Laurea is a university of applied sciences, so the shared UAS framework applies: the thesis is a public document, it is checked for plagiarism before assessment, and it is published in Theseus. What follows concentrates on where Laurea's own rules are specific.
Scope
- Bachelor's: 15 credits. Laurea describes this as achievable in one semester, and estimates under three months of full-time work.
- Master's: 30 credits.
Opposition is compulsory
This is easy to miss when planning, because it depends on other people's timetables rather than your own.
Opposition is part of the presentation session, and each student acts as an opponent in turn. To complete the 15-credit thesis study unit you need one approved opposition. You may oppose alone or with a partner.
Laurea frames it as a learning situation rather than an obstacle — but it is a requirement, and you cannot complete the study unit without it.
The abstract is published
Your abstract is described as "your thesis in miniature", written for a reader unfamiliar with the topic.
The practical warning attached to it: the abstract is publicly displayed on Theseus, so it must not contain personal data or company secrets. People sometimes treat the abstract as an internal summary and only later realise it is the most-read part of the public record.
Research permits are your responsibility
Laurea places this squarely on the student: you are responsible for obtaining all research permits and other necessary permissions, and for conducting the work in accordance with them. A research permit must always be applied for from the organisation the research is directed at.
The maturity test
You demonstrate familiarity with your field and command of academic language. Your supervisor guides and checks it, and you agree the arrangements with them.
The use of AI in the maturity test is prohibited. Laurea states this directly. It is the clearest AI rule among the Finnish institutions covered on this site, and it applies specifically to the maturity test.
Language
Write it in your academic language — in most cases Finnish or Swedish. If your academic language is something else, or you were educated abroad, write it in the language of instruction of your programme.
Forms it can take
Agreed with your supervisor. The options Laurea names:
- a press release,
- an article draft,
- an essay task,
- a media bulletin or an internal bulletin, each with its own instructions.
It may be published on the Showcase blog platform.
For an article draft, the instructions are specific: 400–600 words, structured into small entities each covering one topic, with an informative main heading and sub-headings that match the text beneath them. Explain any concept the reader cannot be expected to know — if unsure, explain it. Choose one word per concept and use it consistently. Figures and tables may appear in an article generally, but should not be used in the maturity test.
The test is assessed on whether the writing is structured and coherent, whether it has an introduction, a conclusion and paragraph division, whether content and title correspond, and whether the text stands alone — understandable without reading the thesis.
At master's level
The maturity test is completed as a press release at the publication phase of the thesis, written individually. It is submitted to the thesis supervisor at the time of thesis assessment and graded pass/fail.
If a previous thesis is accredited
If your thesis is accredited from prior learning, you do not need to complete a maturity test — provided there is a notation on the transcript or diploma. Without that notation, you must complete one.
Accessibility check
The Accessibility Directive requires Laurea theses to be accessible. Once your thesis is approved for publication and ready for Theseus, you carry out an accessibility check yourself.
If problems come up during that review, fix them before storing the thesis in Theseus. Given that the upload cannot be revised, this ordering is not optional.
Plagiarism check
Submit your thesis to the Canvas workspace section "Publication phase submission and plagiarism check" — but only after you have received permission and instructions from your supervisor. Laurea is explicit that the submission follows the supervisor's go-ahead rather than preceding it.
Uploading to Theseus — you get one attempt
Read this before you reach it:
- Do not upload without your teacher's permission. When your teacher accepts the thesis, they give you permission to upload.
- The upload can be done only once and cannot be modified afterwards.
- Upload the newest version accepted by your teacher — check this, because there is no second go.
- The thesis must be uploaded three days before your graduation day.
During upload you grant a Distribution Licence permitting online publication, and you choose what rights readers get: All rights reserved, meaning ordinary copyright, or a Creative Commons licence.
What we could not confirm
Laurea does not publish a similarity percentage threshold for the plagiarism check. The check runs through the Canvas publication-phase workspace, but no numeric limit is stated. Treat any figure circulating for Laurea as unverified unless it appears in your own programme's instructions.
The master's guidelines PDF in the sources is dated March 2019. Where it differs from the live Student's Guide pages, follow the Student's Guide — this page is written from the current pages, and the PDF is listed only because it is still the most detailed master's document Laurea publishes.
