E-thesis: instructions for examiners

Below is a short description of the assessment processes in the new E-thesis and the automated messages sent by the system.

Assessment Process for a Bachelor's Thesis

1. The student registers in Sisu for both the thesis and the maturity test implementations.
2. The student initiates the submission of the thesis in E-thesis and confirms their Sisu registration.
3. The student submits their thesis for evaluation in E-thesis.
4. The supervisor evaluates the thesis and the maturity test if the maturity test is a summary OR the supervisor forwards the thesis to another examiner, who also evaluates the maturity test (if it's a summary).
5. The supervisor/examiner approves the evaluation they have conducted and receives a notification of the completion of the evaluation. The performance data is transferred to Sisu, and the thesis along with its descriptive information is transferred to Helda. The student receives a notification about the thesis evaluation.

Assessment Process for a Second Cycle (Master's and Licenciate) Degree Theses  

1. A student submits their finalised thesis in the system by the deadline.
   They receive a message about the receipt of their thesis.
   Student Services receives a message about the submitted thesis.
2. Student Services designates the thesis examiners and sets the assessment deadline. 
   The status of the thesis changes automatically to ‘under assessment’.
   The assigned examiners receive an email about the thesis to be assessed.
3. The examiners assess and approve their assessments by the deadline. 
   The status of the thesis changes automatically to ‘assessment complete’.
   The system sends a message to all examiners about the completion of the assessment process.
   Student Services is informed of the assessed thesis.
4. Student Services transfers the thesis assessment to await the dean’s decision. 
   The status of the thesis is changed to ‘awaiting decision’.
   The student is informed of the grade proposal by email.
5. After the dean’s decision, Student Services marks the thesis as approved. 
   The thesis status is changed to ‘complete’, and the system exports the thesis to Helda.
   The student receives a message about the thesis assessment decision.

Contact details

If you need assistance in using the system or further information about the thesis assessment process, please contact a student advice service point or e-thesis@helsinki.fi.

E-thesis is available at https://ethesis.helsinki.fi/en.

When academic administration staff have designated the thesis examiners, they will receive an email about the thesis to be assessed. The system can be accessed through the link in the email or from the system frontpage.

Examiners can log in to the system in two ways:

1. Via the link in the email or from the system frontpage, using UH credentials
2. Via the email login link (external examiners)

NB! If an examiner has several active email addresses (e.g., hus.fi and helsinki.fi), they must log in to the system using the address to which they received information on the thesis to be assessed. If the examiner received the information to an external email address (e.g., hus.fi), they must log in to the system via the login link provided in the email.

1. Login with UH credentials

If you received a message about a thesis to be assessed to a University of Helsinki email, you can log in to the system through the link in the email or from the system frontpage.

The frontpage features three login options.

Once you have logged in, click on ‘For examiners’ at the bottom of the frontpage.

2. Login by external examiners

If you received a message about a thesis to be assessed to an email outside the University of Helsinki (e.g., a hus.fi address), you can log into E-thesis only by clicking on the login link in the message. 

The login link in the email is valid for 30 hours.

If the link has expired, you can request a new one from the login page for examiners under ‘Logging in using an external email address’. 

In the designated field, enter the email to which the original assessment invitation was sent and click on ‘Send a new invitation’.

After login, the theses assigned to you are displayed on the frontpage.

The theses whose assessment is incomplete are shown in the task queue ‘Theses to be assessed’.

The ‘Assess’ button appears next to the theses awaiting your assessment.

If the button ‘Edit the assessment’ appears, you have assessed the thesis but it is awaiting assessment by the other examiners.

The task queue ‘Assessed theses’ shows all the theses whose assessment is complete; in this case, all examiners have approved their assessment.

You can assess a thesis by clicking on ‘Assess’.

Once you have checked the thesis information, you can begin the assessment by clicking on ‘Begin assessment’ at the bottom of the tab ‘Thesis information’.

Approval of maturity test

An official at Teaching and Learning Services has reviewed the student’s answers to questions about their maturity test. Based on the answers, the system indicates whether the maturity test must be examined only for content or also for language proficiency. Further information on maturity tests is available on the Instructions for Teaching website.

The approval of a student’s thesis requires the approval of their maturity test.

The maturity test is usually examined by the coordinating thesis examiner. If you will not examine the maturity test, you can skip its approval.

Select a numerical grade under the header "your grade proposal" and write your justifications for the grade. After this, press "save grade proposal". 

Approval of assessment

If you wish, you can save the assessment and continue later.
When your assessment is complete, click on the Approve assessment button.

By clicking on ‘Show assessment instructions’, you can directly access the instructions for the relevant faculty or degree programme at The examination and grading of master’s and licentiate theses.

Assessment of thesis areas

Next, assess the thesis areas numerically and, if necessary, in writing. 

