Aalto University Biotechnology Master’s Thesis Guide: 30 ECTS, CHEM.thes and 2027 Deadlines

Aalto University’s Master’s Programme in Biotechnology is a 120 ECTS Master of Science (Technology) programme organised by the School of Chemical Engineering. In the current 2026-2028 curriculum, the programme has one Biotechnology major, code CHEM3092, and one shared thesis route. The curriculum places CHEM.thes Master’s thesis at 30 ECTS within the 90 ECTS major studies, alongside 30 ECTS of elective studies.

Biotechnology is academically broad even though its thesis administration is unified. The current curriculum groups recommended choices around Molecular Biotechnology, Bioprocess Engineering and Computational Biotechnology, while allowing students to mix those paths. Its learning outcomes explicitly include experimental and computational methods, genetic engineering, bioreactor systems, raw-material and bioprocess selection, mechanistic and data-driven modelling, and the design and reporting of scientific or R&D projects. A thesis might therefore involve cell engineering, microbial physiology, enzymes, synthetic biology, bioprocess optimisation, bioreactor performance, molecular modelling, bioinformatics, biological networks or another defensible biotechnology problem. The method follows the research question; the administrative process follows the shared CHEM rules.

Degree structure and the 30 ECTS thesis

The current degree is 120 ECTS. It consists of 90 ECTS major studies, including the 30 ECTS master’s thesis, and 30 ECTS elective studies. The current thesis code is CHEM.thes.

The thesis is not an isolated writing exercise. The CHEM thesis page describes the 30 ECTS project as including the thesis report, a maturity test, and a seminar or presentation connected to the project. These elements belong to the thesis process; they do not turn the thesis into more than 30 ECTS.

The applicant-facing two-year model expects compulsory and specialisation courses to be concentrated mainly in the first year, with electives and thesis work mainly in the second year. That is a planning model rather than a rule that every thesis must start on one fixed date.

One programme-level guide is the correct object

There is no need to split Biotechnology into several administrative thesis guides. The 2026-2028 curriculum has one major, CHEM3092, and one programme-level thesis page under the School of Chemical Engineering.

The field contains different research traditions. Molecular Biotechnology can involve cell engineering, microbial physiology, enzymes, synthetic biology, protein or pathway engineering. Bioprocess Engineering can involve bioreactors, fermentation, biomass conversion, separation, process optimisation and scale-up questions. Computational Biotechnology can involve mechanistic or data-driven modelling, bioinformatics, biological networks and quantitative analysis. These differences affect research design and evidence, but not the basic MyStudies, supervision, presentation, maturity, evaluation and archiving workflow.

The workload: about 800 hours and usually five months

The School of Chemical Engineering states that the total workload for the master’s thesis is about 800 hours, and that the execution is usually about five months. This is the main full-time planning model.

CHEM also recognises that experimental methods, personal circumstances or concurrent studies can extend the calendar duration. Such changes should be discussed and agreed among the student, supervisor and advisor or advisors, preferably at the kick-off meeting. Importantly, the public instructions say that an extended calendar duration does not mean the student’s total thesis workload should grow beyond about 800 hours.

The programme also states that the deadline agreed between student and supervisor should be no later than one year from the starting date. That one-year statement is a maximum agreed project deadline, not the normal full-time duration. A good plan is still built around the approximately five-month, 800-hour model unless the project genuinely requires another schedule.

Start topic searching early

CHEM encourages students to start thinking about the thesis well in advance. A useful first step is to contact professors in relevant fields because they may already know suitable research or company projects. Students can also browse CHEM research groups, collaboration projects and previously published theses.

A Biotechnology thesis can be written for a company, at Aalto University, or abroad. The applicant-facing programme page explicitly highlights thesis work outside Finland as one route for building international competence.

Company work should not be confirmed academically before a suitable professor has agreed that the topic and scope fit the degree. In practice, the student, company and university need to align the academic research question, available data or equipment, schedule and confidentiality boundaries before the project becomes difficult to change.

Company, Aalto and unfunded thesis routes

For a company thesis, salary and employment arrangements are agreed between the student and company. Depending on the project, the company may also compensate the department for testing or other costs. CHEM recommends involving a professor or another department representative in negotiations where useful.

