Completing your Master's thesis at the Department of Design
Students must write and submit a thesis to obtain their Master’s degree. The thesis is a written academic publication, and it awards 30 credits. The student follows the Master's Thesis Guide (in Finnish here) (in Swedish here) instructions and Department of Design processes while writing their thesis.
In-depth information about thesis is provided on the DoD Master’s Thesis Seminar MyCourses page.
- At the Department of Design, the thesis process is structured in two thesis paths: Standard and Intensive. The path includes pre-defined steps and sets presentation and submission deadlines that each student follows.
- Standard path starts in September, and the student submits their thesis at the end of May. In the standard path, the student works on the thesis part-time and takes courses part-time. As a rule of thumb, most students should do the standard path.
- Intensive path starts in January, and the student submits their thesis at the end of July. In the intensive path, the student works on the thesis full time, and only small, thesis-related courses such as Academic Writing are recommended. The intensive path is intended for students who go on exchange, do an internship, or participate in an intensive minor in the fall of their second year of studies.
1) Starting your thesis: Enroll in the MUO-E0025 Thesis Seminar course (either Standard or Intensive).
2) Thesis Proposal: In the thesis seminar, you develop and present a Thesis Proposal, which is a brief description of your planned thesis project.
3) Getting the supervisor: The thesis supervisor is confirmed after the Thesis Proposal presentations based on the thesis topic and the process defined in your study program/major.
4) Topic approval and advisors: The supervisor approves the thesis topic and thesis advisor/advisors. The supervisor ensures the thesis topic aligns with the requirements and is feasible in the given timeframe.
5) Part 1: Once the supervisor, topic, and advisors have been approved, you work for thesis Part 1, which consists of a proper thesis plan (including timeline) and conceptual framework. Once submitted, the supervisor approves thesis Part 1, which awards 10 ects.
6) Part 2: You work on the thesis as planned, supported by the advisor(s). You complete Part 2, which includes methods, preliminary results, and production. Once submitted, the supervisor approves Part 2, which awards 10 ects.
7) Part 3 and the presentation: You work to complete the thesis and submit the almost-ready thesis draft and prepare for an oral presentation. During or after the thesis Part 3 presentations you get feedback and advice from the faculty, and the supervisor gives the permission to submit (unless there are serious shortcomings).
8) Preparing the final thesis submission: You finalise the thesis according to the given feedback. You complete an originality check of the manuscript in Turnitin. Typically, the thesis advisor checks the report.
9) Final thesis submission: You submit the final thesis document in the MyStudies system before the submission deadline. By submitting the thesis, you start the examination process.
10) Examination: The thesis is evaluated using the ARTS MA Thesis Guide 2022 evaluation criteria. The abstract of the thesis serves as the maturity test, which is approved by the supervisor. Typically, the supervisor is one of the examiners; the other examiner can be another faculty member or an external expert from the field of study. The thesis is graded by the Programme Committee based on the examiners' statement in the next committee meeting after the hand-in deadline.
10) Graduation: You check that your personal study plan in SISU is up to date and apply for graduation.
Standard Path 2026-2027
| Event | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Thesis Seminar starts | 31.08.2026 |
| Thesis Proposal presentations (exact date set by program/major) | 12.10.2026 |
| Part 1 submission | 13.12.2026 |
| Part 2 submission | 4.4.2027 |
| Thesis Part 3 presentations | 10.-14.5.2027 |
| Final submission | 25.05.2027 |
| Applying for graduation | 25.05.2027 |
| Grade decision | Mid-June 2027 |
| Diplomas ready | Beginning of August 2027 |
Intensive Path spring 2027
| Event | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Thesis Seminar starts | 11.01.2027 |
| Thesis Proposal presentations | 1.2.2027 |
| Part 1 submission | 14.3.2027 |
| Part 2 submission | 30.4.2027 |
| Thesis Part 3 presentations | 31.5.-4.6.2027 |
| Final submission | 31.07.2027 |
| Applying for graduation | 31.7.2027 |
| Grade decision | Late August 2027 |
| Diplomas ready | Mid-September 2027 |
Supplementary Path
Fall 2026
| Thesis Part 3 presentations | |
| Final submission |
23.11.2026 31.12.2026 |
ARTS graduates have a ceremony twice a year, in January (June - November graduates) and June (December - May graduates).
Completing your master's thesis
Before starting to write your thesis, read the instructions below, Master's Thesis Guide (in Finnish here) (in Swedish here) for students and familiarize yourself with copyright issues.
- Start your thesis work as instructed in your study programme (thesis seminar, pre-thesis course etc.)
- Give your thesis information: topic, supervisor and advisors in MyStudies Thesis (aalto.fi)
- Thesis supervisor will be selected based on your thesis topic by the process defined in your study programme. The supervisor will confirm the supervision in MyStudies.
- Supervisor approves your topic and thesis advisor / advisors in MyStudies and makes sure that you get advising and feedback on your thesis.
- Supervisor approves thesis part I (10 cr) and part II (10 cr).
- Thesis examiners are named when thesis part II is completed. Programme director confirms the examiners, supervisor is normally one of the examiners and the other one is for example programme faculty or an external expert from the field of study.