The number of areas assessed varies by faculty. Some faculties appoint one of the thesis examiners as the coordinating examiner. Information on the coordinating thesis examiner is available under the ‘Thesis information’ tab. The coordinating thesis examiner assesses the student’s performance in the assessment area of ‘Work during the thesis process'. This area of assessment is visible to the other examiners as grey/inactive.

Check the assessment instructions of the relevant faculty or degree programme by clicking on ‘Show assessment instructions’ in the top right corner.

Numerical assessment 

You must enter a numerical assessment of each area on a scale of 0 to 5. The other examiners’ numerical assessments are displayed under ‘Other examiners’.
If the grade for any area is 0, the thesis cannot usually be approved. 

Written assessment

The written assessment of thesis areas is voluntary. The examiners use the same ‘Written assessment’ field. A written assessment can be added by clicking on ‘Add written assessment’.

Please note that written assessments are always displayed to the student alongside the grade assigned for the area. Save only text intended for the student in this field.

If you edit another examiner’s written assessments of thesis areas and then approve your assessment, the system will ask the other examiner to accept your changes. Further information is available at Changes to written assessments.

Enter your written assessment in the field appearing on the screen, and click on ‘Save’.

NB! If another examiner has already assessed the thesis areas and you agree with them, you can confirm the assessment by selecting ‘Confirm the submitted assessment’. This will lock the numerical and written assessments. You can return to enter your own assessments by deselecting the above.

Once you have entered your numerical and written assessments of all thesis areas, you can proceed to enter a grade proposal and statement by clicking on the relevant button at the bottom of the page.

A summary of the assessments of thesis areas is shown at the top of the ‘Grade proposal’ tab.

Next, enter your grade proposal for the thesis. This proposal is required. You can see the other examiners’ proposals under ‘Other examiners’.

Examiners should aim to agree on the grade proposal. If this is impossible, see the instructions at Different grade proposals.

Next, write a statement on your grade proposal. This statement is required. The examiners use the same statement field.
If you edit another examiner’s written statement and then approve your assessment, the system will ask the other examiner to accept your changes. Further information is available at Changes to written assessments.
 

NB! If another examiner has already entered their grade proposal and statement and you agree with them, you can confirm the assessment by selecting ‘Confirm the submitted assessment’. This will lock the proposal and statement. You can return to enter your own assessments by deselecting the above.

To save your incomplete assessment and continue later, click on ‘Save grade proposal’ at the bottom of the page.

If your assessment is complete, click on ‘Approve assessment’.

Assessment summary

The ‘Assessment summary’ tab shows a summary of the thesis assessment.

If the thesis is awaiting other examiners’ assessments, it will not be marked as assessed until all the examiners have assessed it.

If all the examiners agree on the assessment and have approved their assessment, the status of the thesis will change to ‘assessment complete’ and administrative staff will receive a message about the completed assessment.

You can return to your task queue by clicking on ‘Return to theses to be assessed’.

If you edit another examiner’s written assessments or statement and then approve your assessment, the system will ask the other examiner to accept your changes.

The other examiner will receive a message about the changes awaiting approval. The changes can be reviewed by clicking on the link in the message.

You can check your original assessment by clicking on the triangle at ‘Previous versions’.

The system will display the different versions of the written assessment, and their comparison will allow you to review the changes.

Likewise, the changes to the statement can be reviewed by comparing the versions.

You can continue to edit the assessment, in which case any changes you make will be returned to the other examiner for approval.

If you agree on the examiner’s changes and no longer wish to edit the assessment, you can approve it again by clicking on ‘Approve assessment’ on the ‘Grade proposal’ tab.

If the examiners propose different grades for a thesis, the system will indicate this.

The examiners should primarily reach a consensus on the grade proposal.

You can save your assessment by clicking on ‘Save’, and continue discussing the grade proposal outside the system (e.g., via email) with the other examiner. 
You can find their email address on the ‘Thesis information’ tab.

If you cannot agree on the grade proposal, click on ‘Approve assessment’.

The system will then send a message to all of the examiners about their different grade proposals.

Please note that if you have edited written assessments or the thesis statement, the changes will return to the other examiner for approval after you have clicked on ‘Approve assessment’.

The system will send a message about different grade proposals to administrative staff as well. 
Faculty practices for different grade proposals vary. Further information is available in the instructions for specific degree programmes on the Instructions for Teaching website.

Once the final grade has been decided by the faculty, administrative staff will enter it into the system.

When all examiners have agreed on the grade proposal and approved their assessments, they will receive a message about the completion of the assessment process.

At the same time, the status of the thesis will change to ‘assessment complete’, and administrative staff will receive a message about the completed assessment.

The staff will move the thesis to await the dean’s decision, and the student will receive an email about the grade proposal. Please note that students will be notified of grade proposals no later than one week before the dean’s decision.

To download the thesis assessment as a PDF file, log in to the E-thesis service through the email link or the service frontpage.

In the task queue, click on the ‘Assessment summary’ button next to the relevant thesis.

