Bachelor’s Programme in International Business, Mikkeli

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Thesis

The Bachelor’s Thesis is a formal document that requires from a student both a formal proposal and a defense in the thesis seminar. The thesis process takes place once each academic year.

The Bachelor’s Thesis must be written in English. Detailed instructions on the thesis are provided in special info sessions attended by all thesis students. All thesis materials will also be placed here below.

It should be noted that the grade given for Bachelor's Thesis cannot be improved later.

Maturity test

Once the Bachelor’s Thesis is completed, all candidates for the BScBA degree must complete and pass the Maturity Test (0 cr). The test is to demonstrate

that the student is familiar with the field in which the Bachelor’s Thesis is written and
the student’s proficiency in Finnish or Swedish (if the student has obtained his or her secondary education in Finnish or Swedish).

If the student has not studied the secondary level education in Finnish or Swedish, it is possible to apply for an exemption in order to write the maturity test in English. The student has to have the exemption granted before taking the maturity test.

The maturity test is completed by writing a one-page executive summary or press release based on the Bachelor’s Thesis (submission on MyCourses). The maturity test is accepted given that both the content and the linguistic form are accepted.

Write a one-page executive summary or press release based on your Bachelor’s Thesis (spacing 1.15, font type Calibri, font size 11, all margins 2 cm). In the text, you should cover the findings and implications/significance of your research.

Pay attention to the legibility and the linguistic clarity of your text. Please note that the maturity test is an independent text without references to your thesis.

Instructions for executive summary

The purpose of an executive summary is to support managerial decision-making. In contrast to the abstract of your thesis, your task in the executive summary is to convince your readers of the utility of your research and its practical application in economy and/or business, and to talk the readers into “buying” your research findings.

Structure your summary in an explicit way: introduce the findings and significance of your research, including the solution you recommend for the problem addressed, as well as explain how the research benefits a specific target group or groups. Use sub-headings that arouse interest.

Instructions for press release

Write a press release about your Bachelor’s Thesis that could be published in a newspaper, magazine or in social media. The purpose of the press release is to present the central findings and significance of your research in a way that would interest the public.

Based on the intended target audience, start the press release with the issues that you think they would find the most interesting. The press release should have an interest-creating main heading, a starting paragraph that summarizes the essentials of your topic, and then sub-headings and other paragraphs that cover the details of the topic.

The Bachelor’s thesis process 2022-2023

The 2022-2023 Bachelor’s Thesis process begins in September 2022. Your work on the thesis begins immediately with exploratory and developmental stages of the thesis. You will have several information sessions, some workshops, and three required personal consultations with your supervisor during the process. Note that the Literature Review workshop is mandatory for all thesis students. The supervisors will inform you how the consultations are arranged. Supervisors will provide additional information to their respective group during these consultations. We strongly encourage you to work intensively with the thesis from the beginning in order to proceed according to the planned schedule.

The Thesis Instructions document below includes the schedule, deadlines and information on all steps and requirements for the thesis process 2022-2023 (see the box with PDF attachment under these instructions).

Please find below

1) Thesis Instructions 2022-2023 (Table 1 in the document shows the schedule of events and documents for the respective steps in the thesis process),

2) information on the workshops and info sessions,

3) list of selected thesis topic examples,

4) the electronic forms used during the process, and

5) other relevant information on the writing and grading of the thesis.

More information will be added here later during the process.