Thesis, Bachelor's degree

The topic of the thesis is typically chosen from the student's area of professional expertise. The topic should be of interest to you and serve the development needs of working life. Setting objectives and defining the thesis's scope are important steps in the process, and thesis advisors are there to support you. When choosing your topic, you should remember that thesis reports are public documents.

Finding a topic for you the thesis

Be proactive and alert to identify areas for improvement in your workplace or internship. Gather ideas by looking at existing theses on Theseus or HHthesis. See if you can find topics that interest you in Haaga-Helia's RDI projects. Follow the assignments posted on JobTeaser.

Commissioning agreement

The thesis can be commissioned by a company, public corporation, association, university of applied sciences or other educational institution. In this case, the thesis project will be the subject of a written commissioning agreement.

Fill in the form and collect the necessary signatures. Haaga-Helia advisors do not sign any separate non-disclosure agreements drawn up by the commissioning party. In higher education institutions, confidential theses are not allowed, but they may contain confidential background material that is only known to the advisors/assessors. Background material will not be evaluated.

Haaga-Helia does not archive commissioning agreements.

Thesis as pair work 

The thesis can also be done in pairs, ie. in groups of two students. From the very beginning, it is very important to make sure that their ideas about timing and objectives are sufficiently consistent. If the students come from different degrees, the thesis topic must be approved by the respective thesis coordinators.

In Wihi, one student enters the topic proposal and then invites the other student to participate in the same Wihi project. The thesis will have a common supervisor, and in the case of two separate degrees, the second supervisor will be from the other degree. The evaluation will be identical for both students.

The division of tasks between the authors must be specified in the thesis plan and in the introduction chapter.
 
In some cases, the authors may come from two different Universities of Applied Sciences.  In such cases, the following must be taken into account:

1. In the planning phase, Thesis Advisors from both UASs must agree on the joint thesis project. The students have to play an active role in identifying any issues and moving the process forward.
2. Thesis process: Both students need to make sure that they will do what is required in the thesis process of their respective universities (e.g. workshops, maturity test, etc.).
3. Wihi: Haaga-Helia Wihi will be used as the thesis process platform. It is possible to send files from Wihi to another advisor using the ‘Send for external comments’ function. It is not possible to add other than Haaga-Helia staff as users to Wihi.
4. Thesis report: In the abstract as well as in the introduction chapter, it is important to describe how the collaborative solution was put into practice.
5. Thesis report: Compare the respective thesis report guidelines of the two UASs. Report the differences between the guidelines to the advisors. If the final report differs from the Haaga-Helia reporting guidelines, mention this in the introduction. As for the layout, the Haaga-Helia student will modify the layout of the report to comply with Haaga-Helia´s reporting guidelines.
6. Thesis report: The thesis will be published in the Theseus Open Repository in the collections of both universities separately. The publication process will be managed by each student at their respective UAS.
7. Presentation: The presentation will be done in accordance with the guidelines of the respective institution. When organising a presentation event, it is a good idea to send invitations to the other UAS as well.
8. Assessment: Each UAS will carry out the evaluation according to its own criteria. 
    

Research authorization

If Haaga-Helia is the subject of the thesis or the research is conducted for Haaga-Helia students, staff or alumni, the research must be approved in accordance with the attached research authorization guidelines.

The research authorization application will be sent to Specialist Pekka Lahti: [email protected]. 

Alumni can be targeted for theses and research when Haaga-Helia is the commissioner and the aim is to develop Haaga-Helia's activities. The application for a research permit should be sent to the Alumni Relations Specialist at [email protected].
 

Process of approving a bachelor's thesis

The approval of a bachelor's thesis is managed by the degree program's thesis coordinator in UAS degrees.

Students apply for approval to the degree program's thesis coordinator with an informal application. The application should include the previous thesis or its Theseus link, an evaluation form, and a transcript of records or a link to the student's page on Opintopolku (the national student information portal).

Criteria for transfer crediting a bachelor's thesis

Previous Thesis

• has been completed within ten years of starting studies at Haaga-Helia. The calculation starts from the beginning of the first month of attendance, i.e. 1.8. or 1.1.
• has been completed in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences as a bachelor or master's thesis, or a Finnish university as a bachelor's, master's or licentiate thesis or a doctoral dissertation. Work completed in another country can also be accepted for English-language degrees.
• has been completed for a degree in the same or a different field, and it is equivalent in subject matter or suitable for the degree for which credit is being applied.
• covers the entire thesis of the Haaga-Helia Bachelor's degree.
• is eligible for Finnish-language degrees if it is written in Finnish, Swedish or English.
• is eligible for English-language degrees if it is written in English.
• that has been assessed on a scale of 1–5 or pass according to the ECTS system retains the original grade. In other cases the grade is pass.

If approval is based on a bachelor's thesis, the work is archived in Haaga-Helia's archiving system. Other approved theses are not archived at Haaga-Helia since the work can be found in the original institution.

