Defence

The thesis defence is public and it is done in front of a Thesis Commission composed of 1 President and 4 members nominated by the Dean.

The defence consists of:

• Oral presentation of the thesis with the possible help of slides and other multimedia content (max 10 min).
• Question/answering session on the topic of the thesis (max 5 min) 

The defence is held in English. 

Evaluation and grade

The final degree grade is composed of:

• The weighted average of the grades achieved in exams, calculated in 110/110 (the grades of the Free choice and Language exams are not considered for the mean)
• The points given by the thesis commission at the thesis defence

The grade thus obtained is rounded to the nearest whole number.

Students enrolled before 2024/25: the maximum number of points given at the thesis defence is 5.

Students enrolled from 2024/25: the maximum number of points given at the thesis defence is 7. 

Students enrolled before 2020/21: please get in touch with the Faculty Secretariat.

The thesis is graded along following criteria: 

• Knowledge and Understanding: How well the student has demonstrated an understanding of the project’s background, including a comprehensive overview of related work and current state-of-the-art research.
• Applying Knowledge and Understanding: The extent to which the student was able to address the thesis topics with effective solutions, demonstrating the application of techniques learned throughout the study program.
• Learning Skills: The range and depth of essential skills acquired by the student during the course of the thesis work.
• Making Judgments: The level of independence shown by the student, assessing how much guidance was required versus the degree of autonomy achieved in conducting the thesis work.
• Communication Skills: The clarity and quality of the dissertation’s writing, evaluating the effectiveness of the presentation and articulation of the content.

The Thesis Commission can fail a candidate if the thesis defence is considered insufficient; in this case the candidate must present a new thesis at a successive Graduation Session.

In accordance with the “general university study regulation” (Art. 26) of the unibz it is possible to give the “cum laude” starting from the grade 110/110. The "cum laude" must be unanimously approved by the commission.