The master's thesis is graded according to common criteria at the School of Business. Read the grading rubric when you are planning and writing your thesis. 

The rubrics are renewed as of August 1, 2024. All bachelor's and master's theses whose preparation begins on August 1, 2024, or later are evaluated using the renewed rubrics. The renewed rubrics are in the pages of the School of Business.

Theses started before August 1, 2024 and submitted for evaluation before January 1, 2025, will be assessed according to the previously applicable assessment rubrics.The rubric can be found here (PDF).  

1. Read more about the thesis seminar of your programme on Sisu.
   • You will find the seminar in your personal study plan or through the curriculum page of your programme.
2. Register for the seminar on Sisu.
3. Take part in the seminar work and write your thesis.
4. The Master's thesis process will change in January 2025 with the introduction of a new thesis functionality in MyStudies portal.
   • If you submit your thesis in December 2024 or January 2025 you do not have to do anything in Mystudies. 
   • If you are working on your thesis and submitting it for evaluation on February 2025 or later, you must store the basic information of the thesis in MyStudies and apply for supervisor’s approval. You can do this in early January when the thesis functionality is introduced. You can submit the thesis only after your supervisor has confirmed the basic information, so take care of the supervisor's confirmation as early as possible in the thesis process.   
   • If you start your thesis in January 2025, save the basic information of your thesis in MyStudies and apply for your supervisor's approval. You can start the process in MyStudies when you have been assigned a thesis supervisor. More detailed instructions will be added to this page in January 2025. 
5. The abstract of your thesis acts as your maturity essay. Read more about the maturity essay further down on this page.
6. Format the thesis file for submission.
   • Submit your thesis as a single PDF/A file containing the cover page and thesis abstract. See below for details on preparing the file.
   • Practice saving the thesis in the correct format before the deadline date, because if you encounter any problems, you will not have time to fix them on the day your thesis is due.
7. Submit your master’s thesis for evaluation:
   • Thesis submission in January 2025 or earlier: submit your master’s thesis for evaluation to MyCourses and to eAge for archiving. Submit the same file to both systems. 
   • Thesis submission in December 2025 or after: submit your master’s thesis in MyStudies. You can submit the thesis only after  your supervisor has accepted the thesis for supervision in the system. More detailed instructions will be added to this page in January 2025.  
   • If you have written your thesis together with an another student, both of you need to submit the same file for evaluation and archiving. 
   • You have to be enrolled as an attending student for the right to study to which the master's thesis relates.
   • The abstracts of bachelor's and master's theses to be saved from January 1, 2024 will always be openly published in the Aaltodoc publication archive together with other metadata of the theses. Read more about theses as public documents here.
   • Further information about publishing theses here.

• Use the thesis template for all Aalto University Schools that can be found here. The first page of the submitted file should be the cover page, while the next should be the thesis abstract page.
• The cover page and the abstract are written in the same language as your thesis and depending on your language of education the abstract may need to be written in other language(s) as well.
• The abstract of your thesis acts as your maturity essay. Read more about the maturity essay and what languages it needs to be written in further down on this page under The maturity essay at the master's level.
• Save your file as an archival PDF/A file. Suitable formats: PDF/A-1a, -1b, -2a and -2b. Do not use any other file format.

General guidelines for master's thesis structure and design can be found here.

Instructions for converting a file to PDF/A compliant version here

For the schedule for thesis evaluation, see the page Graduation. You can submit your thesis for evaluation even before you have completed all your studies.

If you are submitting your thesis for evaluation in December 2024 or January 2025, follow these instructions. 

1. Register for the thesis submission workspace of your department on MyCourses.
   • Department of Management Studies (PMOD, SMCW, IDBM, CS, Global Management*)
   • Department of Accounting and Business Law (accounting, business law)
   • Department of Marketing (marketing)
   • Department of Economics (economics)
   • Department of Information and Service Management (ISM, BA)
   • Department of Finance (finance)
2. Submit your master’s thesis as instructed in the MyCourses workspace.
3. Submit your master’s thesis to eAge for archiving. Click here to go to eAge.
4. Follow your Aalto email as we will use it to contact you if we need additional information.
   • Remember to check your spam folder, because sometimes eAge messages end up there.

* Global Management students who have started their studies before 1.8.2022 should submit their thesis according to their specialization area. Student who have started their studies 1.8.2022, submit the thesis to the workspace of Management studies.

If the thesis and maturity essay are the last study attainments you need to complete to graduate, you can then request for graduation as a Master of Science (Economics and Business Administration). Read more on the page Graduation.

If you are submitting your thesis for evaluation in February 2025 or later, follow these instructions. 

1. Submit your master’s thesis for evaluation in MyStudies. More detailed instructions will be added to this page in January 2025.   
2. Thesis submission is possible in MyStudies only after you have provided the basic information for the thesis, applied for supervisor’s approval and your supervisor is confirmed in MyStudies. 
3. Follow your Aalto email as we will use it to contact you if we need additional information.

1. If you notice an error in your thesis after its submission but before the deadline:
   • Ask for your eAge form to be returned to you by emailing to [email protected].
   • Correct the error in your thesis.
   • Submit the corrected version to the MyCourses workspace no later than on the deadline date.
   • Once you get your eAge form back, replace the thesis file with the corrected one and resend the form.
   • If you had submitted the earlier version of the thesis separately to your thesis advisor, send the corrected version also to the thesis advisor.
2. If you notice an error after the deadline but before the thesis has been evaluated, please do either of the following:
   • Suspend the thesis evaluation process by sending an email to the planning officer of your programme or to [email protected].
   • Let the thesis advisor evaluate your thesis and then follow the instructions given in item 3 below.
3. If you wish to correct an error in your thesis after its evaluation, you can append an errata document to your thesis as instructed below.

Write your thesis abstract in the same language as the thesis and in translation as necessary (see below):

• If the language of your thesis is Finnish,
  • write its abstract in Finnish and English.
  • If your language of primary and secondary education is Swedish, write it also in Swedish.
• If the language of your thesis is English,
  • write its abstract in English and
  • in your language of primary and secondary education (if that language was Finnish or Swedish).

Note that the translations must be written regardless of whether you show language proficiency in your master’s degree.

Demonstrating language proficiency

If you are unsure about whether you need to demonstrate language proficiency in your master’s thesis, contact a planner for your programme before submitting your thesis.

Students who completed a bachelor’s degree in Finland

In principle, if you completed a bachelor’s degree at Aalto University or at another Finnish university or a Finnish university of applied sciences, you have already demonstrated your language proficiency in that degree or you received an exemption. Therefore, you do not need a demonstration of language proficiency in your master’s degree; instead, your master’s level maturity essay demonstrates your conversance with the subject area of your thesis. Approval of your thesis means approval of your maturity essay as well.

Students who completed a bachelor’s degree abroad

If you completed a bachelor’s degree abroad and your language of primary and secondary education is Finnish or Swedish, you must demonstrate your proficiency in your language of primary and secondary education by a master’s level maturity essay or by a translation of it. If you belong to this group, contact your programme planner once you have submitted your thesis. You will then receive instructions regarding how your essay or translation will be examined.

If you completed a bachelor’s degree abroad and your language of primary and secondary education is not Finnish or Swedish, your maturity essay demonstrates your conversance with the subject area of your thesis. Approval of your thesis means approval of your maturity essay as well.