The commencement of the examination of a licentiate thesis is largely governed by the same instructions and timetables as those applying to the commencement of the preliminary examination of a doctoral dissertation. Any faculty-specific specifications or exceptions regarding the examination of licentiate theses and the preliminary examination of doctoral dissertations can be found below. If you do not find instructions specific to your faculty on this page, this means that such instructions do not exist. The faculty-specific instructions for submitting a doctoral thesis for pre-examination are available under the theme Preliminary examination.
Also bear in mind:
- You must always be registered as an attending student throughout the examination process, until the completion of your degree.
- As a rule, all the studies required for a degree must have been completed and registered by the time you submit your thesis for examination.
- Similarly to a dissertation manuscript, a licentiate thesis must also be submitted for analysis to the Urkund plagiarism recognition system before the thesis is submitted for examination.
- Acquaint yourself with the timetables for the submission of doctoral dissertations for preliminary examination well in advance, as they also apply to the submission of licentiate theses for examination.
Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry
The faculty-specific instructions: In an article-based licentiate thesis all the articles should be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. At least one article must be published or accepted for publication, and the rest have to be submitted for publication.
An article included in a licentiate thesis can later be included as a separate article in a doctoral dissertation.
The thesis is submitted for examination to the Faculty's doctoral student services. Please use the forms and follow the instructions given on submitting a doctoral thesis for pre-examination in the faculty of agriculture and forestry. Don't forget to state on the form that the manuscript you have submitted is a Licentiate thesis. Note, that the abstract following the title page of a licentiate thesis must be drawn up on the university's abstract form.
Before the licentiate thesis can be approved and graded, the student must present his or her research at a licentiate seminar, during which the examiners and other interested parties will present their commentaries. After this, the examiners will write their statement.
Faculty of Arts
Unlike doctoral dissertations, which allow the author to choose the format of the accompanying abstract, the abstract following the title page of a licentiate thesis must be drawn up on the university's abstract form.
Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences
The faculty-specific instructions: In an article-based licentiate thesis the articles should preferably be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals or be manuscripts that have been refereed and accepted for publication. A thesis may also include manuscripts not yet approved for publication. Also systematic review articles comparable to original publications may be included in a thesis. An article included in a licentiate thesis can later be included as a separate article in a doctoral dissertation.
The number of articles included in an article-based Licentiate thesis varies depending on the candidate's independent contribution to the articles and the scientific quality and scope of the package that they form (the thesis as a whole).
For justified reason, same co-authored articles can be included in a Licentiate thesis of more than one candidate. Especially in such case, the candidate’s own distinctive research perspective must be clearly demonstrated in the summary section of the dissertation. The matter of including same co-authored article in a thesis of more than one student is decided by the Faculty Council on a case-by-case basis with consideration given to the clarification of author contributions.
The thesis is submitted for examination to the Faculty's doctoral student services. Please use the forms and follow the instructions given on submitting a doctoral thesis for pre-examination in the faculty of biological and environmental sciences. Don't forget to state on the form that the manuscript you have submitted is a Licentiate thesis. Note, that the abstract following the title page of a licentiate thesis must be drawn up on the university's abstract form.
Faculty of Educational Sciences
When you are ready to submit your thesis manuscript for examination, submit the following documents in good time to the faculty’s postgraduate student services:
- Contact details form
- Your Licentiate thesis as a single pdf-file to the address: edu-research@helsinki.fi. The manuscript must included a Finnish-language and an English-language abstract. In the case of an article-based thesis, the file must include a summarising report and original articles. The file is named: lastname_lic.pdf. It is possible to use PDF-Xchange Tools or PDF-Xchange Editor programmes installed on University workstations to compile the materials. If the manuscript is too large to be sent by email, please use Funet Filesender.
- At the same time, submit a report on the share of independent work, which is signed by the supervisor in addition to you. This report should be written in the language used in the study. For article-based Licentiate theses, the report must clarify the share of independent contribution by article. For monographs, the share of work by the doctoral student and others (e.g., the supervisor or external experts) in the planning of the study, the collection and analysis of the material as well as the use of information technology and the graphic design of the thesis should be clarified.
Faculty of Medicine
The scope of a licentiate thesis is approximately half of what a doctoral dissertation would cover, and is subject to the same general regulations.
An article-based thesis typically includes two separate articles and a summarising report. The scope of the report is approximately half of what the equivalent section of a doctoral dissertation would cover. As a rule, the articles included must have been published in high-level international peer-reviewed journals or academic publication series. One of the articles must have been approved for publication. At least one of the articles must feature the licentiate student as the first author.
A monograph submitted as a licentiate thesis is a scholarly work issued under the name of the thesis author alone and based on the previously unpublished results of independent research. A monograph submitted as a licentiate thesis must meet scholarly criteria equivalent to an article-based thesis.
Once completed, licentiate theses are submitted for examination to the faculty’s doctoral student services. In addition to the thesis manuscript, submit to doctoral student services a proposal for the appointment of thesis examiners using this form (in Finnish), an abstract drawn up on the university's abstract form as well as any other required enclosures.
Faculty of Science
The proposal for the examiners of the Licentiate thesis should be sent to the Faculty's doctoral student services using the attached form (in Finnish). An abstract, drawn up on the the university's abstract form, must be included in the thesis after the title page.
Faculty of Social Sciences
The layout of Licentiate theses submitted for examination must correspond to the instructions (in Finnish) given on the layout of Master's theses.
An abstract must be included in the thesis, drawn up on the university's abstract form.
The thesis is submitted for examination to the Faculty's doctoral student services. Please use the forms and follow the instructions given on submitting a doctoral thesis for pre-examination (including the instructions on the Urkund-check). Don't forget to state on the form that the manuscript you have submitted is a Licentiate thesis.
Faculty of Theology
Unlike doctoral dissertations, which allow the author to choose the format of the accompanying abstract, the abstract following the title page of a licentiate thesis must be drawn up on the university's abstract form.