The final examination consists of the discussion of a dissertationbased on the undergraduate student’s own research and supervised by a lecturer whose course is a core subject in the Degree Programme. The graduating student needs to have successfully completed the course s/he is researching.

Approximately 400,000 characters in length (including spaces), the dissertation should explore technical and/or scientific issues within the curricular subject of the student’s Degree Programme. It may entail a critical review of the state of the art of the subject, or a project, or the development of new techniques, or the transfer of techniques and methods from one subject area to another. The dissertation must show rigorous methodology and original content as well as the student’s familiarity with the subject matter. It should also demonstrate that the student has a good grasp of the programme’s key subjects, is able to understand and provide solutions to any issue with good spoken and written communication skills. As an option, the dissertation can be written in English, usually when the research was carried out in a foreign university or a foreign research centre or archive during an exchange programme.

This Degree Programme also supports the TeTi (Tesi&Tirocinio – Dissertation& Training) project; please refer to the Internship page for further information.

Students discuss their dissertation before a Graduation Committee, and the final mark is awarded on a scale from 0 to 110, with the possible award of Honours.

Starting from the student’s grade average as base, the Committee may add up to 7 points, 6 of which can be awarded for the good quality of the dissertation, and a further 1 bonus point can be awarded for early or timely graduations.

Special exam sessions for graduating students

Students who have applied for graduation and are one exam away from completing their Degree Programme may apply for a special exam session reserved for them, subject to the availability of the relevant lecturer.

At least 40 days before the planned graduation session, qualifying students must send a special request via e-mail to the relevant Student Office, to the Co-ordinator of their Degree Programme and, for information, to the dissertation supervisor.

The request must contain the following information:

• First name, surname and Student Number;
• Code and Degree Programme
• Code and name of the examination;
• Name of the dissertationsupervisor.

The request must be accompanied by the dissertation supervisor's statement on the progress of the dissertation (which must be close to completion within the deadline set for its upload).

For further information please consult the corresponding section on the Student Office webpage