Aalto University does not run one central thesis regulation. Each school publishes its own master's thesis guidelines, and they differ on points that matter — the abstract, the language of the maturity essay, where you submit. This page is built mainly on the School of Engineering guidelines, which are the most detailed and the most widely applicable, and it says so wherever a rule is school-specific.
If you study in Business, ARTS, ELEC, CHEM or SCI, read your own programme's thesis page alongside this. The shape of the process is the same across Aalto; the details are not.
What the thesis is worth
The master's thesis is a 30-credit entity. That figure covers more than the written document — the guidelines describe it as including the whole process around the thesis, not just the text you submit.
The three people involved
The guidelines name three principal actors: the author, the supervisor and the advisor.
- The supervisor is an academic expert who helps you find suitable theoretical sources and supports the writing. The supervisor also grades the thesis.
- There can be one or two advisors. An advisor must hold at least a master's degree, and is often an expert at the company where the empirical work is done. An Aalto researcher can also advise.
The school approves the topic and the language of the thesis on your application, and appoints the supervisor and advisor at the same time. The topic itself is settled in discussion with your prospective supervisor, but the guidelines are explicit that the final choice is always the student's.
The maturity essay is your abstract
This is the point most worth knowing in advance, because students expect a separate exam.
At the School of Engineering, the abstract of the thesis serves as the maturity essay. Your supervisor checks that the abstract demonstrates your knowledge of the topic and field, and you agree completion of it with the supervising professor before applying for approval of the thesis.
The language rules are layered:
- If you were schooled in Finland and already demonstrated language proficiency in a maturity essay for a bachelor's degree, you do not demonstrate it again at master's level.
- If you did not, the maturity essay must also demonstrate proficiency in Finnish or Swedish. Content is reviewed by your supervisor; the language is assessed by the Language Centre, and you should allow about 14 days for that check from the date the Centre receives the text.
- International students usually write the maturity essay in English. A maturity essay in any language other than Finnish or Swedish is reviewed for content only, not for language.
It is graded pass/fail, the grade does not affect the thesis grade, and a failed maturity essay may be retaken. The language can be failed on its own if it does not meet degree requirements.
You also have to present the thesis
The process includes a presentation of the finished thesis, at a time agreed with your supervisor. The deadline is firm in one direction: the presentation must be held at the latest on the last day you file the application for approval of the thesis. Programmes and departments differ on what the presentation looks like, so check your programme's Thesis page.
Applying for approval
You apply for evaluation once three things are true:
- the topic has been approved,
- the presentation has been given, and
- the abstract serving as the maturity essay is complete.
The application goes through MyStudies. Application deadlines and the Degree Programme Committee's meeting dates are published on your programme's page in the Student Guide, under Thesis — they are not fixed university-wide, so look them up rather than assuming.
Approval happens at a Degree Programme Committee meeting, on the grade proposal issued by your supervisor. School of Engineering theses are submitted electronically and sent on to Aaltodoc, the Learning Centre's publication archive.
Grading, and the four-week rule
Theses are graded 0–5: 0 fail, 1 passable, 2 satisfactory, 3 good, 4 very good, 5 excellent.
A thesis submitted for evaluation must be evaluated within four weeks of submission, under Aalto's General Regulations of Teaching and Studying. Note what that covers: the supervisor's evaluation, not necessarily formal approval, which waits for the next committee meeting.
The thesis grade is part of the credit-weighted average for the whole degree. A degree may be awarded Completed with Honours where both that weighted average and the thesis grade are at least 4.0. The title of the thesis, the grade, and the names of your supervisor and advisor all appear on the degree certificate.
Appealing a grade
If you are dissatisfied with the grade you may appeal in writing to the Aalto University Academic Appeals Board within 14 days of receiving notification.
The mechanics matter here, because the clock is short:
- the appeal must arrive before the Registry closes at 15.00 on the deadline date;
- if you were notified by email, you are deemed to have received it on the third day after sending, unless you can prove otherwise;
- if by post, the seventh day;
- the day you receive the decision is not counted in the 14 days.
Formatting and referencing
Aalto does not spell out font, spacing and margins in the thesis guideline itself. It points instead to the Word thesis template shared across all Aalto schools, which carries the presentation rules and the abstract templates.
On references, the guideline recommends the Harvard system, with numeric referencing as the other common option, and notes that both are explained in the shared template. It also warns that referencing systems vary by programme, so the supervisor is the authority. A direct quote goes in quotation marks, and you should reference the original source rather than a later work citing it.
One blunt instruction worth repeating: Wikipedia is not an appropriate source.
Publication is your choice — metadata is not
Once approved, your thesis is a public document. What that means in practice is narrower than students often assume:
- No thesis is put on Aaltodoc unless you consent. If you do consent, the full PDF is available to all Aaltodoc users.
- Metadata is public either way — title, author name, graduation year, degree programme and keywords.
- Without consent, the full text is not downloadable from Aaltodoc, but someone may still request a copy from the Learning Centre, because the approved thesis is a public document.
- Background material is not saved to Aaltodoc at all.
Working with a company
If your thesis is commissioned by an external organisation, two rules bite.
The thesis submitted for evaluation may not contain secret information. Anything commercially confidential belongs in the background material, outside the document being evaluated.
Aalto also publishes a contract template for agreements between a student and an external collaboration organisation, covering copyright among other things. The agreement is between you and the organisation — not between Aalto and the organisation — and it should be communicated to your supervising professor.
Academic integrity
Aalto's General Regulations on Teaching and Studying require all teaching and studying to take account of responsible conduct of research, and place the onus on students to read the available instructions and ask when they are unclear. Misconduct is defined first and foremost as a deliberate act.
Turnitin practice is set by school rather than centrally. School of Business programme pages describe checking a draft in the MyCourses workspace before final submission, with a similarity report generated from the final file at submission. The School of Engineering guide routes submission through a MyCourses inbox set up by the supervisor. Because this varies, check your own programme's Thesis page rather than relying on what another school does.
What we could not confirm
Aalto publishes no university-wide page setting a similarity percentage threshold, and the School of Engineering guidelines do not state one. Any specific figure you see quoted for Aalto should be traced to a named programme document before you rely on it.
Likewise, the guidelines do not set a page or word count for the master's thesis. Length expectations are a matter for your supervisor and your field.
