Master's Thesis

The publicity of the theses

All theses are public. A thesis can not be classified as secret. The theses become public when they are approved. Possible confidential materials shall not be submitted to Hanken as a part of the Master's thesis. Even if your thesis is sponsored by a company, you must not include confidential materials in your thesis. If you have confidential materials that the reviewers of your thesis have to read to be able to grade your thesis, you must hand in these materials separately directly to the reviewers. You must decide yourself how you should divide your material between the thesis and the confidential material.

Plagiarism Control of Master's Thesis

All Master's theses assessed after 1 January 2010 must pass a plagiarism control in a programme for plagiarism detection. The plagiarism control is carried out after you have handed in your thesis into DHanken.

The analysis report which is generated by the programme is a tool for the supervisor when it comes to detecting plagiarism. The programme cannot independently perform a plagiarism control - it is the supervisor who determines what is to be considered plagiarism cheating.

If your thesis is written in English, the plagiarism control will be carried out in Turnitin (Swedish-language theses are plagiarism controlled in Urkund). The pdf-file that you upload in DHanken should be of Adobe standard format for the plagiarism control in Urkund or Turnitin. Please make sure that the pdf file is not protected with a password. You can check the compability by copying a part of your own pdf file - if it works and the text is readable Urkund and Turnitin will be able to extract text of the document. You must upload your Master's thesis in DHanken, but it is the Office of Study Affairs that sends your thesis to Turnitin or Urkund for plagiarism control.

On the form Submitting your thesis you should state whether or not you allow your thesis to be stored in the database of Turnitin in order to function as material for comparison when other written assignments are handed into Turnitin in the future. This protects your thesis from being plagiarized in the future.

The thesis is to be submitted electronically and as paper copies

When you submit your thesis you will submit it both electronically and as paper copies. Upload your thesis in the publication archive DHanken according to the instructions below. You can choose if you accept that your thesis will be available in Hanken´s intranet or both in Hanken´s intranet and the public network. Your thesis will be published in the public network only if it is approved with the grade very good or excellent and if you have chosen to make it available there. If, for some reason, you don´t accept that your thesis will be available in Hanken´s intranet or the public network, you can choose in DHanken to make your thesis available only at the library.

Even if you upload your thesis electronically in DHanken, you must still submit 3 copies of your thesis to the Service Point in Helsinki or to the Office of Study Affairs in Vaasa. 2 copies must be provided with binding-rings and plastic covers. These copies are for the reviewers of your thesis. 1 copy must be submitted in plastic case (not stapled). You must also fill in and submit the form Submitting your thesis.

The thesis should have an abstract after the title page. The abstract of the thesis should be one page and contain the aim, empirical method, materials, results and conclusion of the thesis.

Use the template for the Master´s thesis when you write your thesis. Below you will find the template and the instructions for using the template. If you have already written your thesis or have started to write your thesis in another format you do not have to copy your thesis into the template. Continue to write the same way as before and use the template for the abstract below when you write the abstract. If you have technical problems with the template for the Master's Thesis, please contact staffan.dellringer(at)hanken.fi.

When you have submitted your thesis, contact your supervisor to set a date for the thesis exam (maturity test). The thesis exam (maturity test) consists of an essay related to your thesis topic. When you write the thesis exam you are expected to demonstrate that you are well acquainted with the subject area of your thesis. Your thesis will not be graded before you have passed the thesis exam.

Two reviewers will assess your thesis. One of the reviewers is your supervisor and the other reviewer is a member of faculty from another department. The reviewers will give an evaluation of the thesis and recommendation for grade to the Office of Study Affairs. The Academic Council will approve and grade your thesis. When your thesis is graded you will get a copy of the evaluation by post. You will get 30 credits for your Master´s thesis.

The thesis has to be submitted one month prior to the meeting of The Academic Council at the latest.

Timetable 2012

Instructions for submitting your thesis electronically

Forms and template for the Master's thesis

Template for Master's thesis [dotx] 83k

Instructions for using the template for the Master's thesis

Submitting your thesis [pdf] 31k

Template for abstract