Tampere University's thesis rules are published centrally in the Student's Guide, which makes them easier to follow than at universities that devolve everything to faculties. The faculty-level variation that does exist is mostly about assessment criteria and the technology/architecture route.
One sequencing point is worth reading before anything else, because getting it wrong costs you weeks: the originality check happens before submission.
What the thesis is worth
- Most programmes: 20–40 credits, depending on your master's programme curriculum.
- Technology and architecture (the diplomityö, leading to MSc (Technology) or MSc (Architecture)): 30 credits.
Check your own curriculum rather than assuming — the range is wide enough to change how you plan the year.
Language
Theses may be written in Finnish or in the primary language of instruction of your degree programme. Any other language needs formal approval from your thesis supervisor.
What the thesis project includes
The written document is only part of it. The Student's Guide lists the thesis project as also involving:
- a master's thesis seminar,
- an oral presentation,
- acting as an opponent for another student's thesis, and
- a maturity test.
Your thesis may be empirical research or a review of existing research literature. You may also write it with one or more fellow students — in which case every author must be able to clearly demonstrate their own independent contribution.
Supervision
The University appoints one or two supervisors, one of them your primary supervisor. Typically your primary supervisor also serves as the examiner of your thesis, which is worth knowing when you decide how much to push back during supervision.
If your thesis is commissioned by an external company, a supervisor from that company supports the practical side. Some programmes also require a Thesis Supervision Plan, prepared jointly with your supervisors.
The maturity test, and the rule that decides whether you need one
Every master's thesis requires a maturity test demonstrating both understanding of the topic and the ability to write in an academic style. Whether you write a new one turns on a single question about your bachelor's degree:
- If the language of the maturity test you completed for your bachelor's thesis was assessed by a language examiner, then the abstract of your master's thesis serves as your maturity test. Nothing extra to write.
- If it was not assessed, you must take a new maturity test.
That second case has a knock-on effect people miss: it extends the examination period from 21 days to 28. Where a separate test is run as an electronic exam, it is an essay of roughly 400–500 words in the TUNI EXAM system, graded pass/fail.
Submitting: the order matters
This is the part to get right.
- Agree the final steps — and any preliminary examination — with your supervisors as the thesis nears completion.
- Your primary supervisor gives permission to submit.
- You upload to Turnitin for the originality check.
- Your supervisor reviews the Similarity Report.
- Only then do you deposit the thesis in Trepo, the institutional repository.
You must be registered as attending at Tampere University to submit a thesis for examination and receive the credits. A student who has let their registration lapse cannot submit.
The email you have to forward
After you deposit in Trepo, the University Library emails you within three working days with the web address where examiners can access your thesis.
You must forward that email to the examiner(s) as soon as it arrives. The examination clock depends on it. Sitting on that email is the most avoidable delay in the whole process.
Examination deadlines
- 21 days for examiners to assess the thesis.
- 28 days if you must also complete a maturity test as part of the thesis.
Grading
Master's theses are graded on a 0–5 scale: 1 sufficient, 2 satisfactory, 3 good, 4 very good, 5 excellent. The Faculty Council determines the assessment criteria, which are published in the faculty-specific sections of the Student's Guide.
Architecture master's theses are graded pass/fail instead. If you are in architecture, the 0–5 scale does not apply to you.
The examiners' statement and proposed grade are sent to your tuni.fi email address.
If you are happy with the grade — and if you are not
If you are satisfied, you can speed things up: notify your faculty's Study Services by email promptly, and the Dean will confirm the grade in line with the examiners' statement rather than waiting.
If you are dissatisfied, there are two different routes with two different clocks, and they are easy to confuse:
Written response — 7 days. You may submit a written response to the examiner's statement within seven days. The period begins on the date the email containing the proposed grade is sent to your tuni.fi address — not when you read it. The response goes to your Faculty and is reviewed by the Dean, who may decide on the evaluation as it stands, ask the examiners to comment on your response, or appoint an additional examiner.
Appeal — 14 days. If you are dissatisfied with the grade actually awarded, you may appeal in writing to the Faculty Council within 14 days from the date you had the opportunity to access the assessment results and information on how the criteria were applied.
Publication
Once approved, the final version of your thesis is made publicly accessible via Trepo, the University's institutional repository. Unlike some Finnish universities, the Student's Guide describes publication as the normal outcome rather than something you opt into.
Graduation timing
Approval is not the same as graduating. Tampere publishes graduation schedules with the deadlines that decide which round you make. If you are working towards a particular graduation date, read those deadlines backwards from the date — allowing for the 21 or 28 day examination window, plus the three working days before the Library's email reaches you.
A note on TAMK
Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) shares the tuni.fi domain and appears in the same search results, but it is a different institution with its own rules — it uses Wihi and publishes to Theseus rather than Trepo. If a page you are reading mentions those systems, it does not apply to Tampere University.
What we could not confirm
The Student's Guide does not publish a similarity percentage threshold for Turnitin. The report is reviewed by your supervisor, and in architecture it is explicitly part of the evaluation, but no numeric limit is stated. Treat any specific percentage you see quoted for Tampere as unverified unless you find it in your own faculty's criteria.
Length is also not set centrally. There is an MSc thesis template for engineering and architecture, but no page or word count applies across the university.
