Procedure magistrali Area Cooperazione

Language English

Procedures for the master's thesis of the degree programme in Development and International Cooperation Sciences (LM-81)

The final exam consists in the elaboration of a written thesis, the result of mature critical elaboration, assigned by a professor on a topic agreed with the student. The thesis will be presented, with the participation of a co-supervisor, in front of a Dissertation Panel composed according to the regulations in force.

The thesis

The subject of the paper (thesis) is agreed between the student, in relation to his/her interests, and a professor who performs the function of supervisor.

The thesis is developed autonomously by the student; the preparation methods are agreed with the Supervisor who will provide advice and all necessary assistance. In relation to the number of credits associated with the final exam, the number of pages of the Master’s thesis should be between 100 and 150, each must be circa 2.000 characters page (including spaces, tables, figures, charts, diagrams, footnotes, etc.), for a total of circa 200/300 thousand characters. The students are expected to work on the elaboration of their thesis from a minimum of 6 months to a maximum of 10 months.

For more information on Thesis Layout and Logo, please visit the guidelines here: https://www.uniroma1.it/en/pagina/thesis-layout-and-logo

Language

The thesis can be written in Italian or English, for students of the curriculum Political, Economic and Social (if in English, the thesis must be accompanied by an abstract in Italian of 10 pages). Students in the curriculum in English will have to perform the thesis exclusively in English.

FIRST STEP: Request and assignment of the master thesis

Based on the interests of the student and his/her curriculum, starting from the penultimate year of the degree programme, it is possible to contact a professor or a researcher who has (or who has had) teachings in the master’s degree courses, and agrees to follow the student on a topic relating to a Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD) present in the list of exams taken by the student during his/her master's curriculum; (It is not possible to graduate in the scientific disciplinary sector of the chosen activities, if different from those foreseen by the educational regulation of the master’s degree).

On the Degree Thesis Themes page, students can find a list of themes proposed by professors of the department.

For the purpose of assigning the supervisor, all students are required to complete the assignment request form at any time for the current academic year. Within the indicated deadlines, the information is processed and the assignment lists relating to the various sessions, defined in the deadlines table below, are published.

Note: both students who have already made arrangements with a professor and students who do not yet have the availability of a supervisor must complete the application form and intend to request the assignment by the degree programme.

It should be noted that this procedure does not replace but integrates the traditional dynamics of agreement between student and teacher: in the "Request for assignment" form the student must in fact indicate any agreements made with the supervisor.

When the window for the assignment request is closed, the thesis commission (made up of professors of the degree programme) will verify the requests and eventually assign a supervisor.

On the date of "Confirmation of assignment", the Commission will publish a list containing:

verification and confirmation of the assignments already agreed between students and professors-supervisors;

office assignments of the supervisor in the case of other requests in which the student requests the assignment of a professor-supervisor. In this case, the student must then contact the supervisor assigned to him/her to agree on the start of the thesis work.

Students who proceed with the Revocation of a degree application already submitted on Infostud (Second step, see below; Revocation, see below) are to be considered exempted from repeating the compilation of the Request for assignment of the Supervisor form for the next session (except, in case, the change of Supervisor), in particular if this revocation occurs after the "Deadline for completing the form" for the session for which they will resubmit the degree application on Infostud. However, it remains possible to always update the information collected in the form.

SECOND STEP: Formal submission of the graduation application on the Infostud platform and necessary requirements

Once the student, in agreement with his/her supervisor, has carried out a substantial part of the thesis and has identified the session in which he/she intends to graduate, must submit the graduation application through Infostud, with the same method of booking exams, within the booking window provided for each session, respecting rigorously the deadlines that will be published in the Graduation Calendar and Deadlines. The deadline for submitting the online application is mandatory, and exceptions cannot be requested for any reason. Students are therefore recommended to contact the Supervisor Professor in advance for all the necessary requirements. Any unavailability of teachers in the last days before the deadline can in no case be invoked to obtain an extension of the deadlines.

To submit the application, the student must activate, if he/she has not yet done so, the university e-mail account, following the instructions given at the link: https://www.uniroma1.it/en/pagina/email-google-apps . The student will receive the receipt of the graduation booking and/or any other communications from the Student Affairs Office or the Supervisor at this email address.

According to the provisions of Presidential Decree 26 October 1972, n. 642, the presentation of the application at the graduation session is subject to payment of € 32 fee, which can be downloaded from Infostud.

Students are required to pay the graduation fee at least 5 working days prior to submitting the application as foreseen by the Graduation Calendar and Deadlines, and upon reaching:

96% of the total credits required for their degree programme, excluding the credits of theses (final exam) and internship.

