

Problems with applying for the degree certificate?

If you face any difficulties regarding your graduation, please contact the faculty office:

• Faculty of Art and Design: ttk.opinto (at) ulapland.fi
• Faculty of Education: ktk.hallinto (at) ulapland.fi
• Faculty of Law: otk.opinto (at) ulapland.fi 
• Faculty of Social Sciences: ytk.opinto (at) ulapland.fi

Electronic degree certificate

The University of Lapland starts using electronic degree certificates during November 2023.  The authenticity of electronic diploma can be verified more reliably than paper certificate. You can save the electronic diploma in your own files, for example on a computer or cloud service. 

The degree certificate comprises three parts: the certificate page, a transcript of records that presents the studies completed as part of the degree, the qualifications and competences acquired through completion of the degree, and a Diploma Supplement that is intended for use in international contexts and provides information on the degree-awarding university, the level of studies, and the standing of the qualification within the education system. The diploma is electronically signed by the dean.