You must acquire 120 CFU to graduate from PAE, 15 of which are for the drafting of the final dissertation. The final examination consists in writing a dissertation on a subject related to your studies, developed in an original way, and to its public presentation and defense before a graduation committee. The committee, having taken into consideration the presentation and your curriculum, will decide the final grade, which will be announced at the end of your presentation.
You should prepare your dissertation under the guidance of a supervisor (relatore). Typically, a good dissertation (or thesis) is the result of hard work by the candidate on a well-defined project, under the expert advice of the supervisor. Hard work is a student’s task, whereas expertise and support are supervisors' responsibility. The process of defining a dissertation project involves both parts.
In some university systems, the graduation ceremony is where degrees are formally conferred, but marks are known well in advance and students will have completed their studies weeks or months before graduation day. By contrast, Italian graduations involve a public dissertation defense, called "final examination", before a graduation committee.
The master thesis is an individual piece of research on a topic proposed by the student and approved by the supervisor. The assignment is an opportunity for students to explore in depth theoretical or empirical topics in public policy evaluation. The essential requirement of a master thesis is that it demonstrates that students have fully understood the state of the art in the chosen topic. A thesis cannot be a simple report on a traineeship or other professional experiences without additional academic/research content, although these experiences may provide a useful starting basis for a thesis. Theses should demonstrate that students are able to evaluate theoretically or empirically (or both) general or specific public policies, and to describe their analysis and conclusions in a clear way. It likewise serves as a practice for those intending to pursue doctoral studies after their successful completion of the program. It is understood that these requirements are relative to the master level (expectations for a master-level dissertation are below those for a PhD thesis).
You may choose to major in a topic related to a teaching activity included in your study plan (piano di studi). Almost any professor who taught a module in PAE can act as thesis supervisor, including adjunct professors, but excluding external lecturers from abroad, professor delivering seminars and external experts (unless provided for by a specific agreement). In special cases to be discussed with LMEPP’s academic coordinator, students may choose as supervisor a professor of the University of Bologna who is not part of the PAE faculty. A co-supervisor (correlatore) may provide additional help to prepare the dissertation. Visiting professors from abroad, seminar speakers, and external experts can act as co-supervisor. Please note that having a co-supervisor will not add any extra points to your final grade.
You are admitted to the Final Examination once you have earned all your credits (except those for the Final Examination itself). Notice that exams grades are on a 18-30 scale, whereas the final grade is on a 66-110 scale. The starting grade is the result of the average of your exam grades converted into the 66-110 scale. To convert the grades obtained during your studies, consider the following steps:
For every exam that the student passed con lode, 0.33 points are added to the starting grade. Also, extra points will be awarded depending on your graduation session.
The final examination consists of the defense of the master thesis in front of a graduation committee composed by at least 3 professors of the School of Economics and Management. The committee can grant a maximum of 6 points to the dissertation, which are added to the student’s admission grade.
Up to two additional points are granted to students who graduate by the end of their second academic year. Therefore, for students enrolled in the academic year 2023-24 the following further points will be granted:
|
Defense session |
Additional points |
|
July 2025 |
2 points |
|
October 2025 |
2 points |
|
December 2025 |
2 points |
|
March 2026 |
1 point |
The thesis topic must be related to one of the subjects covered by PAE courses and it is chosen according to the personal and academic interests of both the student and the supervisor. Ideally, it should be a piece of research that deals with a theoretical or empirical evaluation of a public policy problem.
It is recommended that you keep your thesis short, to the level of an academic paper typically published in economics journal (i.e., no more than 50 pages\20.000 words including notes, tables, figures, and bibliography but excluding a possible appendix).
To upload the thesis at the “Studenti Online” web page (see link, deadlines and formalities in section 4 below) the following formatting criteria must be satisfied:
If a different format is chosen, make sure it allows readability.
For the final dissertation, usually students print one or more copies of the thesis, one for the committee or supervisor and one to keep (family, friends). Since printing is expensive and uses up valuable natural resources, you may avoid printing altogether and rely on electronic copies only.
Accurate referencing and bibliography are important elements of the thesis. Students should adopt a standard citation system (e.g. Harvard, Vancouver, etc.) and bibliography format.
Plagiarism is a “capital sin” in academic research, like in other areas. The university takes plagiarism very seriously. It has legal implications. Concepts and statements taken from the literature should be appropriately reworded and referenced. Exact citations should be clearly highlighted (e.g. between inverted commas or through a different font) and the source should include the page number. On-line sources are admissible when they are appropriate and meet the required scientific standards (and should be accurately referenced in the text), but generic sources such as Wikipedia are not necessarily scientific and critically assessed and should be used with extreme care and parsimony. For the same reason, the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence is to be avoided during the writing process, although it may be useful to fix grammar and syntax once the thesis is completed. Keep in mind that software exists to check whether theses are affected by plagiarism and whether they are written by AI rather than humans.
The following sections are usually required in the thesis: