08.11.2021
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Dean's Office, Faculty of Science and Technology
+372 737 5820

Guidelines, principles and application forms

The application must be signed on paper or digitally.
Please bring the application signed on paper to the Dean's Office (Vanemuise 46 room 208) or send it to:

Faculty of Science and Technology
University of Tartu
Vanemuise 46 - 208
51014 Tartu

Please send the digitally signed application to [email protected].

Application forms

Academic leave application

Application for an External Student for one Academic Year
Application for an External Student for one Semester

Approved by the council of the Faculty of Science and Technology on 15 January 2026

REQUIREMENTS FOR THESES AND PROCEDURE FOR THESIS DEFENCE IN THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

I. Objective

1. This guide sets out the requirements for theses (bachelor’s and master’s theses) and the procedure for thesis defence in the Faculty of Science and Technology.

2. In the thesis and thesis defence, a student must demonstrate their

2.1. ability to apply the acquired knowledge for formulating scientific problems, planning and conducting relevant studies, drawing conclusions from collected data, and presenting these in a written and oral form;

2.2. ability to find and analyse scientific information, and use such information and the data collected by themselves to synthesise new knowledge in the specialisation;

2.3. ability to prepare and deliver public presentations, and express themselves in their specialisation both orally and in writing, and defend their views;

2.4. knowledge of the general principles of research ethics and the ability to assess the scientific level and practical value of research in their field.

3. If a curriculum is managed by several institutes, the tasks of the managing institute are carried out by the institute coordinating the management of the curriculum (‘institute’).

II. Topic and supervisor

4. The student chooses the supervisor(s) of the thesis and, in agreement with the supervisor(s), a topic of appropriate scope and level of difficulty. The head of the institute approves the supervisor(s) of the thesis by a directive. The institute sets a deadline for approving thesis supervisors for each curriculum.

5. A person with at least a master’s degree or an equivalent level of education may act as a supervisor. If necessary, a co-supervisor may be appointed for a thesis. If the thesis supervisor is not a University of Tartu employee, the co-supervisor is appointed from among the employees of the faculty.

6. The content of the thesis may be

6.1. a theoretical or experimental study;

6.2. an applied research solution;

6.3. a teaching aid or learning material;

6.4. a work consisting of several components listed in clauses 6.1–6.3.

7. When using text-generating AI tools in writing the thesis, the University of Tartu’s guidelines for using artificial intelligence must be followed. https://ut.ee/en/content/guidelines-using-ai-applications-teaching-and-studies

III. Formatting

8. The thesis is written in Estonian or in the language of instruction of the curriculum. The head of the institute may allow a student of an Estonian-taught curriculum to write the thesis in English, based on an application submitted at least two months before the defence.

9. The thesis must include the following parts:

9.1. a title page (institute, title of thesis, bachelor’s or master’s thesis, specialisation, volume in ECTS, author, supervisor(s));

9.2. an information page: summary and keywords in Estonian and English;

9.3. a table of contents;

9.4. an introduction (presentation of the problem, aim and overview of the thesis);

9.5. appropriately structured main text;

9.6. a list of references;

9.7. one or more appendices, if necessary;

9.8. non-exclusive licence for electronic publication of the thesis (time-limited, if necessary).

10. The thesis is prepared in A4 format, with font size 12 pt. The pages in the thesis are numbered. The length of the thesis, excluding appendices, is 20–50 pages. The institute has the right to grant exceptions.

11. The information page contains short summaries of the thesis in Estonian and English. The summary starts with the title of the thesis and ends with a list of keywords, the CERCS code and the name of the field of research in the relevant language.

12. The list of references is presented in alphabetic order or the order of citations. Only sources referred to in the thesis must be listed.

IV. Submission for defence

13. To allow a thesis for defence, the author submits the thesis to the institute by the deadline set by the head of the institute, with the supervisor’s written statement confirming that the thesis meets the requirements for theses.

14. The thesis is submitted electronically in PDF format. If the thesis cannot be published due to the confidential information it contains, the author submits a request, approved by the supervisor, to the vice dean for academic affairs before submission for defence, asking to establish restrictions on the publication and public defence of the thesis. The vice dean for academic affairs establishes the restrictions by a directive.

15. The head of the institute or a designated person makes the decision to allow the thesis for defence and appoints a reviewer with at least a master’s degree or an equivalent level of education. Theses that are allowed for public defence are made available on the institute’s webpage before the defence. No corrections or amendments must be made in the thesis after it has been submitted for defence.

16. A student is allowed to the thesis defence if the student has completed all other courses in the curriculum at least two working days before the defence.

17. The student must be given the opportunity to read the reviewer’s written statement at least one working day before the defence. The statement must include at least a general assessment of the thesis, but must not include all questions to be asked at the defence meeting; i.e., the reviewer must also ask questions not included in the written review at the thesis defence.

18. The author has the right to withdraw the thesis at the beginning of the thesis defence meeting at the latest, or resubmit the same or revised thesis for defence at a later time.

V. Defence

19. The head of the institute specifies the deadlines for submitting and defending theses, and the composition of defence committees by a directive at the beginning of each academic year. If necessary, defence times may be added, and the composition of defence committees may be changed during the academic year. If a professional qualification is granted to the student completing the curriculum, the composition of the thesis defence committee must be coordinated with the professional qualification committee.

The defence committee comprises at least four members, and the committee has a quorum for assessment if more than half of its members are present.

20. As a rule, the thesis defence can take place only if the student and the reviewer are present. The reviewer may participate in the defence via real-time two-way audio and video communication. In exceptional cases, the head of the institute may permit a committee member to act as the reviewer or allow the student to participate via real-time two-way audio and video communication.

21. The thesis defence takes place in the form of a public academic debate, which includes:

21.1. the author’s presentation introducing the main results of the thesis (up to 10 minutes for bachelor’s thesis; up to 15 minutes for master’s thesis);

21.2. an academic discussion between the reviewer(s) and the author;

21.3. general discussion;

21.4. brief closing remarks by the author.

VI. Assessment

22. The defence committee assesses the defended theses in a closed part of the meeting. If the supervisor is a committee member, they do not participate in voting.

23. Assessment of the thesis takes into account its compliance with the requirements for theses (clause 2).

24. The chair of the committee announces the assessment results within one working day after the end of the defence meeting. The author of a successfully defended thesis is declared to have graduated from the university with a bachelor’s or a master’s degree, respectively.

25. If the defence committee decides that the thesis does not meet the required standard, or the author is unable to defend it, the thesis is assessed as insufficient. In this case, one repeat defence is permitted on a date set by the head of the institute. For the repeat defence, the student must either supplement the existing thesis or write a new thesis on a different topic.

VII. Additional provisions

26. Any matters not covered in this guide are resolved according to the study regulations of the University of Tartu and other regulations of the Faculty of Science and Technology.

27. Institutes may prepare additional guides for the formatting and defence of theses based on the specifics of their disciplines, provided the additional guides are consistent with the general requirements of this document.

28. Additional exceptions to this guide may be granted by the vice dean for academic affairs of the Faculty of Science and Technology.

Setting restrictions to publication in the Faculty of Science and Technology

  • Upon publishing the graduation thesis as a scientific article in the future the restrictions for publication are set for 3 years maximum.
  • Upon establishing the restrictions due to other reasons (trade secret, etc) the corresponding time period is 5 years.

Application for Establishing Restrictions on the Publishing of Graduation Thesis, and Declaring Defence Private

Please send the digitally signed application to [email protected]

PROCEDURE FOR PROCESSING CASES OF ACADEMIC FRAUD AND IMPROPER BEHAVIOUR

IN THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Based on clause 143 of the Study Regulations, adopted by the University of Tartu senate regulation no. 3 of 28 May 2021.

1. Cases of academic fraud and improper behaviour are deemed to be the cases referred to in clauses 141 and 142 of the Study Regulations.

2. A member of teaching staff who has discovered academic fraud during a course must give a written warning to the student via the Study Information System (SIS2) or, in the case of a more serious violation, make a proposal to the committee to handle the case. A proposal to process the case and the description of the case must be sent to the committee at [email protected].

3. Cases of suspected academic fraud and improper behaviour are processed in the Faculty of Science and Technology by a five-member committee.

4. The committee informs the student of the proceeding, provides an overview of the facts known to the committee and asks the student to present an explanation about the case within three working days of receiving the proposal.

5. The committee has a quorum if at least three members participate in the decision-making. A committee member who is directly related to the case will not participate in handling the case.

6. If academic fraud or other improper behaviour is detected, the committee proposes

6.1. the teaching staff member to warn the student, or

6.2. the vice dean for academic affairs to reprimand the student, or

6.3. the vice dean for academic affairs to make a proposal to the vice rector for academic affairs to exmatriculate the student.

7. The proposal is made if more than half of the committee members participating in the decision-making vote for the decision. The proposal must include a justification based on what circumstances and evidence the committee established the fraud or other improper behaviour, and on what grounds the committee decided to make the proposal. The proposal is submitted to the vice dean for academic affairs within 14 days of the day the student was informed of the proceeding. The committee may extend this deadline for good reason, by informing the student of the reasons for the extension and of the new deadline.

8. In case of disagreement with the position of the committee, the vice dean for academic affairs may send the case back to the committee for further investigation.

9. If the committee does not detect academic fraud or other improper behaviour, the committee informs the student of the end of the proceeding within the same deadline.

10. If the committee does not decide by consensus, the committee’s proposal must contain any dissenting opinions.

11. Based on the proposal of the committee, the vice dean for academic affairs issues a written reprimand to the student, or makes a proposal to the vice rector for academic affairs to exmatriculate the student within seven working days of receiving the proposal from the committee. The vice dean for academic affairs may extend the deadline for good reason, by informing the student of the reasons for the extension and of the new deadline.

Approved by the Council of the Faculty of Science and Technology on 9 June 2022

Adopted by the council of the Faculty of Science and Technology on 14 November 2024

Additional conditions for awarding doctoral degrees in the Faculty of Science and Technology

Adopted based on clause 98 of the Regulations for Doctoral Studies, adopted by the University of Tartu senate regulation no. 8 of 27 May 2022 and amended by regulation no. 1 of 1 March 2024.

I. General principles

1. In the Faculty of Science and Technology (“faculty”), doctoral degrees are awarded based on the Regulations for Doctoral Studies (“regulations”) and the following conditions.

2. If the faculty council has established specific provisions for awarding doctoral degrees for institutes, the conditions established for the institute where the doctoral candidate’s supervisor in charge is employed apply.

II. Requirements for doctoral thesis

3. The articles constituting the doctoral thesis as an integrated collection of research publications as referred to in clause 107 of the regulations must be in English. If articles published in other languages are used, the full translations of these articles into English must be included in the doctoral thesis.

4. Generally, an article may be used in up to two doctoral theses of the same specialisation. If one article has been used in two doctoral theses, the contribution of both doctoral candidates to the thesis must be substantial and described in detail in the thesis. Using one article in more than two doctoral theses is only permitted based on a reasoned decision of the council awarding doctoral degrees (“council”).

5. If an article has two or more lead authors, the doctoral candidates in the role of the lead author may only use it in their doctoral thesis as an article complying with clause 110 of the regulations by the reasoned decision of the council.

6. In the case of a doctoral thesis defended at the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Chemistry, at least three articles in a doctoral thesis as an integrated collection of research publications referred to in clause 108.2 of the regulations should be ETIS classification 1.1 articles, or two ETIS classification 1.1 articles and two classification 3.1 or 1.2 articles.

7. A doctoral thesis defended at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and the Institute of Technology may, in addition to articles referred to in clause 107 of the regulations, include manuscripts of unpublished articles and other published articles. If unpublished results are used, it must be clearly indicated in the text of the doctoral thesis that the data have not yet been published.

III. Requirements for submitting documents to the council

8. If an opponent or a peer reviewer may have a conflict of interest in performing the duties, the supervisor in charge must, when appointing an opponent or a reviewer, fill in a questionnaire to prevent conflicts of interest and submit it to the council together with the documents referred to in clause 122 of the regulations.

9. At the Institute of Genomics, an opponent of the doctoral thesis must declare that none of their previous roles affects their being an opponent and impartial performance of the role, and that there is no conflict of interest. The opponent and the supervisor(s) sign a conflict of interest form, which is submitted with documents referred to in clause 122 of the regulations to the council for making a reasoned decision.