For a thesis carried out at Aalto, funding may come from a research project or a scholarship arranged through the department. The topic then normally follows the research project’s needs and employment conditions follow the relevant agreements.

A thesis can also be completed without funding. In that case the topic must still be discussed with the supervisor and should not be presented as a company project. Funding changes the practical arrangement, not the academic standard.

Supervisor rules are broader than professor-only

The usual thesis supervisor is an Aalto professor under the degree regulations. With approval from the professor in charge of the student’s major, a professor from another Aalto school can also supervise.

The School of Chemical Engineering additionally allows University Lecturers, Senior University Lecturers, Principal University Lecturers, Adjunct Professors and full-time Professors of Practice to supervise master’s theses. The dean can also grant individual supervision permission to specified senior research staff and part-time Professors of Practice when the department requests it.

The supervisor is responsible for ensuring that the thesis meets CHEM’s academic aims and requirements. At the end, the supervisor prepares the evaluation statement and proposes the thesis grade.

One or two advisors are required

The thesis requires one or two advisors. Each advisor must be an expert in the thesis topic and hold at least a master’s degree. In a company or other external project, the advisor often represents the cooperating organisation. An Aalto researcher or doctoral student specialising in the field may also act as advisor.

Advisors provide day-to-day practical guidance, support research execution and comment on the thesis report. They do not make the official grading decision. Since roles vary by project, the student should agree early who comments on data, methods, manuscript sections, company requirements and final revisions.

Supervisor and advisors must also be impartial. They cannot be related to the student or otherwise biased under Aalto’s objectivity rules.

Prerequisites before the MyStudies starting application

Before submitting the thesis starting information, the student must be enrolled as attending, have the BSc degree approved, and have an approved master’s study plan. Any complementary studies assigned when the student was admitted to the programme must also be completed.

If the proposed supervisor is not from the School of Chemical Engineering, another safeguard applies: the professor in charge of the major must confirm that the topic is related to the student’s advanced studies.

These conditions should be checked before a company contract or research schedule becomes difficult to adjust.

MyStudies approval: topic, language, supervisor and advisors

The formal start is handled through the Thesis tab in MyStudies. The student fills the starting information for the thesis, including topic, language, supervisor and advisor or advisors.

The supervisor approves the topic and thesis language and appoints one or two advisors. The Programme Director approves the supervisor. CHEM states that the supervisor and Programme Director or head of major have altogether up to four weeks to respond to the request.

The topic should not contain company or brand names and should avoid non-standard abbreviations. The final thesis title can be refined later, as long as changes are agreed with the supervisor and remain consistent with the approved research field.

The kick-off meeting is a control point

Before actual thesis work begins, CHEM expects a kick-off meeting with the student, supervisor, advisor or advisors, and possibly a company representative. This meeting should settle the objectives, schedule, funding, workplace, equipment and other practical arrangements.

For Biotechnology, the meeting is particularly useful for clarifying laboratory access, sample availability, analytical methods, pilot equipment, modelling data, safety requirements, company data, or the boundary between public thesis material and confidential background information.

It is also the right place to discuss the evaluation criteria and what evidence will count as a successful research contribution.

Build a research proposal before execution grows

The research proposal is written in cooperation with the supervisor and advisors. CHEM says it should define the background and theoretical framework, research problems, main and interim objectives, methods, timetable and possible budget, and the intended analysis, synthesis and conclusions.

The school notes that it is often best to frame the main objective as a question. That is especially useful in Biotechnology because an engineering activity by itself is not yet a research contribution. A coating trial, fibre measurement, process simulation or material treatment becomes academically stronger when it is connected to a clear question and evaluation logic.

The proposal is reviewed in the kick-off meeting and can later be revised slightly as the project develops.

Do not invent a universal laboratory requirement

Biotechnology is strongly connected to laboratory and industrial research, but the current public instructions do not say that every thesis must contain laboratory experiments.

The CHEM FAQ specifically says that a literature-only thesis is not generally the normal route and must be discussed with the supervisor, while modelling without laboratory work may be possible depending on the programme and thesis topic. This is a useful boundary. The correct method depends on the research question, available evidence and supervisor approval.

