Thesis project guidelines: Bachelor of Fine Arts
These are the guidelines for completing the artistic and the written component included in a bachelor’s thesis project.
The thesis project of the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree comprises a work of art or a series of works presented at the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree show and a written component, including documentation of the artistic work. Once you have completed your thesis project, you are able to complete an artistic project in a small scale and to describe it both in oral and written form. There are separate guidelines available pertaining to the thesis project.
Structure and contents of the thesis project
The thesis project comprises an artistic and a written component. Together, they form a module worth 10 credits. You present the artistic component of the thesis project at an examination event that is organised in conjunction with the degree show.
Artistic component of the thesis project
The artistic component of the thesis project is a work, a series of works or an artistic process that you will publicly exhibit in the Bachelor’s degree show and/or in another manner that is agreed. You will receive support for the planning of the artistic component in the seminars of the subject areas and the thesis project seminar for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, during which the work will also be examined.
Written component of the thesis project
The minimum requirement for the contents of the written component of the Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis project is for it to contain verbal and visual documentation of the artistic component and how it has been exhibited.
The written component must contain comprehensive image material o the artistic component. The length of the written component is 5−10 pages excluding images (approximately 1,800 characters per page). You will work on the written component in connection with Communication studies study modules included in the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and you can also get further support at the Bachelor’s thesis project seminar and from the teachers of the subject areas.
In the written component, the student can discuss the starting points of their artistic work; its contents, techniques, form and material solutions and the relevance the thesis project has to the contexts of contemporary art. The student can, furthermore, describe the work process, the making and exhibiting of the work and discuss the relationship of the artistic component and the audience, the exhibition venue and societal questions.
In the written component, references must be used when ideas expressed by another person are discussed. A list of references and literature will be enclosed at the end of the written component.
The title page of the written component must indicate:
- student name,
- school (Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki) and its logo,
- that this is a Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis project,
- and the date of submission of the thesis project.
If you have problems with downloading Academy of Fine Arts logo, please contact viestinta@uniarts.fi.
The first pages of the written component must clearly indicate:
- All the work and exhibition data relevant to the artistic component, including the year of completion of the works, the materials and techniques used, their sizes and, in temporal works, their running time. The times and places of exhibition of the works are also given.
- Supervisor and examiners of the thesis project.
- If the artistic component of the thesis project has been completed in a cooperative effort, the first pages of the written component must indicate the distribution of the work between the participants in the process.
Exceptions can be made to have the written component submitted in the form of verbal, recorded presentation rather than that of a written text. Reasons for this solution must be indicated in the Thesis Project Plan. If the student suffers from dyslexia, or has other special needs affecting their learning and self-expression, they can acquire a certificate of their condition from an expert and discuss the situation with their teacher. This way, the condition can be taken into account when the Thesis Project Plan is accepted and the thesis project is evaluated, and the student can be offered further assistance according to their needs.
Students must complete the thesis in the language of their degrees (section 35 of the Degree Regulations of Uniarts Helsinki). This also applies to the language of the written component. The dean may decide on the right to complete the thesis in a language other than the language of the degree. Students must contact the study services in this case before preparing the thesis plan.
Schedule for the thesis project
Students take the Bachelor’s thesis project from the spring term of the third year of study. An earlier start date is possible, if the student agrees this with their own supervising teacher. The seminar starts in the spring term and continues until October, until the Bachelor’s degree show has been held. The Bachelor’s thesis project seminar helps to prepare for the thesis project and organisation of the Bachelor’s degree show. The seminar and the examination event organised in conjunction with it require active participation.
The Bachelor’s degree exhibition takes place in late September and/or early October and an examination event for all Bachelor’s candidates will be organised in conjunction to the exhibition. The written component must be processed and submitted for examination within three weeks of the examination event.
The written component is submitted to the Study Services as a single PDF/A file (max. file size 10Mb). A more detailed method of submission is provided in the Bachelor’s thesis seminar. The file should include the written component in its entirety, i.e., the title page, abstract, text, images, and a list of references and works cited. If the written component is not a verbal description of the thesis project, it will be submitted in three copies.