In the case of approval, the maturity test is not retaken if it has been successfully completed in a previous degree.

The grade for an approved thesis is given on a scale of 1-5 or H (Approved) according to the original scale.

Enrolment to the thesis process takes place in Wihi, where the thesis project progresses from registration to evaluation and publication of the report. Please register for the process according to the degree-specific instructions (further down this page), which will tell you when you will receive the name of your advisor.

Once you start the process under the guidance of a designated advisor, agree a binding timetable and stick to it. You will receive guidance and feedback from your advisor throughout the process. Save the files created during the thesis project and the interim versions of the report in Wihi. All written communication between the student and the advisor is handled through Wihi.

Wihi instructions are in the program itself, on the right-hand side of the menu, behind the question mark button.

When starting the thesis process, you will be assigned an advisor. The thesis process starts with a plan, which is approved by your advisor. Your advisor will then give you advice on the process and feedback on your work. Agree a binding timetable with your advisor and stick to it. Use the thesis reporting guidelines from the start. Instructions for any thesis seminar will be provided by degree.

Templates for thesis plans

• Research-based/Product-based Thesis Plan (docx)
• Diary Thesis Plan (docx)
• Portfolio Thesis Plan (docx)

Reporting guidelines

• Guidelines for long reports and theses (pdf)
• Word template for writing a report (dotx file)
• Guidelines for the diary-based thesis (pdf)
• Word template for guidelines for the diary-based thesis (dotx)
• Guidelines for the product-based thesis (pdf)
• Guidelines for the research-based thesis (pdf)
• Confidentiality of Business and Trade Secrets in the Thesis (pdf)
• Guidelines for the portfolio thesis (pdf)

See also the LibGuides guidelines maintained by the library.

Tools for thesis

Dictation machine

A dictation machine for recording interviews etc. can be borrowed from the library.  You can check the loan status in HH Finna.

SPSS software

Haaga-Helia students can install IBM SPSS Statistics on their own computer free of charge.  

Webropol

Webropol allows you to implement web-based surveys. Please note that for HAKA login, the username and password are the same as the Haaga-Helia domain name and password.
 
If you have any questions, please contact Webropol administrators:

• International Business Degree: Jutta Heikkilä
• Sports Instructor Degree, Vierumäki: to be announced later
• Hospitality Degree: Saija Laitinen

All theses at Haaga-Helia are checked using a plagiarism detection application. The software is used to determine whether there is possible plagiarism in theses or other learning assignments. The check is carried out through Wihi. Submit your work for plagiarism review once your supervisor has granted permission.

Thesis advisor approves the plagiarism detection report in Wihi if the report contains no indications of plagiarism, after which the thesis may proceed to evaluation. If there are grounds for suspecting plagiarism, a preliminary inquiry is initiated, during which the student is also heard.

Ethical principles

See the Rectors’ Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences Arene's guidelines for students and advisors.

Deceit and how to deal with it

Haaga-Helia's examination regulations define deceit and how to deal with it. The Act on Universities of Applied Sciences defines the sanctions for violations.

Suspicion of deceit is reported in the Finnish or English electronic form. Suspicions of plagiarism in connection with theses are dealt with by Haaga-Helia's Thesis Ethics Committee.

Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK) defines plagiarism in the RCR guidelines (Responsible Conduct of Research) defines misconduct as follows:

• Fraudulent activities include unauthorized quotation, i.e. plagiarism, fabrication, falsification and misappropriation.
• Unauthorized quotation or plagiarism is the representation of another's text or part of it as one's own
• Fabrication is presenting invented findings and results
• Falsification of findings is the deliberate manipulation of original findings to distort results or omit essential results or data
• Misappropriation is the impersonation of the original findings, idea or plan.

Once thesis advisor has approved the plagiarism detection report, upload the assessment version of the thesis to Wihi. The advisor evaluates the thesis on a scale of 1–5 using thesis assessment criteria. According to the degree regulations, a grade awarded for a thesis cannot be raised. The assessment statement is a public document, which anyone may view at Haaga-Helia’s library.

Feedback from the commissioning party

Request feedback on your thesis using the commissioning party’s feedback form (docx). Commissioning party should send the completed feedback form as an email attachment to thesis advisor. Thesis advisor takes commissioning party’s feedback into account when assessing the thesis.

Rectifying procedure

If you feel that the assessment criteria have been incorrectly applied in the assessment of your thesis: 

1. You may submit a written request to your thesis advisor for a review of the assessment within 14 days of receiving it. In your request, specify the reasons why or in which respect you are dissatisfied with the assessment. You should refer to the publicly available thesis assessment criteria to support your justification. You will receive a written response from your thesis advisor.
    
2. If you are not satisfied with the thesis advisor’s response, you have 14 days to request that the thesis coordinator arranges a new assessment of your thesis by an extra assessor. You will receive a decision based on the extra assessor’s assessment.
    
