How to apply for Type A - Master's degree thesis

  1. Choose the Supervisor of your Master’s degree thesis

Once the Student has chosen the Supervisor, he/she must get the authorization of the Biology Department's Teaching Unit. The request for authorization must be sent by the student to the Didactic Unit enclosing the Start of activity  form duly filled in.

The start of the activity is subject to the granting of authorisation by the Biology Department's Teaching Unit.

The authorisation granted ex officio by the Department's teaching unit, which is communicated to the student and the internal/external supervisor by e-mail, replaces in all respects the authorisation of the start of the activity by the Course of Study Council (Resolution of the Aggregate Council in Biotechnology no. 106/2024 of 17/09/2024 and Resolution of the Aggregate Council in Biological Sciences no. 113/2024 of 17/09/2024).

From the date of authorization, the activity can be completed within 12 months.

After 12 months, any extension may be requested by the Supervisor to the Teaching Unit (a motivated request from the Supervisor to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., indicating the duration of the extension, is sufficient).

PLEASE NOTICE: the type chosen by the student for the conduct of the internship and thesis activity cannot be subject to change in progress (Resolution No. 84/2024 - prot. AOO "BIO" 4008/2024, of the Aggregate Course Council in Biological Sciences on 02/07/2024 and Resolution No. 86/2024 - prot. AOO "BIO" 4011/2024, of the Aggregate Course Council in Biotechnology on 02/07/2024).

  • Start of activity form (PDF - Doc)
  • Declaration of the host institution (this form is required only for activities held in research centres or companies located in Italy or abroad; this form is not required for activities held at UNIPI Departments, Scuola Normale Superiore, CNR (Centro Nazionale per le Ricerche), Scuola Superiore Sant'anna) 
  • For activities held abroad students must fill in the form "Dichiarazione per mobilità per tirocinio curriculare ed extracurriculare al di fuori del programma ERASMUS" availble on this link)

PLEASE NOTICE: all documentation must be sent in PDF format to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

CURRENT INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE

External facilities and departments of the University of Pisa already affiliated with the Department of Biology

  1. Apply for the appointment of Co-Supervisors

The student must fill in and send the Application form for the Appointment of Co-Supervisors (Doc - PDF) and an abstract of the thesis (maximum 1 page in lenght) to the Didactic Unit within the deadline of the relevant graduation session.

PLEASE NOTICE: all documentation must be sent in PDF format to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

A specific Commission will appoint two Co-Supervisors who will assess, by means of a pre-graduation interview, the Student’s knowledge of the thesis topic and his/her critical approach to the thesis activity.

After the Examiners assignment is notified to the Student, he/she is required to:

At the end of the interview, the thesis Co-Supervisors will express their evaluation of the thesis work according to the following criteria:

  • Acquisition of the fundamental concepts underlying the activities (scientific context)
  • Ability of critical behavior also toward the experimental approach
  • Autonomy during the discussion and interpretation of the results
  • Autonomy during the elaboration of the paper and linguistic competence
  • Command of scientific language, clarity of the exposition, accuracy in exposition of the paper

    PN: assigned Co-Supervisors remain valid even in the event that the Student fails to attend the initially chosen graduation session. The procedure therefore does not have to be carried out again.

  1. Submit the graduation application to the Student Secretariat
    All information is available on this link.
  1. Submit the final version of the thesis (written essay)
    Within the deadline, the Student is required to send a final presentation of the final paper to the Didactic Unit (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and to remind his/her Supervisor to send the Evaluation Form (PDF - Doc) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

    PN: it is not required to send the thesis in digital format or to deliver it in paper form. Only the submission of the presentation in PDF format is required: presentations in Power Point format will not be accepted. Once submitted, the presentation cannot be replaced.

  2. Discussion
    The Student will have 20 minutes for the discussion of the final paper.
    The date, time and place of the discussion shall be notified to the Student by e-mail. All Students are required to present themselves at the starting time of the graduation session.

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