Procedure for the final examination
In general, the dissertation should have a structure that explores the following elements:
1) Introduction: clarification of the research question/objective of the work; brief summary of the methodologies adopted; indication of the originality of the work to be carried out.
2) Reference literature: location of the work within the specific literature, clarification of the hypotheses to be tested or description of the subject under analysis, clarification of the cognitive relevance of the work.
3) Information base and methodology used: specification of the characteristics of the field of observation (company, sector, etc.) and/or of the database used; indication of the methodologies and procedures used in the analysis (interviews, direct observation, simulations, statistical analysis, analysis and critical systematisation of the literature, analysis and systematisation of research based on historical sources, etc.).
4) Presentation and discussion of results: illustration of the evidence collected and/or the analyses carried out; comparison between the themes/hypotheses formulated in 2) and the analytical results acquired.
5) Conclusions: summary description of the main results obtained. Pointing out the limitations of the work done; possible further developments.
6) Cited bibliography (according to a defined format).
Once the student's thesis has been approved by the supervising Professor, it is presented in oral form to an examining committee, which has the task of assessing the student's level of knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, the ability to apply this knowledge and understanding to the specific problem covered by the work, the ability to communicate in written and oral form and, lastly, the degree of independent judgement on the issues covered by the thesis.
The preliminary committee's judgement is then forwarded to the graduation (proclamation) committee, which assesses the student's career, also taking into account the outcome of the final examination and according to the criteria set out below:
- on the basis of the certification provided by the Student Registry Office, the proclamation committee awards 0 points if there is one distinction; 0.5 points if there are two distinctions; 1 point if there are three or four distinctions; 1.5 points if there are five or more distinctions.
Honours may be awarded as part of the final assessment for students who have an outstanding study record and have carried out particularly good thesis work. For this reason, the awarding of honours must be expressly requested by the rapporteur during the preparatory committee and confirmed by the proclaiming committee. The awarding committee may decide on its own to award honours if the sum of the marks for the average, career, thesis and number of honours exceeds 110/110.
In order to facilitate and improve the quality of the process of assigning and carrying out dissertations, every year at the end of November or the beginning of December, a meeting is organised with second-year students (the meeting is also open to first-year students); during this meeting, the importance of dissertation work is explained, as well as the rationale behind the choice of topic and, within it, the definition of research objectives and the methodology for achieving them. The aim of the meeting is to guide the student's choice with regard to the topics to be explored in the final paper by illustrating the various topics proposed by the individual Professors.
Since May 2017, a collaboration has been set up with the Human Sciences Division of the University Library System in order to organise a series of meetings for students about to start their thesis work, with the aim of providing them with the basic knowledge to use bibliographical research tools and documentary sources useful for writing their thesis research. These meetings are planned in the form of work sessions for small groups of students, with access to the PCs in the computer labs with the support of specialised staff. Since 2017, ad hoc training sessions for ADA thesis writers have been organised twice a year (usually in January and May), attended by the vast majority of graduating students enrolled in subsequent graduation sessions.
Finally, with regard to the final examination, students may write their thesis in English.