- Take the originality report in Turnitin during your thesis process according to your programme practices. Your thesis advisor checks the report.
- If you plan to graduate please make sure that your personal study plan (PSP) is up to date in SISU
- Oral presentation is a mandatory part of thesis work and needs to be completed before the thesis is handed in for examination (instructed in your study programme)
- When your thesis is ready to be evaluated, present it first to your advisor and then supervisor to get an examination permission from the supervisor. Oral presentation must be completed before examination permission can be given. NOTE! See also "Checklist for submitting the thesis" (below)
- Thesis abstract is your maturity test. Supervisor approves maturity test. (more instructions below)
- Apply for examination by submitting your thesis in MyStudies (incl. written part and production part / documentation of production) (instructions below). NOTE! maximum size of the thesis is 100Mb and the sumbission is not possible if the document is not in PDF/A format! There are four possibilities a year to submit your thesis for evaluation. Originality check and AI detection check for yout thesis text are automatically created when you submit your work and your supervisor gets access to these reports.
- If your thesis includes production part and the examiners haven’t examined it in an earlier phase please contact your examiners to schedule the examination of the production part.
- Apply for graduation in SISU (instructions in sisu help and in your programme's graduation page)
- Your thesis will be graded in the next programme committee meeting addressing thesis grades after hand-in deadline
Thesis process management has been moved to MyStudies.
If you have started your thesis work before 1 Aug 2024 you need to enter your thesis information to MyStudies thesis page without delay.
- Enter your thesis information as soon as possible to MyStudies (Supervisor, topic, advisors) and apply for approval for them. Please note that even if your topic has already been approved you need to enter the information to Mystudies AND apply for approval. These steps need to be completed well in advance before you can submit your thesis for evaluation.
- NOTE! Select your programme according to your current study right.
Familiarize yourself with the thesis instructions of your own program and find more information on the Thesis tab of MyStudies..
In the thesis tab of MyStudies
- You provide the basic information about your thesis.
- You maintain the basic and metadata of your thesis.
- You add your thesis supervisor and advisor(s).
- You submit the finished work for evaluation, approval, and archiving.
- You will find the grade and evaluation of the thesis when it is approved.
The finished thesis is submitted in MyStudies for evaluation, approval, and archiving.
MyStudies is a digital desktop for students. In addition to the thesis process, you can find your own study support team in MyStudies, and if they offer meeting times on the platform, you can schedule appointments in the service. In addition, the most important services for students can be found on the desktop, some including appointment functionality, as well as direct links to the most frequently used pages.
If it is not possible to add the thesis information in MyStudies, you can ask for help from Sisu clinics (schedule), at studentservices@aalto.fi or by booking an appointment with your study coordinator in MyStudies.
Maturity test in Master of Arts, Architecture and Landscape Architecture Degrees
In a master's degree the abstract of the thesis serves as maturity test. If a student's language of education (language they have been educated in secondary level) is Finnish or Swedish they write the abstract in two languages, in the language of education (Finnish or Swedish) and in English. If language of education is other than Finnish or Swedish, student writes the abstract only in English and the supervisor evaluates only the content of the abstract (and not the language).
Students who have been educated in Finland in Finnish or Swedish:
If the student has completed required language studies and maturity test according to their language of education in their bachelor's degree, they don't need to complete them in their master's degree. In this case only the content of the abstract will be evaluated by the supervisor.
If the student has not completed required language studies and maturity test according to their language of education in their bachelor's degree, their abstract needs to be sent to language check to language center. Student submits their Finnish language version of the abstract in MyCourses: https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/view.php?id=30642 In addition to the language check supervisor evaluates the content of the abstract.
Writing an abstract guide (in Finnish here)
Abstract form (FI, SWE, EN)
Thesis template (in English, Finnish and Swedish)
Template is not mandatory to use.
Before proceeding to submit your thesis for evaluation, approval, and archiving, please check the following:
- Your personal information and study right information above are accurate and up-to-date.
- You have enrolled as an attending student at Aalto.
- You have provided all necessary information in "Update Thesis Data".
- You have given a thesis presentation.
- If you have been asked to have the maturity demonstration language checked, you have sent your abstract to the Language Centre.
- Add an abstract to your thesis. It is recommended to use the thesis abstract form (above).
- Your thesis file follows the structure of the Aalto thesis template and is in PDF/A format AND size of the file under 100Mb.
PLEASE NOTE! The submission does not go through if the file size exceeds the maximum limit or the file format is not PDF/A.
You should name the file without Scandinavian letters (e.g. ä and ö) and special characters to the following format: master_lastname_firstname_publishingyear.pdf, (e.g. master_meikalainen_matti_2026.pdf). - The artistic component of the thesis is archived in digital documentation. If you have separate digital documentation of your artistic component (pictures, audio, video material), save it as a separate media appendix file(s) to the section reserved for it, remember to add also credentials and meta information for the documentation. Please note that if the documentation is included in the written part there's no need for separate documentation material.
- You have familiarized yourself with the thesis approval schedule specific to your degree programme.
- If you wish to graduate, submit graduation request in Sisu.
