A licentiate thesis shall demonstrate good conversance with the field of research and the capability of independently and critically applying scientific research methods.

• A single study, i.e. a monograph
• A number of scientific publications or manuscripts vetted for publication deemed sufficient by the university which deal with the same set of problems and a summary of the findings. The licentiate thesis may consist of joint publications if the author’s independent contribution can be shown.
• Some other work which meets corresponding scientific criteria

The research topic of the licentiate thesis is related to the research field of the doctoral student and has been agreed with the supervising professor before starting the thesis.

When the thesis is ready for examination the student requests for confirmation of licentiate thesis topic, language, supervisor, thesis advisor and examiner and examination of licentiate thesis.

The application includes the following:

1. Request for examination of licentiate thesis (form 303, see below)
2. Title page of licentiate thesis
3. Abstract of the thesis in English*
4. A list of publications included in the thesis and author’s contribution (in case of article licentiate thesis)
5. Final version of the thesis in a PDF format
6. Short CV and publication list of the examiner

*The licentiate thesis shall include one or two abstracts: one abstract in English and another one in Finnish or Swedish if the author has received his/her high school education in Finland.

Send the application to your School's Doctoral education services.

The licentiate thesis is examined by an independent examiner (CHEM: two examiners). The examiner cannot be from the Aalto University. The examiner must hold at least a licentiate's degree, and they are to present their own, independent evaluation of the thesis. The examiner cannot have a too close relation to the author of the thesis, supervising professor or thesis advisor, so that there will be no doubts of partiality.

The student shall not take part in selecting the examiners; however they have a chance to make a remark on the selection. Before the examiner is appointed, the supervising professor must confirm that they agree to do the examination according to the schedule.

After processing the application and upon its approval by the Doctoral Programme Committee, the Doctoral Programme sends the licentiate thesis manuscript to the examiner(s). The examiner is asked to give their statement within four weeks (SCI 1.8.2024 onwards, until then 6 weeks; BIZ and ARTS 6 weeks).

When the examiner's statement arrives, the Doctoral Programme sends the statement to the doctoral student and supervising professor. The doctoral student has up to one year to make the necessary corrections.

The doctoral student sends the corrected licentiate thesis and the clarification of the corrections to the supervising professor, who checks the corrections that have been made.

After the supervising professor has accepted the clarification and the corrected thesis, they will send a short statement of this to the Doctoral Programme. In the statement the supervising professor states that the necessary corrections have been made and that the thesis is ready to be published. If the examiner does not suggest any corrections, the supervising professor will state in the statement that the thesis is ready to be published.

The licentiate thesis is presented at the department. After the presentation the supervising professor sends a freely formulated email to the Doctoral Programme with confirmation of the presentation.

Licentiate theses are published electronically at Aaltodoc. Electronic long-term preservation and open access publishing of licentiate theses is taken care of using an electronic form. The licentiate thesis is a public document; however, in the electronic form you can decide on the degree of publicity of your full-text thesis (PDF/A file. Please, follow these instructions to convert a file to PDF/A.) when depositing the file in the archive. You can find more information (incl. what degree of publicity means, how and where the thesis is deposited etc.) on the electronic form.

Learning Centre will publish your thesis at Aaltodoc and helps you with all the necessary permissions needed for electronic publishing.

You can use the Aalto doctoral thesis templates in the contents section of your licentiate thesis, but please note that Aalto Publication Platform should not be used for the licentiate thesis. Cover of the licentiate thesis should be similar to theses published at Aaltodoc.

Approval of licentiate thesis can be applied for from the Doctoral Programme Committee (contact the Doctoral Services of your School) after the licentiate thesis has been published electronically at Aaltodoc. Please check the deadlines for applications from the page of your own doctoral programme.

The Doctoral Programme Committee decides on the approval of the licentiate thesis. The Committee shall evaluate the licentiate thesis based on the written statement of the examiner and other possible written statements, comments or official replies. Grades used when evaluating the licentiate thesis are pass and fail. For the Licentiate of Science (Architecture) the grades for evaluating the thesis are pass with distinction, pass and fail.

After the licentiate thesis has been approved at the Doctoral Programme Committee and the student has applied for graduation in Sisu, the Dean will award the degree if all the required studies have been completed and doctoral student has enrolled as present at the university. The licentiate degree diploma entitles to the title of

• Licentiate of Science in Architecture (TkL, Lic.Sc.(Arch))
• Licentiate of Science in Economics and Business Administration (TkL, Lic.Sc.(Econ.))
• Licentiate of Science in Technology (TkL, Lic.Sc.(Tech.))

Submit the graduation request through your study plan on Sisu. Your graduation request on Sisu should be based on your up-to-date primary study plan towards a licentiate degree. Please note that you must be enrolled as an attending student on your graduation day.  

Look at instructions how to request for graduation 

Graduation request must be filled at once, it is not possible to stop, save and continue later on.  After sending the graduation request you can cancel your request for graduation, edit it or resubmit it if you need to. You can cancel or edit your request for graduation while its status is requested. If the status is in progress, you cannot cancel the request.

Studies after licentiate degree

Normally postgraduate studies are not continued after completing a licentiate degree - if you plan to study towards a doctoral degree, you are not required to complete a licentiate degree in between. However, if after completing a licentiate degree your plans change and you would wish to continue to study towards a doctoral degree, first discuss with your supervising professor about your plans. You don't need to submit a separate application, but you need to remember to keep enrolling to the university in order to not lose your study right.

After licentiate degree, you are very welcome to keep your skills and knowledgre up-to-date with Aalto University Lifewide Learning at lifewidelearning.aalto.fi.