10. At the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, the doctoral candidate will submit to the council, together with the documents referred to in clause 122 of the regulations, the opponent’s curriculum vitae in English with a list of publications and, if necessary, permission from the journal editors allowing articles included in the thesis and drawings published by other authors to be used in the doctoral thesis.

11. At the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences,

11.1. the application to allow the doctoral thesis to be defended must include a confirmation that the doctoral candidate has informed the co-authors from the University of Tartu of using the joint article(s) in the doctoral thesis;

11.2. the defence meeting is generally organised by the department or centre where the doctoral thesis was completed.

The Department of Zoology also organises the defences of doctoral theses of the Estonian Marine Institute.

12. According to clause 134 of the regulations, at least 15 copies of the doctoral thesis are printed. The council determines the final number of the printed copies of each doctoral thesis.

IV. Peer review, preliminary defence and opponent

13. If, before allowing the doctoral thesis to be defended, the council sends it to be peer-reviewed under clause 125.2 of the regulations,

13.1. at the Institute of Computer Science, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Institute of Technology and Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, the council, and, for the doctoral theses of the doctoral curriculum Environmental Technology and the specialisation Environmental Technology of the doctoral programme Engineering and Technology, the council chair, generally appoints an internal reviewer from the University of Tartu as the reviewer of the doctoral thesis. At the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences and the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, the internal reviewer is generally appointed from among the members of the council. For doctoral theses of the doctoral curriculum Environmental Technology and the specialisation Environmental Technology of the doctoral programme Engineering and Technology, the chair of the joint council awarding doctoral degrees appoints a council member or a researcher outside the council who meets the requirements of clause 131 of the regulation as the internal reviewer. The reviewer verifies the compliance of the thesis with the requirements, and submits a written opinion to the council;

13.2. at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, the council appoints a researcher from outside the University of Tartu who meets the requirements of clause 131 of the regulations as a peer reviewer.

The doctoral candidate responds to the comments received during the peer review and gives answers and explanations to both the peer reviewer and the council;

13.3. the doctoral theses of the doctoral curriculum Environmental Technology and the specialisation Environmental Technology of the doctoral programme Engineering and Technology, together with the reviewer’s opinion and the academic secretary’ assessment, are first submitted for a recommendation vote to the scientific council of the institute where the doctoral candidate’s supervisor in charge is employed. The joint council awarding doctoral degrees takes the results of the recommendation vote into account when making the decision referred to in clause 126 of the regulations.

14. At the Institute of Computer Science, a preliminary defence is held, where also the internal reviewer participates, if the council has appointedone.

15. At the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, the opponent of the doctoral thesis must be an independent researcher who is at least at stage R3 according to the European Commission’s framework of research careers and has experience in supervising doctoral students.

V. Defence meeting

16. The length of the doctoral candidate’s presentation (lectio praecursoria), referred to in clause 148.2 of the regulations, is up to 30 minutes.

17. At the Institute of Genomics, the supervisor(s) are given the opportunity to take the floor before the doctoral candidate’spresentation (lectio praecursoria), referred to in clause 148.2 of the regulations.

18. At the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics,

18.1. the council secretary introduces the doctoral candidate as provided in clause 148.1 of the regulations, giving an overview of the doctoral candidate’s academic career and confirms that the prerequisites of the defence and the formal requirements of the defence meeting have been met;

18.2. the council members and the opponent or opponents may after the doctoral candidate’s presentation, referred to in clause 148.2 of the regulations, ask the doctoral candidate questions about it;

18.3. the supervisor(s) have the opportunity to take the floor before the discussion referred to in clause 148.5 of the regulations.

19. At the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and the Institute of Technology,

19.1. in addition to the provisions of clause 148.1, the chair of the meeting gives the floor to the supervisor(s) of the doctoral thesis to introduce the doctoral candidate;

19.2. the chair of the meeting introduces the opponent or opponents before the remarks referred to in clause 148.3.

20. A recording made of the defence, referred to in clause 147 of the regulations, will be retained for six to twelve months.