Final examination: procedures and deadlines

The final examination (18 CFU) consists of the writing of a dissertation, under the guidance of a supervisor, and its public discussion in front of a Board. The aim of the final examination is to put to good use the knowledge and skills you have acquired during your studies by applying them to research on a specific topic.

In this page you can find the main information on how best to tackle it and on the evaluation modalities of your work.

How to choose a topic and contact the supervisor

First of all, you need to identify a topic to propose to a teacher of the AMaC curriculum or to a teacher of an activity for which you have taken an exam.

If the teaching in which you intend to graduate is not in your study plan, and you didn’t take an exam in it, and it is not part of the AMaC/Arti Visive course structure diagrams, you must submit a request for writing a dissertation which does not belong to the didactic plan (“out-of-plan thesis request” - Request form (Modulo richiesta tesi in un'attività formativa fuori dal piano di studio).

The form can be completed and digitally signed by the supervisor, co-supervisor and degree programme director. No completion and submission of paper forms is necessary.

The teacher you wish to be your supervisor must be contacted well in advance of the deadlines indicated for the graduation session in which you intend to graduate. All deadlines can be found in this page.

N.B. Teachers might foresee different timings, it is therefore very useful to check their web pages carefully for more precise indications.

The teacher you have contacted will assess the congruity of your proposal with the educational objectives of the degree programme and with his/her teaching activities; s/he may ask you for a written project and, in the event of a positive assessment, will accept to be your supervisor.

Shortly afterwards, in agreement with your supervisor, you will need to identify a co-supervisor, who may be the teacher in charge of a teaching belonging to the AMaC curriculum, a lecturer at the University of Bologna or an 'external co-supervisor', i.e. an expert or scholar with specific expertise in your dissertation topic. If necessary, the co-supervisors may be two. 

Writing the Dissertation

While researching for and drafting your dissertation, you will have to prove that you are able to compile a basic bibliography on the agreed topic and that you are able to re-elaborate the contents in a precise and original manner, presenting them correctly in accordance with the editorial standards indicated by your supervisor.

The supervisor will also indicate you the deadlines and modalities for intermediate verifications of your work.

Although each dissertation project may require specific sections, in respect of which the indications given by your supervisor are binding, certain general criteria must always be respected. In particular, the dissertation must always contain:

- cover and title page

- table of contents

- text with notes (footnotes or notes at the end of the chapter, depending on your supervisor’s instructions) and divided into sections/parts, chapters and subchapters

- images and appropriate captions (within the text or in an appropriate section, depending on your supervisor's instructions)

- bibliography and sitography.

On the cover and title page, please indicate the title and subtitle (if any) you indicated on SOL in your graduation application. Please indicate also the graduation session and the academic year.

There are no indications regarding the length of the dissertation.

Declaring the sources

One of the essential elements for your dissertation to be approved by your supervisor is its originality. It is therefore necessary that your dissertation permits to clearly distinguish which parts are written or conceived by you and which parts are taken from the works of other authors. It is therefore always necessary for you to state the sources you have used: this will show that you have done extensive research and that you are able to support your assertions with other authoritative statements. In particular, whenever you quote a passage from a text written by others, you must enclose it in quotation marks. If, on the other hand, you do not quote the text verbatim, i.e. word for word, but paraphrase or summarise it, you do not need to use quotation marks: however, you must always cite the source from which you obtained the information. The same applies if you translate from another language a part of someone else's text. In all these cases (punctual citation, paraphrase/summary, translated version of a text that appeared in another language) you must always cite the sources punctually in a footnote (or in brackets in the text) when you are using them, and not only in the final bibliography.

Verifying the originality of the text

Supervisors easily identify the originality or non-originality of a text because they are specialists in the subject. They can also make use of software provided by the University, Compilatio, which is able to compare your text with a large database (all documents published on the web and in various scientific databases), detecting any similarities. Your supervisor can therefore ask you to upload your dissertation, in its partial or final version, on Compilatio and can guide you in making the most appropriate revisions in order to cite sources correctly and thus respect research ethics.

Please note that you are personally responsible for the originality of your dissertation and that plagiarism constitutes a criminal offence, condemned and punished by the University of Bologna: see the Codice Etico dell’Università di Bologna (art. 25 and 44) and the Regolamento degli studenti (art. 24).

To check the originality of your dissertation before submitting it to the supervisor, upload it here.

When to graduate

Before submitting your graduation application, refer to your supervisor who, depending on the stage of development of your research and your dissertation, will be able to advise you on the most appropriate graduation session. Remember that the graduation application is only valid for one session: if your dissertation is not approved, you will not be admitted to the defense and you will have to re-present your graduation application for another session.

For the deadlines and modalities for your graduation application, see the dedicated page.

Digital or paper version?