On the ‘Assessment summary’ tab, you can download the thesis assessment as a PDF file by clicking on ‘Download file’. 

The examiner (called ‘reviewer’ in the E-thesis system) receives an automatic message from the E-thesis system when the examination stage begins. The message is sent to the email address that the E-thesis official at the Student Services on-site service point has entered into the system. The examiner must log in to E-thesis with the email address to which the message has been sent and to which the thesis has been submitted for examination. This means, for example, that theses sent to a hus.fi address can only be found if the examiner logs in to the system by clicking on Authentication with email address and password. For users that don’t have University of Helsinki’s credentials. Theses to be evaluated are always associated with the email address attached to them. 

The message comes from a no-reply address. The message contains a direct link to the main page of the thesis evaluation form. The message contains three links that lead to the main page and form in different languages. Please read the faculty guidelines on the language in which the thesis must be evaluated.

Another option for logging in to the E-thesis system is to use the front page. The front page is available at https://ethesis.helsinki.fi/en/. You can find the Login link at the bottom of the front page.

You must then select the login method.

If you do not have University of Helsinki credentials and are using the E-thesis system for the first time, you must register in the system before you can receive theses to be examined. An official at the Student Services on-site service point sends external examiners a registration invitation through the E-thesis system to the email address supplied. You can then create a username following the instructions in the email message.

You can find links to the PDF version of the thesis at the top of the main page for the thesis to be evaluated, together with information on the examination deadline and the faculty and degree programme associated with the thesis in question. The current content of the evaluation form is displayed on the main page. 

Examiners can write comments to each other, only intended for mutual communication. Such comments are only available to the examiners, and they will be deleted from the system after the examination stage.

Both examiners are assigned their own colour (orange and grey; see below). If the examiners agree on the evaluation of various areas of the thesis, the colour is black. If the evaluation form only accepts one value for each evaluation criterion (bachelor’s theses), the selected values are displayed on a grey background. 

Examiners can edit the content of the form by clicking on Edit evaluation. Editing the evaluation locks the content for the logged-in user and prevents other examiners from editing the content of the evaluation. If an examiner opens the information on the thesis while the other examiner is editing the evaluation form, the former examiner will be shown a message about the locked content and the examiner editing the form. The content will be unlocked after the examiner has saved or cancelled the changes made to the evaluation form or after the form has been open for 30 minutes without being saved or cancelled. 

If the Approved column is ticked, it means that the examiner in question has approved the content of the evaluation form.

If you click on Evaluation help, you will be taken to the faculty instructions for the examination of theses on the Instructions for Teaching website. NB! On the Instructions for Teaching website, you must select the degree programme of the thesis you are examining.

The most important element in the Evaluation information section is the evaluation form and the related details. The E-thesis system contains several evaluation forms that also differ depending on whether the examination focuses on a bachelor’s or master’s thesis. The logic of the forms also varies. The evaluation forms of new master’s theses contain both examiner-specific sections and shared sections. The latter include the grade proposal, its grounds and any faculty-specific additional information.

The examiners edit the content of the evaluation one at a time, saving the form after each edit. The evaluation does not need to be approved immediately if the interim edits are to be used in the evaluation. In this case, the examiners can use the comment field to send each other messages on their edits.

When the evaluation has been completed, the examiner approves it by clicking on Approve evaluation. The approval of the evaluation means that the logged-in examiner no longer wishes, or is able, to change the evaluation. The evaluation must be approved twice by the examiner who saved and approved the evaluation first. The other examiner(s) must usually approve the evaluation only once.

Approving the evaluation locks the evaluation form for the logged-in user. However, the form opens again for editing if another examiner (or one of the other examiners) edits the content of the evaluation. In other words, both (or all) examiners must approve the evaluation in order for the thesis to be sent to the faculty, degree programme steering group or grading committee for consideration and approval. The Approve evaluation button is not activated if all selections are blank (-).

However, the examiner’s approval is cancelled if another examiner either edits their own evaluation section (radio button selections in the evaluation areas) or revises the shared evaluation section (grade proposal, faculty-specific additional information, grounds). When all examiners have approved the evaluation, the thesis is automatically sent on to the next stage, and the examiners receive an automatic email from a no-reply address. Attached to the email message is the content of the evaluation form as a PDF file.

The E-thesis official from the Student Services on-site service point then forwards the thesis for approval at the relevant meeting. This must be done at least one week before the meeting. The student will receive an automatic message from the system, attached to which is the content of the evaluation form as a PDF file. Once the thesis evaluation has been approved at the above meeting, a student adviser will separately record the thesis as completed in the student information system and submit the thesis to the E-thesis archive. The student will receive an automatic message about the grading decision and a link for allowing online publication.

The student provides information on the possible need for an embargo (delayed publication) at the beginning of the submission stage in the field Other notes on the submission form. This field is included in the master’s thesis submission forms of all faculties, with the exception of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The Student Services official confirms the embargo.