General Info
In the second semester of the Master’s Program, students are required to complete a postgraduate thesis. The official language of instruction and thesis writing is Greek, though students may choose to write their thesis in English.
After the January/February exam period, and during February, students express their preference for a supervising professor from the program’s faculty or other academic staff. Supervisors may include instructors involved in the undergraduate or postgraduate programs of the department in the same academic year.
A maximum of five (5) theses per supervisor is allowed. Students can either propose a thesis topic themselves, or agree on a topic proposed by a faculty member. Supervisors and members of the three-person evaluation committee are selected from all eligible teaching staff as defined in Article 83 of Law 4957/2022. In rare cases (e.g., illness, research absence abroad), supervisors or committee members can be replaced by department decision.
Topic changes or committee substitutions can be requested by students or supervisors and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. A minor modification of the thesis title — without altering the general topic or the fundamental design of the study — may be approved following a request submitted by the postgraduate student and signed by the supervisor, addressed to the Secretariat of the programme.
To pass, students must defend their thesis in front of the three-member committee. After the defense, the committee assigns a grade from 0 to 10, recorded in an official evaluation report.
By August 31, the thesis must be completed. In September, the supervisor arranges for the committee to publicly announce the date and time of the student’s presentation. The presentation is mandatory. Immediately afterward, the committee grades the thesis. A decision can be finalized if the supervisor and one other committee member agree on the score.
The committee may require:
- Minor corrections, to be completed within 14 days, after which the grade is submitted without a second defense
- Major corrections, which require resubmission and reevaluation. If the student doesn’t pass, they may be dismissed from the program
Rules for formatting, structure, referencing, etc., are detailed in Appendix 2 of the program regulations. The Supervising Faculty Member proposes the members of the Thee-Party Examining Committee by finalizing the topic of the project at the beginning of the second semester. The committee of three is approved by the Steering Committee.
Theses must:
- Be written in the second semester, and completed by August 31.
- Be 8,000 to 15,000 words (excluding references, footnotes, tables).
- Be written in Greek or English, depending on student-supervisor agreement.
- Follow proper academic standards for layout, referencing, structure, and formatting.
The postgraduate theses, if approved by the examination committee, must be posted in the University of Patras repository. For the preparation and writing of the thesis, the terms of writing and publication of theses of the University of Patras in Appendix 3 of this document apply. For the preparation and writing of the Diploma Thesis, the terms of writing and publication of diploma theses of the University of Patras apply as stated in Annexes 2 and 3 of this regulation.
Suggested structure:
- Introduction
- Literature Review
- Theoretical Background & Research Questions
- Data and Methodology
- Results
- Policy Proposals
- Conclusions
- References
Theses’ should have a properly formatted cover page as well as a table of contents, a list of images, a table of diagrams, etc. that have been inserted in the text in the automatic way of MS Word. Equations should follow ascending numbering throughout the text.
The writing language is Greek or English and is decided in collaboration between the responsible faculty member and the graduate students.
Indicative specifications for the preparation of the text are as follows:
- Font Times New Roman/Calibri/Georgia,
- Size 11pt and 1.15pt margins, full alignment