Thesis project plan
In the beginning of the Bachelor’s thesis project seminar, the student will complete a Thesis Project Plan, a freely structured text of 1–3 pages. In the Thesis Project Plan, the student outlines the artistic component of the thesis project and its method of exhibition. The student’s supervising teacher can help in the preparation of the Thesis Project Plan when on a studio visit or similar occasion. The Thesis Project Plan is accepted by the student’s supervising teacher, and it has to be submitted also to the responsible teacher of the Bachelor’s degree seminar. More detailed information about the schedule of the Thesis Project Plan will be given in the beginning of the Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis project seminar.
Supervision and examination of the thesis project
Supervision for the thesis project is provided in a number of ways, including the artistic work seminar of the subject area, the Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis project seminar, and other teaching related to Bachelor’s degree show as well as personal meetings. A teacher from the student’s subject area is usually the supervisor of the thesis project. A teacher from the subject area makes arrangements for the examiners with the responsible teacher of the thesis project seminar. For the exhibition of the artistic component, the student will gain support from the Exhibition studies included in the Bachelor’s degree studies.
In the examination event that constitutes a part of the thesis project seminar, the student will introduce the artistic component and the examiners will give their comments after which some time is allotted for the discussion of the works. If the student does not take part in the Bachelor’s degree show of the Academy of Fine Arts, but the works are exhibited somewhere else instead, the student must ensure that the examiners have the opportunity to view the work as it is exhibited. In this case, visual documentation of the artistic component must be showcased in the examination event.
The examiners will assess your thesis project, consisting of the artistic and written components, as a whole after you have submitted the written component. The assessment must be based on the general degree requirements and the instructions stated in these guidelines regarding the thesis project for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. If the examiners have been notified of a certificate concerning the student’s dyslexia or some other kind of learning disorder, they must take this piece of information into account in their assessment.
The examiners of the thesis project will evaluate the artistic and written components as an entity after the student has submitted the written component for evaluation. The evaluation must be based on the curriculum and the instructions recorded in these guidelines regarding the thesis project for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Should the student have dyslexia or learning disorder of another type, they are to provide the Study Services with a medical certificate. The examiner will receive information on these learning disorders from the Study Services and are to take it into account in their statement.
The examiners will write a short free-form evaluation of the thesis project (desired length from a few phrases to half a page) and propose the grade (Pass or Fail). If the examiner proposes the grade Fail for the project, or thinks that the documentation and written component need to be supplemented, the examiner must provide reasons for this in writing.
The examiner will submit the evaluation in writing to the Study Services. The grading must be submitted within two weeks of the date that the examiner received the written component of the thesis project. The examiner’s fee is a part of the examiner’s adjunct teacher’s fee.
Acceptance, publicity, archiving and registration of the thesis project
Once the examiners have submitted their grade proposals to the academic affairs team, the thesis project is passed on from the supervising professor for approval. After receiving the examiners’ statements, the supervising teacher gives/does not give their support for approving the thesis project and the professor in the subject area makes a decision on the approval of the thesis project (grade: pass – fail).
The academic affairs team informs the student of the grade of the thesis project and the examiners’ statements once all the components of the thesis project have been approved.
If one or both of the examiners propose the grade fail for the thesis project, you have the possibility to:
1 ) ask to suspend the assessment of the thesis project and ask the supervising teacher for additional instructions for supplementing the thesis project or
2) continue the process and provide your own reply to the approver of the thesis project. If the grade proposals of the examiners are not consistent, the decision-maker requests a third assessment from an external examiner.
If the assessment of the thesis project is suspended, the student will make corrections to the thesis project in accordance with the supervising teacher’s instructions and then re-submit the revised thesis project for examination. The new examination will only be carried out after the student’s supervising teacher has granted permission for it.
A student dissatisfied with the grading of their thesis project may apply for a rectification of the grading in writing from the decision-maker within 14 days of receiving notification of the decision. A student dissatisfied with the decision regarding the request for rectification may appeal the matter to the Academic Appeals Board of Uniarts Helsinki within 14 days of receiving notification of the decision.
Thesis projects are stored by the Academy of Fine Arts academic affairs team for the duration of the valid rules on storage periods, after which they will be archived by Uniarts Helsinki. Thesis projects are public documents, which is why they cannot include material that cannot be published due to copyright reasons.
More information on copyrights is available on the Students’ Uniarts and in the student agreement that each student signs at the beginning of studies. The credits for thesis projects are registered in the student information system after all the components of the thesis project have been approved. As stipulated in Uniarts Helsinki’s Education Regulations, completed studies are valid no longer than 10 years, during which time they can be included in a degree.