A modelling, bioinformatics or other computational biotechnology thesis should not be forced into artificial laboratory work. Conversely, an experimental cell, enzyme, microbial or bioprocess thesis needs enough methodological detail, controls and reproducibility to support its conclusions. The current CHEM FAQ says a literature-only thesis is generally not the standard route, while modelling without laboratory work may be possible depending on the programme and topic, so the supervisor’s approval is decisive.

Writing should begin early

CHEM recommends focusing on written material early in the project so that existing research can guide the experimental, modelling or analytical work. Writing only after all experiments are finished can make it harder to recognise missing controls, weak literature support or unresolved research questions.

Contact with the supervisor is often especially important at the beginning and end of the project, while advisor contact is normally frequent throughout. Before final submission, the supervisor should generally be given about two to three weeks to read, correct and comment on the manuscript.

That review time needs to be included in the committee deadline plan. A thesis deadline should not mean sending the first complete draft to the supervisor on the same day.

CHEM thesis structure and formatting

The programme thesis page gives detailed CHEM writing guidance and links the Aalto Word template. It recommends a clear basic font, single-column layout, 1.5 line spacing and school-specific margins.

The public page presents a typical structure with title page, abstract, preface, table of contents, symbols and abbreviations, introduction, literature review, experimental section, results and discussion, conclusions, references and appendices.

Treat this as the school’s standard writing model, not as proof that every thesis must use an experimental method. For a modelling or other non-laboratory project, section labels and emphasis should be agreed with the supervisor while preserving the expected academic logic: research question, literature, method, evidence, analysis and conclusions.

Turnitin should not be left to the final upload

Aalto uses Turnitin in the master’s thesis process. The university recommends checking drafts during supervision so similarity and AI-related concerns are not first discovered in the final version.

When the final thesis is submitted through MyStudies, a Turnitin similarity report is generated and is available to both the student and supervisor. The supervisor also receives an AI report based on the same final file.

The practical lesson is to use draft checking for learning and correction, then treat the MyStudies upload as the final evaluated and archived thesis rather than a test upload.

AI use and the maturity-test boundary

Aalto’s current AI guidance allows AI to support learning unless a teacher or assessment rule restricts it. Students remain responsible for the content they submit, and unmodified AI-generated text cannot be presented as the student’s own work.

There is a strict boundary: AI is prohibited in maturity exams.

This matters directly in CHEM because, since 1 August 2021, the thesis abstract is approved as the maturity test for a master’s degree. The supervisor approves its content. The maturity test is pass/fail and does not affect the thesis grade, but it still carries the university’s no-AI maturity rule.

International students also complete the maturity requirement. When no Finnish or Swedish language demonstration is required, the maturity test is usually written in the thesis language, commonly English for international students.

The finished-thesis presentation is mandatory before approval

The thesis process includes a presentation of the finished thesis at a time agreed with the supervisor. CHEM states that the presentation, or an equivalent event showcasing the thesis, must be held before the master’s thesis is approved and evaluated.

The graduation page reinforces this by telling students to make sure the thesis seminar is approved before submitting the thesis approval and grading application for a CHEM Degree Programme Committee meeting.

Do not treat the presentation as an optional celebration after grading. It is part of the thesis completion sequence.

Final submission and CHEM evaluation

The student needs the supervisor’s permission before submitting the final thesis. Evaluation and approval are applied for in MyStudies, and the uploaded thesis is the final version for grading.

The student should also have a valid, approved study plan in Sisu. After submission, the supervisor has up to four weeks to give the evaluation report. That report includes a written assessment and grade proposal and takes account of statements from the advisor or advisors.

The CHEM Degree Programme Committee makes the official approval and grading decision. CHEM also states that evaluation covers the student’s work across the entire thesis project, not only the final report. Delays caused by circumstances outside the student’s control, such as equipment failure or a production stoppage, must not lower the grade.

PDF/A, Aaltodoc and public-thesis rules

All School of Chemical Engineering master’s theses are archived electronically, and the archival copy must be in PDF/A format. The thesis metadata and abstract are published through Aaltodoc. The full text is published online when the author gives permission.

