Final examination: modalities

GRADUATION AND FINAL EXAMINATION

The final examination consists in writing a dissertation on a subject pertinent to your studies, elaborated in an original way, under the guidance of a supervisor. The dissertation will be discussed publicly during a specific final examination session in front of a Board.
The Board will assess your performance using your curriculum as a reference. During the dissertation discussion, you may use slides and the Commission may ask you in-depth questions on methods, results and any developments of your work

General University rules

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions about the final examination

HOW TO CHOOSE THE THESIS SUBJECT

Students must choose the subject of their thesis among the courses taken in their two year study plan (piano di studi). The candidate should first ask the Professor in charge of the course selected his/her availability to supervise the thesis.

SUPERVISOR (relatore)

Students can choose the Supervisor among the HBR Programme professors by directly presenting him/her their ideas or research project and asking for his/her interest and availability. The topic for the final thesis is chosen according to the personal and academic interests of both the student and the Supervisor. Once the Supervisor has accepted the thesis project a research period follows. During this period students will gather materials to write their thesis under the guidance of the Supervisor.

IMPORTANT: Only full professors, associate professors, assistant professors (researchers) and contract professors holding a teaching activity within the University of Bologna can act as  Supervisor.

Graduation application

The application is to be submitted on Studenti Online and once presented is valid for the whole academic year. When submitting the application, you’ll need to select the date among those available. The application can be submitted according to the deadline set even if you haven’t completed all the exams in your study plan. Graduation applications require the payment of €32.00 in stamp duty (imposta di bollo).

Online application refers to one specific period. If the student fails to set the final examination within the session (academic year) for which he/she has applied, he/she will have to repeat the online application. There won’t be the whole graduation fee to be paid, since it has been already paid for the previous session, however the duty stamp value of €16,00 will be charged.

Admission Requirements

In order to graduate, you must have:

• sat all the exams in your study plan and had them recorded;
• paid all tuition fees;
• compiled the Alma Laurea questionnaire on Studenti Online.

The Student Administration Office will verify all requirements and will contact you if there are any issues, to allow you to regularise your position before the final examination.

Deadlines

One graduation session is scheduled each year. The session includes a number of dates, each with their deadlines for the submission of the graduation application, requirements and dates.

After the deadline, a late application is still possible by paying a € 100 fee(*):

Repeating a graduation application

On-line application to take the final exam refers to one specific session, so that should a student fail to graduate at the session chosen, he/she must ask the Student Administration Office to annul the application and present it again online for the next session within the deadline.

If this falls in the same period and the student has already paid the graduation fee, there will be no further charges.

There will of course be the duty stamp of 16,00 Euros to pay.

How to upload your final thesis on Studenti Online and how to publish it on the institutional repository

Students need to upload the final thesis in pdf format on Studenti Online within three days before the date set for the final examination. The thesis content needs to be agreed upon with the Supervisor in advance.

Only for students graduating in Master’s programmes: if agreed with the Supervisor, students can publish the digital format of the final thesis on the institutional repository of the University of Bologna: Alma DL AMS-Tesi online (see instructions on the attachments box)

Please note: It is forbidden to use the University of Bologna logo anywhere on the thesis.

GRADUATION AND TUITION FEES

• If you graduate by the last session of the academic year (March), you are not required to pay the fees for the following academic year.
• If you have already paid the first installment of the new academic year, you must request a refund for the regional tax from ER-GO's website at www.er-go.it > Forms > Online form for the refund of the regional tax. The €16.00 stamp duty is not refundable.
• If you have also paid the second installment, it will be automatically refunded by the Student Office, to which you must provide the IBAN code of a current account in your name or jointly owned or of a reloadable prepaid card of which you are the account holder and which has an IBAN code.
• If it was your intention to graduate by the March session but you could not, you will be required to pay all installments of the new academic year along with any additional charges for late payments.

Final dissertations and graduation ceremonies shall be held in person.

Students may invite a number of guests determined by each Department based on logistics and organisation requirements. No maximum limit applies to the number of participants that can attend remotely.