3. If you are not satisfied with the extra assessor’s thesis assessment, or if you wish to bypass it altogether, you may, within 14 days of the previous assessment decision, submit a request for rectification (E-form) to the Examination Board. The Examination Board will not re-assess your thesis but will instead review whether the Haaga-Helia thesis process and assessment criteria have been properly followed.

The student writes a maturity test in their field for their thesis. Starting from September 1, 2023, an abstract written for the thesis will serve as the maturity test.

The maturity test has two main purposes: through it, the student demonstrates their command of the field of their thesis, and an approved maturity test is an indication of proficiency in the Finnish or Swedish language as required by the Act on the Knowledge of Languages Required of Personnel Public Bodies.

The thesis advisor can require that the maturity test be written under supervision if, for a justified reason, they consider that the competence required for the aforementioned main purposes would not otherwise be sufficiently demonstrated.

What is meant by language of school education?

You will complete the maturity test in your language of school education. This refers to the Finnish or Swedish language for which you received an approved mother tongue grade on your Finnish comprehensive school or upper secondary school certificate. If you have passed the matriculation examination in a language other than the aforementioned school education language (Finnish or Swedish), you are considered to have received your school education in Finnish or Swedish as well, if your matriculation examination includes a passing grade in the Finnish or Swedish language mother tongue exam or if you have achieved at least the grade magna cum laude approbatur in the Finnish as a Second Language or Swedish as a Second Language examination.

The language of the maturity test is determined according to the student's language of school education:

What if you write your thesis in a language other than your own school education language? 

The abstract of the thesis to be published is always written in the same language as the thesis itself. If your school education language is Finnish or Swedish and you write the thesis in a language other than your own school education language, you must also submit a separate abstract written in your own school education language to your thesis advisor.

Writing and Evaluation of the Abstract-Form Maturity Test

1. Familiarize yourself with the instructions for writing the abstract. They can be found in the document "Reporting Instructions for Long Reports and Theses" (pdf).
2. The abstract can be finalized only towards the end of the writing process, as it also includes results and conclusions. The thesis advisor may require changes to the abstract before its approval. Therefore, it is recommended to have the abstract reviewed by the thesis advisor before the assessment version of the work is uploaded in Wihi.
3. The text of the abstract must not be generated using artificial intelligence (language models).
4. If the thesis is done as a joint work, each student writes their own abstract, and the thesis advisor selects which one will be published as part of the thesis report.
5. The thesis advisor marks the maturity test as approved in the thesis evaluation form. If necessary, another evaluator may participate in the assessment.

Students publish their thesis in accessible pdf/a format to online library Theseus, which is the open collection of the national universities of applied sciences. If the commissioning party does not want the thesis to be published in the open collection, the thesis is stored in the restricted collection of Theseus. The thesis is always a public document, so anyone has the right to request to read it.

In the open collection of Theseus, the thesis can be read online in its entirety. A thesis stored in the restricted collection can be read on the Haaga-Helia intranet, in the same way as a thesis stored in HHthesis. The thesis metadata and abstract are openly available in both Theseus collections. As the thesis is public, please ensure that the thesis, its abstract or other metadata do not contain any information that is subject to trade secret, privacy or other confidentiality protection.

NOTE! If the thesis commissioning agreement has been drawn up before 1.1.2022 and the commissioning organisation has prohibited saving the thesis in the open collection of Theseus, the student must make sure the commissioning organisation allows the thesis to be saved in the restricted collection of Theseus instead of HHthesis. Unlike in HHthesis, the metadata and summary of theses stored in Theseus restricted collection are openly available online. In case of doubt, you should contact the library [email protected].

When your thesis and maturity test have been evaluated, publish your thesis in Theseus. After publishing, save your thesis link in Wihi. Here's an example of link format: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023060117028. Please note that the publication link is activated only when the library staff has approved the thesis and published it in Theseus. This can take 1-2 work days. When your thesis advisor has accepted the link, the evaluation is saved to the student register.

• Theseus submission guide
• Theseus submission page
• Search Theseus publications

For more information on Theseus collections, please contact Haaga-Helia library or send email ([email protected]).

Note! If your thesis has not been published in Theseus after a couple of days, please check the email you have provided when submitting your thesis. You may have received a notice of a failed submission. Please note that the confirmation message for an approved upload always comes to your Haaga-Helia email address, regardless of the address you provided during the upload.

If you have problems with publishing your thesis, you can contact Haaga-Helia library ([email protected]). If you need personal guidance with the publishing, library's specialists would be happy to help you also in a Teams meeting. Please tell in your message, if you wish to get guidance via Teams.

Open UAS students can't submit their thesis to Theseus. They can contact library staff, who will take care of the submission: [email protected]

Your feedback on the thesis process

Feedback on the thesis process is included in the AVOP feedback at the end of the studies.