Full-text online publication can be postponed by up to one year from thesis approval, for example because of another publication, a patent application or corporate considerations. However, postponing or refusing online publication does not make the thesis confidential.

The approved thesis is a public document. Secret or non-public company material must not be included in the evaluated thesis. If a company has trade secrets, patentable details or other sensitive information, those boundaries need to be solved in the research design and background material, not hidden inside a confidential chapter of the submitted thesis.

After approval: corrections use errata, not replacement

Once the thesis has been approved, it cannot be altered or resubmitted in MyStudies. If an error is discovered later, CHEM uses an errata page.

The errata is prepared in PDF/A, identifies the thesis, page number and corrected text or item, and is approved by the thesis supervisor before it is attached to the thesis metadata in Aaltodoc.

This is another reason to treat the MyStudies upload as final. The post-approval errata route corrects documented errors; it does not reopen the thesis examination.

Confirmed CHEM thesis-approval deadlines for 2027

The current Biotechnology graduation page publishes these committee-linked thesis approval deadlines:

• 31 December 2026 -> CHEM committee 26 January 2027;
• 17 February 2027 -> 9 March;
• 21 April 2027 -> 18 May;
• 26 May 2027 -> 15 June;
• 30 July 2027 -> 24 August;
• 22 September 2027 -> 12 October;
• 17 November 2027 -> 7 December;
• 31 December 2027 -> January 2028.

These dates are cycle-sensitive. Always recheck the live Aalto programme page before committing to the final thesis and supervisor-review schedule.

Graduation-only dates are not thesis deadlines

The same CHEM schedule contains starred dates such as 27 January, 24 March, 23 June, 25 August and 20 October 2027. Aalto explicitly says that on those dates there is no CHEM Degree Programme Committee meeting and students may submit only graduation requests.

For an MSc (Technology) student using one of those starred dates, the master’s thesis must already have been approved at an earlier committee meeting. These dates must not be advertised as new thesis-approval opportunities.

Graduation through Sisu

Graduation is requested through the student’s primary study plan in Sisu. All degree credits except the master’s thesis must already be registered, the study plan sections must be approved, and the student must be enrolled as attending on the graduation date.

If all other degree studies are complete and registered, the student can apply for thesis approval and graduation by the same application deadline. However, the two systems still perform different jobs: MyStudies handles the thesis evaluation application, while Sisu handles the graduation request and degree structure.

Uploading a thesis in MyStudies does not automatically submit the Sisu graduation request.

A practical five-month workflow

Before Month 1, identify topic areas, contact potential supervisors, check BSc/study-plan prerequisites and resolve company or research-group practicalities. In Month 1, agree the topic, supervisor and advisor(s), submit the MyStudies starting information, hold the kick-off meeting and finalise the research proposal.

During Months 2-3, complete the main experiments, measurements, modelling, material analysis or process work while writing continuously. In Month 4, consolidate data, analysis and major report sections and begin closing methodological gaps. In Month 5, complete the manuscript, reserve two to three weeks for supervisor review, make corrections, complete the finished-thesis presentation and maturity abstract, run the final Turnitin checks and submit the final thesis for the intended CHEM committee deadline.

If special circumstances require more calendar time, agree the revised plan formally rather than allowing the project to drift. The one-year maximum agreed deadline should be treated as a ceiling, not the default project plan.

Final checklist

Before final submission, confirm that you are following the 2026-2028 Biotechnology curriculum; CHEM.thes remains 30 ECTS; your topic, language, supervisor and advisor(s) are approved in MyStudies; your method fits the actual biotechnology research question; the research proposal and schedule are current; confidential information is outside the public thesis; the supervisor has enough review time; Turnitin has been used responsibly; the maturity abstract follows the no-AI rule; the finished-thesis presentation has been completed; the final file is PDF/A; the selected date is a real CHEM committee-linked thesis deadline; and the separate Sisu graduation request is submitted when eligible.

The central planning principle is straightforward: treat the Biotechnology thesis as an approximately 800-hour research project with a normal five-month execution model, explicit CHEM administration and a public final report. The scientific method should match the molecular, bioprocess, computational or related biotechnology research question; the MyStudies, supervision, presentation, maturity, Turnitin, committee and archiving requirements should be handled systematically from the beginning.