This means that the student cannot have more than 9 credits to take.

It is understood that all credits still to be taken at the time of submitting the application must be achieved and recorded on Infostud no later than 20 days from the start of the graduation sessions. If the credits for internships are not already recorded at the time of submitting the application, the student should deliver by the same date, and therefore, always no later than 20 days before the start of the graduation session, to the Internship Office – according to the indications provided here: https://web.uniroma1.it/coris/en/internship

Exclusively for the session of July, students enrolled “IN CORSO - REGULAR” in order to be eligible for the graduation session of July, must have finished all the exams of the first year and 1st semester of the second year, by the end of the examination session of January/February.

Before submitting the graduation application, students must first have the form "Dichiarazione esami da sostenere” approved, according to the instructions provided in the Graduation Calendar and Deadlines.

The approved form must then be uploaded with the other documents when the application is submitted online. All the credits relating to the missing exams of the second semester of second year must be passed in the first date of June’s examination sessions.

The last useful session to graduate in the current academic year is the January session. If you are postponed to March, you will need to pay the first and second installments of the following academic year; if you postpone to July, you will also have to pay the third, and you can then graduate until the following January without having to pay again. Students enrolled in part-time mode, however, are required, in any case, to pay the fees for the entire agreed enrollment period.

Submission of the online application and acceptance of the application by your thesis supervisor (relatore)

To complete the online application, the student must enter the following information:

Supervisor (relatore): mandatory for all. Enter the name and surname of your supervisor
Co-supervisor (correlatore): do not fill in the field. The Co-supervisor is automatically assigned to master's students by the Department's Thesis Commission, and cannot be chosen by the student.
Extra supervisor: Insert only if provided. The Extra Supervisor is a Sapienza professor who has the function of supporting the Official Supervisor in assisting and guiding the graduate student during the development of the thesis.
External supervisor: Insert only if provided. The External supervisor is a figure external to Sapienza who has the function of supporting the Official Supervisor in assisting and guiding the graduate student during the development of the thesis
Graduation session: compulsory for everyone. Indicate the graduation session chosen for the dissertation (March / July / October / December-January).
Thesis title: compulsory for everyone. Enter the final title of the thesis.
Thesis subject: compulsory for everyone. Insert the subject of the thesis, which must be present in your study plan, and the related scientific disciplinary sector. The scientific sector of the subject chosen for the degree thesis must correspond to the same disciplinary scientific sector to which the Supervisor belongs.

Documents to be uploaded:

Valid identification document (if not already uploaded in your Infostud profile) - Mandatory for everyone
Health card or tax code card (if not already uploaded in your Infostud profile) - Mandatory for everyone
Receipt of the completion of the Almalaurea questionnaire - Mandatory for everyone
Upload of the degree thesis in .pdf - Mandatory for everyone by the deadline indicated on the Graduation Calendar and Deadlines
Form – exams to be taken- " Dichiarazione esami da sostenere” - Upload only if there are exams to complete the career
Form - declaration of exams taken and not recorded on Infostud “Dichiarazione esami sostenuti e non registrati su Infostud”- Upload only if all exams already taken are not regularly recorded on Infostud
Form for validating exams taken abroad - Upload only if the exams are not already registered regularly on Infostud
High school diploma (although not compulsory, it is possible to upload a scanned copy in pdf format).

THIRD STEP: Acceptance of the graduation application by the Supervisor

The application sent by the student will appear in the private area of the Supervisor's Infostud, who must accept it by the deadline for booking the graduation exam. The student will receive a confirmation email from the system (it will be the student's responsibility to check the progress of the application in their profile and in their institutional email, since without the approval of the Supervisor it will not be possible to proceed with the procedure).

For further information, please visit the Graduation Application Instructions.

For any doubts relating to the presentation of the graduation application, the student should visit in large advance prior the deadline the Student Affairs Office, located in the main campus (Città univeristaria- P.le Aldo Moro,5), Building CU029 (the nearest entrance is Viale Regina Elena, 334), or visit the Educational Affairs Office (address Via Salaria, 113, 00198 Roma RM - first floor, offices B2/B3/B4-).

FOURTH STEP: Acceptance of the application by the Student Affairs Office

Following the approval of the Supervisor, the application will arrive online at the Student Affairs Office, which, after verifying the completeness of the required documents, will accept it and will begin the work of checking the careers of each student.

Also, in this case an email will be sent to the student as a receipt of the acceptance of the application by the Student Affairs Office.

FIFTH STEP: Publication of the co-supervisors and delivery of the degree thesis to the co-supervisor

The list of students who have submitted the application, after approval by the Student Affairs Office, will be sent to the Educational Affairs Office, which will begin the planning of the sessions, the assignment of co-supervisors for the master's students and the composition of the calendars.