The dissertation can be handed over to your supervisor and co-supervisor in digital format (pdf) and/or paper version, depending on the arrangements you make with them. The other members of the Board will be able to view it directly online in the version you uploaded on SOL by the deadline for fulfilling the admission requirements (see the dedicated page).

Defense/discussion of the dissertation

About one week before the date of the defense/discussion, you will receive an e-mail in your institutional mailbox (@studio.unibo.it) with an invitation to consult the details of your graduation application on Studenti Online. Here you will find the date, time, place and composition of the Board.

You do not need to bring a paper version of the dissertation with you on the day of the defense/discussion.

In agreement with your supervisor, you may decide to present your work with the aid of slides: in this case, you should prepare a short PowerPoint of max. 10 slides that you will take with you on a USB stick (to make the file lighter, and to ensure that there are no problems uploading it to the classroom computer, it is advisable to transform it into a pdf file).

All files to be presented will be collected and uploaded on the classroom computer at the beginning of the graduation session.

During the defense/discussion, the Board may ask you in-depth questions about the results of your research, methodological aspects and potential developments of your work.

Defense/discussion and proclamation will take place the same day, one after the other.

The final examination on its whole (presentation, discussion, proclamation) will last approximately 20 minutes.

Final grade

The Board will express its evaluation on the basis of your study curriculum, the quality of your dissertation and the effectiveness of its presentation and discussion.

The final grade is expressed in one hundred and ten (110/110) and the final examination is deemed passed with a minimum mark of 66/110.

To calculate your graduation average according to your study system, please refer to the dedicated page.

In addition to the grade point average, the committee will award an evaluation from 0 to 5 points; in the case of the highest mark (110/110), it may award honours (110L) upon unanimous decision.

After the awarding of the evaluation from 0 to 5, the mark may be rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 104.40/110 = 104/110; 104.60/110=105/110).

Honours (lode) awarded during the degree programme are not taken into account to calculate the average but may influence the awarding the cum laude mark (110L).

Evaluation criteria for the final examination

The final examination (dissertation + discussion) is assessed taking into account the following characteristics

- originality of the topic

- methodological correctness

- clarity of exposition;

- knowledge of the specialist literature;

- completeness of references to sources;

- level of depth and critical capacity;

- ability to work independently on the basis of the supervisor's instructions;

- effectiveness of presentation and argumentation in front of the committee.

The adequacy of writing, i.e. a good use of the English/French language, is considered a basic requirement.

Grading rules

Based on the eight criteria mentioned above, i.e. depending on the quality of the dissertation and its defense/discussion, 0 to 5 points can be added to your average.

In detail:

- 5 (excellent final examination) when all 8 criteria are met

- 4 (very good final examination) when 7 criteria are met

- 3 (good final examination) when 6 criteria are met

- 2 (fair final examination) when 5 criteria are met

- 1 (sufficient final examination) when 4 criteria are met

- 0 (barely sufficient final examination) when only 3 criteria are met.

Teachers can make use of a software tool provided by the University, Compilatio, which is able to compare your text with a large database (all the documents published on the web and on various scientific databases), detecting any similarities. Your supervisor can therefore ask you to upload your dissertation to Compilatio, in its partial or final version, and can guide you in making the most appropriate revisions in order to cite sources correctly and thus respect research ethics.

To check the originality of your dissertation before submitting it to the supervisor, upload it on: Tesi Arti Visive-AMaC I appello luglio 2024. For any clarifications, please contact cdl.artivisive@unibo.it.

The service and its objectives

This service was designed to assist professors in their surveillance activities, which offer the main guarantee of the effective quality and originality of the dissertation or thesis, as well as guaranteeing the quality of the learning process for which the dissertation or thesis was produced for the final examination of students who are about to complete their study programme.

A special software is used to automate the analysis process, which until now was carried out manually by the professor, providing a computerised support which compares the produced texts with a wide database comprising all the documents published on the web and various scientific databases.

The main objective of the service is to provide students with indications for the correct application of the source citation system.

How it works

The service identifies any similarities between the analysed text and the referred database, calculating a percentage value of the whole document comprising the set of all the identified parts.
A professor who sees that the threshold has been exceeded informs the student of the anomalies detected in the text and guides them in making the most appropriate corrections.
To be allowed to present their dissertations for discussion, the students must follow the instructions given by the professor and ensure that the dissertation complies with requirements.

If the discipline in which you are writing your dissertation has not been part of your study plan, complete the form on this page and send it to the AMaC/Arti Visive Tutor by email to obtain the degree programme director's signature.

Once you have obtained the form with the degree programme director's signature, certifying approval of your request, send the form with all signatures to the Student Administration Office.

It is advisable to send the form in good time to ensure that you meet the requirements for admission to the final examination.

For clarification, you can contact the Didactic Office.

• Request form (Modulo richiesta tesi in un'attività formativa fuori dal piano di studio)

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