Legal provisions

The undergraduate study is completed by passing of all the exams and, depending on the study programme, by preparation of the final paper/thesis and/or by sitting the final exam according to the study programme.

Forms of final paper/thesis

The final paper/thesis can be written in one of the following forms:

1. final paper/thesis shaped in accordance with the Regulations for preparation of final and graduate papers/theses
2. programme project that contains its source code repository, with related documentation (a documented rounded project)
3. scientific paper in a journal or an international scientific conference - international peer review (minimally an A2 paper per social sciences) with an extended summary in the Croatian language.

Process of preparation and defence:

Students (candidates) contact their mentor and, either during the consultation periods (or by email) and propose the topics (students propose the topics independently or choose from the list of active topics for the corresponding academic year).

Thesis proposal (in pdf/docx format) contains:

• topic title (in Croatian and English)
• research problem summary (1-2 pages)
• paper disposition (content)
• literature list
• completed form (Application for submission of the final – diploma paper/thesis.pdf)

The potential mentor may either accept the topic proposal (Office for Students and Educational Programmes) or reject it (if the proposal does not meet the minimal conditions, the mentor has no vacancies for mentorship and similar). The topic does not have to be directly related to the course, but it is desirable for it to minimally lean on the course in which the mentor specialises.

Following the completion of the paper, students submit it to the mentor by email (or some other service) for review. The mentor works with the student on the improvements of the paper to the point when the mentor assesses that the paper has attained a suitable quality for its defence.

Mentor forms a committee (three members, of which one is mentor himself/herself and one the committee president. The committee examines, points to paper completion and possible corrections needing to be made and assesses the paper (each committee member fills in and signs the form for grading of the final papers/theses, which is then delivered to the mentor and the committee president). After having received the graded paper, the mentor may (but does not necessarily have to) invite the student for an oral defence of the thesis (in the form of an oral exam) and determine the final grade.

The mentor delivers the collected documentation (student’s name, topic title, committee composition, forms with the final paper/thesis grade) to the Office for Students and Educational Programmes.

After having passed all the courses, students inform the Office for Students and Educational Programmes about the formal initiation of the thesis defence process. The Office for Students and Educational Programmes makes a Record of the grade and defence of the final paper/thesis, which it then delivers to the mentor. The mentor invites the committee members to sign and complete the Record of the grade and defence of the final paper/thesis and hands it over to students, who deliver the collected documentation to the Office for Students and Educational Programmes for further processing.

The committee president is responsible for taking care of the implementation of the process of defence of the final paper/thesis and reports any irregularities to the Dean of the Faculty.

The further procedure (delivery of the completed paper and related documentation) is conducted between students and the Office for Students and Educational Programmes.

Explanatory notes:

• the defence process can be carried out electronically
• the defence can be presented prior to passing all other courses (from 2nd year of the undergraduate study), but the paper must not include topics from the courses which have not yet been passed
• if, for the final paper/thesis, any kind of programming product is developed, the relevant design documentation must be attached, which does not have to contain as large a number of pages as a classical final paper/thesis. It can be in a README (.md) form on some repository (for example Github, Gitlab), and in a form of the final paper/thesis (with the same elements which the final paper/thesis in line with the Regulations for preparation of final and diploma papers/theses, but very concise, i.e. identical to the README (.md) form
• in case of preparation of a research paper, the final paper/thesis contains all the same elements as contained in the final paper/thesis according to the Regulations for preparation of final and diploma papers/theses; it only, content-wise, includes an extended summary in the Croatian language, a scientific paper, programme and/or a summary of the collection of papers or journals
• the mentor fills in and signs the form for grading of the final papers/theses and the Record of the grade and defence of the final paper/thesis and, following the completion of the defence, the mentor hands them over to the student for further processing at the Office for Students and Educational Programmes

Office for Students and Educational Programmes

Procedure for application for defence of the final paper/thesis:

1. Students are given a form to complete (application form for defence of the final paper/thesis), sent to the library for the Certificate of fulfilment of obligations (the library may put the stamp “books returned” on the said form).
2. When the student returns the completed form, the ISVU database is checked to establish if the student’s topic has been approved, his/her mentor and if he/she has passed all the exams.
3. The student is presented with the invoice, given all the forms he/she needs to deliver to us following the paper/thesis defence (forms: data for the Graduate Certificate/Degree Certificate, Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE), Academic integrity statement and Statement on the use of the academic work x2; please print on both sides of the paper (duplex), so that both Statements are on the same sheet of paper x2 and make sure that the correct Statements are given depending on the educational level, i.e. MSc or BSc degree). The student is further instructed to, together with the already mentioned documentation, he/she must also submit 1 CD (a pdf copy of the paper, software code and other digital contents which form the integrity of the final paper/thesis).
4. Following the paper/thesis defence, the student brings all the completed forms, proof of payment, the CD and the Record.
5. If everything corresponds, and the committee has no objections to the final paper/thesis, his/her original documents are returned to the student, as well as the Certificate of completion of studies, he/she signs the file as confirmation of having received his/her original documents.