The Thesis Commission will then publish the list of co-supervisors for master's degrees in the news of the Coris website. Within the deadlines set by the schedule of each session, the student is required to deliver a copy of the thesis to the assigned co-supervisor (correlatore) with two copies of the thesis summary (one page of 30 lines). A copy will be retained by the second thesis supervisor (correlatore) and one will be returned to the student with the signature of the second thesis supervisor (correlatore) and the delivery date. The receipt should be kept by the student and not be delivered to any office.

SIXTH STEP: Upload of the degree thesis in .pdf

Once the work has been completed, the student will have to upload his/her final degree thesis, in .pdf format, in a single document on the Infostud page, and the supervisor will have to approve it online.

Uploading and approval must take place within the deadlines indicated in the Graduation Calendar and Deadlines.

SEVENTH STEP: Publication of the graduation calendars

Within the deadlines set by the Schedule of each session, the Thesis Commission will publish the calendars relating to the sessions on the Coris website.

EIGHTH STEP: The day of the thesis defense

The degree theses will be discussed in the classroom that will be indicated in the calendars.

The order in which the students are distributed in the calendar is purely indicative. Therefore, all candidates are required to present themselves, unless otherwise indicated, half an hour before the start of the entire session.

CRITERIA FOR AWARDING POINTS FOR THE DEGREE THESIS

For the final test, the Dissertation Panel express their vote out of 110 and, unanimously, can grant the candidate the highest marks with honors. The minimum mark for passing the test is sixty-six out of 110.

The final grade is given by the sum (over a total of 110 points) of the following contributions: weighted average of the grades obtained in the exams performed during the master course, with weights given by the credits; the result is normalized to 110 points (this information is available in your personal area on Infostud). To the score deriving from the weighted average of the exams, 2 points are added if the candidate achieves the degree “IN CORSO - REGULAR”.

To the score deriving from the weighted average of the exams, the Dissertation Panel can add points, based on its own unquestionable judgment regarding the performance of the candidate, both in the drafting of the theses and in its presentation. Without prejudice to the full autonomy of the Dissertation Panel in this regard, however, the Department has approved some suggestions, in order to make the decisions of the various Dissertation Panels as homogeneous as possible: in the final evaluation, the Dissertation Panel may add a score that normally ranges from 0 to 8, according to the following criteria: Completeness, accuracy, and validity of your Master’s thesis; Novelty and research capacity; Quality of your presentation and discussion; Assessment of your academic career. The Dissertation Panel draws up a special report on the performance and outcome of the final exam.

For obvious reasons of safety and decorum, students are invited to celebrate the graduation in sober and dignified ways, which do not go beyond legitimate congratulations and photos, demonstrating that they have acquired, together with specific knowledge, also a sense of responsibility and of personal dignity. Therefore, celebrations in the courtyard of the Department with food and drinks, as well as noisy events that would interfere with other educational activities in progress, are therefore strictly prohibited.

Students wishing to use any presentations to support the discussion must save them, also in pdf format, on a USB support. The presentation will be uploaded to the dedicated PC, with the support of the scholarship’s students, directly on the day of your discussion.

Students are reminded that the computers at our disposal generally use the 2013 version of Microsoft Office and it is, therefore, advisable to save your work in that version. Considering that the time available for the presentation of the theses is about ten minutes, it is suggested to prepare an adequate presentation, without exceeding the number of slides and animations in the Power Point. It is also advisable to check the compatibility and availability of any audio video programs by sending your presentation well in advance to fabrizio.romano@uniroma1.it.

Given the limited time for presentation and the large number of students, it is not possible to bring your own equipment, since the set-up would take time away to all graduands.

Collection of the Degree certificate

Starting ten days after the conclusion of the entire graduation session, it will be possible to download the graduation certificate directly from Infostud.

After about twenty days, it will be possible to collected the degree certificate at the Student Affairs Office , located in the main campus (Città univeristaria- P.le Aldo Moro,5), Building CU029 (the nearest entrance is Viale Regina Elena, 334. Before going to the Student Affairs Office, it is suggested to write an email to segrstudenti.comunicazione@uniroma1.it to make sure that the degree certificate it is ready.

Withdrawn of the graduation application

If for any reason the student intends to give up the discussion, he/she must communicate it as soon as possible, following the instructions given at the link Graduation Application Instructions

Resubmit the graduation application

The degree application may be repeated (submitted) with the same procedures provided for the first submission.

However, it will not be necessary to pay the graduation fee again, and upload the attachments included in the previous application.