- After checking these things you can submit yout thesis with appendices in MyStudies
Technical support:
- IT Servicedesk (servicedesk@aalto.fi) is responsible for all PDF/A-conversion related issues
- Studentservices if something went wrong with your thesis submission studentservices@aalto.fi
- Aaltodoc-help (aaltodoc-help@aalto.fi) helps if something needs to be added or corrected in your thesis that is already approved and in Aaltodoc
Submit your thesis in one of the following PDF/A standards: PDFA/-1a, PDFA/-1b, PDFA/-2a, PDFA/-2b, PDFA/-3a, or PDFA/-3b. PDF/A is an ISO-standardised version of the Portable Document Format (PDF) specialised for use in the archiving and long-term preservation of electronic documents.
Instructions for PDFA conversion and validation
You can use Aalto PDF/A-muunnos ja -validointipalvelu / PDF/A conversion and validation service for the conversion and validation
Convert the PDF file so that it is suitable for web publishing. Maximum size for thesis file is 100 Mb. The recommended size for the pdf/a document is under 20 Mb and for Theses including a lot of images under 100 Mb.
It is the student's responsibility to check that the PDF/A file has been correctly converted and that it is identical to the submitted thesis copies.
Naming the PDF file
You should name the file without Scandinavian letters (e.g. ä and ö) and special characters to the following format: master_lastname_firstname_publishingyear.pdf,
(e.g. master_meikalainen_matti_2026.pdf).
Technical support:
- IT Servicedesk (servicedesk@aalto.fi) is responsible for all PDF/A-conversion related issues
- Studentservices if something went wrong with your thesis submission studentservices@aalto.fi
- Aaltodoc-help (aaltodoc-help@aalto.fi) helps if something needs to be added or corrected in your thesis that is already in Aaltodoc
The theses and the metadata of all theses will be archived in the Aaltodoc publication archive. The term metadata refers to the data that describes your thesis for example the title of thesis, the language, keywords and the advisor of thesis. When submitting the thesis in eAge you can give permission to publish the whole-text and/or the abstract through the Aaltodoc publication archive.
The thesis publishing date can be postponed by a maximum of one (1) year. Hence, students don’t have to publish the thesis immediately if they wish to postpone publishing for reasons related to other publications, patent applications or corporate secrets, for example. However, please note that the thesis is still a public document and it will be displayed publically. The public copy can be seen in the Learning Centre customer computers or sent via email by request.
If you do not grant permission for publishing, the archived PDF file will be available for anyone by request but it is not published online. The Learning Centre is obliged to send the digital version to anyone who wants to read the thesis.
If you have any questions related to thesis submission or saving, please contact studentservices@aalto.fi
If you have any comments regarding the data of your thesis, or you wish to make corrections, please send an email to anja.lehtokari@aalto.fi
Technical support:
- IT Servicedesk (servicedesk@aalto.fi) is responsible for all PDF/A-conversion related issues
- Studentservices if something went wrong with your thesis submission studentservices@aalto.fi
- Aaltodoc-help (aaltodoc-help@aalto.fi) helps if something needs to be added or corrected in your thesis that is already in Aaltodoc
Please note that you have to submit the final version of your thesis to the MyStudies. If you notice an error in your submitted thesis before the submission deadline, the submission can be cancelled in studentservices (studentservices@aalto.fi). Please remember to re-submit your corrected thesis before the deadline.
If the contents of your thesis, such as the text or a table, is found erroneous after the thesis has been submitted and the deadline has passed, the errors can be corrected on a separate errata page (http://tieteentermipankki.fi/wiki/Tekstuaalitieteet:errata). After the submission deadline, yout thesis cannot be altered or resubmitted to MyStudies. Instead, any errors found in it are collected on an errata page, which lists the page numbers of the errors and gives a corrected version of the text or item. The errata is attached to the thesis metatext in the Aaltodoc publication archive (aaltodoc.aalto.fi).
Please follow the instructions below.
- Write the errata and save it in PDF/A format (not PDF/A-3).
- You can download a Word-format errata template from Aaltodoc.
- The errata must include the following details: the thesis author and thesis title, page number of the error and a corrected version of the text or item.
- Please send the errata page to your thesis supervisor to obtain their approval for it.
- If you cannot reach your supervisor, send the errata to the learning services of your school (addresses provided below).
- send the supervisor’s approval to aaltodoc-help@aalto.fi
- Append your approved errata page to the metadata of your thesis on Aaltodoc in accordance with the instructions given on Aaltodoc.
- If prompted, log into Aaltodoc using your Aalto username and password; you will find the link in the top right corner of the page.
- If you no longer have a valid Aalto username and password, request a one-time login link from aaltodoc-help@aalto.fi
- Append the errata page to your thesis in Aaltodoc using the form on Aaltodoc.
- Log out.
- The errata page is now be visible on Aaltodoc together with your thesis.
Contact details for the schools’ learning services
ARTS: studentservices@aalto.fi
BIZ: opinnot-biz@aalto.fi
CHEM: studies-chem@aalto.fi
ELEC: studies-elec@aalto.fi
ENG: studies-eng@aalto.fi
SCI: email addresses to the programmes