University of Helsinki Contemporary Societies Master’s Thesis Guide 2026-2027

What this guide covers

This guide is for students in the University of Helsinki Master’s Programme in Contemporary Societies (COS) who are planning, writing or submitting a master’s thesis during the 2026-2027 academic year. It focuses only on current thesis-related rules and programme practices. It does not replace the instructions given by your study track, thesis seminar teacher, supervisor, the Faculty of Social Sciences, Sisu or E-thesis.

That distinction is important in COS because the programme brings several social-science disciplines into one degree. Some supervision practices vary by study track, while the Faculty provides common rules for thesis length, assessment, examiners, maturity test and submission.

The core requirements at a glance

The COS degree is 120 ECTS and is designed for two academic years. The course programme is taught in English. Within the current degree structure, the study-track-specific component is 55 ECTS and includes 15 ECTS of advanced studies in the discipline, a 10 ECTS thesis seminar and the 30 ECTS master’s thesis.

The Faculty of Social Sciences states that a master’s thesis should be 50-70 pages. The University describes the workload of a 30 ECTS thesis as approximately one term of full-time study. These two figures should be used together: the page range describes the expected size of the finished academic study, while the 30 ECTS workload should guide how realistically you scope the project.

A thesis does not have to follow one universal COS method. The current Faculty assessment criteria explicitly recognise both empirical and theoretical theses. This means that an interview study, survey, statistical analysis, digital-data project, ethnographic study, documentary analysis or another empirical design may be appropriate, but a theoretical thesis based on scholarly literature can also be valid when it is properly framed and justified. Your study track, seminar and supervisor determine what is academically suitable for your topic.

Seven study tracks, but six on the external admissions page

Current COS student-facing material presents seven study tracks:

• Consumption and Markets
• Global Development Studies
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Social and Public Policy
• Social Data Science
• Social Psychology
• Sociology

Students may notice that the external admissions page currently lists only six application tracks and does not include Consumption and Markets. This is not a reason to assume that one of the University pages is simply wrong. Current Studies Service guidance separately identifies Consumption and Markets as a COS Master’s option with its own internal registration route, and the Centre for Consumer Society Research also confirms it as a current COS study track. For a student already studying in COS, the seven-track student structure is therefore the relevant programme context, while the admissions page describes the external application route.

For thesis planning, the practical point is simpler: your study track remains an important academic home for your thesis, and track-specific supervision practices may differ.

Start orienting toward the thesis in the first year

COS is designed so that thesis preparation does not begin only when the second year is almost finished. During the first year, students develop their Personal Study Plan and are introduced to possible research topics within their study track. The current programme structure also places research-skills studies alongside thematic and discipline-specific studies, helping students build the conceptual and methodological background needed for later thesis work.

During the second year, the emphasis moves more clearly toward thesis seminars, supervision and thesis writing. Current 2026-2027 guidance says that students are usually appointed a thesis supervisor in the first Master’s Thesis seminar, although practices vary between tracks.

Use the first year to identify a manageable research area rather than trying to decide the final title too early. By the time the thesis seminar begins, you should ideally understand the broad scholarly conversation, the kind of evidence or literature you may use, and which methods or theoretical approaches are realistic for a 30 ECTS project.

The thesis plan is a formal part of the process

University-wide thesis instructions require a thesis plan before the project begins or at its initial stage. The plan is discussed and approved according to the degree programme’s curriculum and should identify the supervisor or supervisors.

For COS, a useful thesis plan should make the relationship between the research problem and the study-track discipline visible. At minimum, you should be able to explain what you want to investigate, why the problem matters academically, what previous research or theoretical ideas frame it, what material or literature you will use, how you intend to analyse it, and whether the project can realistically be completed within the 30 ECTS workload.

Do not use the thesis plan merely as a document that has to be submitted. It is the point where an oversized project can still be reduced without losing months of work. A narrow question that can be answered well is usually safer than a broad question that would require several separate studies.

What should a 50-70 page COS thesis actually do?

The Faculty of Social Sciences does not reduce quality to page count. The current assessment framework focuses on how well the complete research task works. A strong COS thesis should have a clearly defined objective and research question, a relevant scholarly framework, an appropriate and ethically justified research design, a coherent presentation of results or argumentation, a critical discussion, and clear academic writing.

The 50-70 page rule therefore should not be interpreted as a target to fill with background material. Every major section should help answer the research question. If the literature review becomes a long catalogue of previous studies, or if the methodology chapter describes techniques that are not actually used, the thesis can become longer without becoming stronger.

There is also no current public evidence that COS imposes one universal named referencing system such as APA across every track, or one compulsory programme-wide chapter structure. The Faculty requires correct and consistent referencing. Your study track, thesis seminar and supervisor should be used to confirm any more specific convention before you write a large portion of the thesis.

Empirical and theoretical theses are both possible

This is an important point because students sometimes assume that a social-science thesis must always collect new empirical data. The Faculty’s current matrix specifically explains that the research-data-and-methods area is applied differently to theoretical theses and may carry less weight in their overall assessment.

For an empirical thesis, you still need to show why the selected data fit the research question, how the material was obtained, how the analysis was conducted and how research ethics were handled. The exact method can vary substantially across COS tracks. A Social Data Science project may rely heavily on quantitative or computational material, while anthropology, sociology, social psychology, development studies, social policy or consumer research may use very different combinations of qualitative, quantitative, mixed or documentary approaches.

For a theoretical thesis, the absence of an empirical dataset does not remove the requirement for methodological clarity. The assessment criteria expect a clear definition of the research questions and of the literature being used, including a meaningful distinction between the material that is being analysed and the broader research literature used to frame the argument.

Understand the seven assessment areas from the beginning

For master’s theses submitted from 1 August 2026 onward, the Faculty of Social Sciences uses seven assessment areas:

1. Thesis objective and research questions
2. Scholarly framework and use of sources
3. Research data and methods
4. Presentation of thesis results
5. Discussion and conclusions
6. Thesis as an academic text
7. Work during the thesis process

The final thesis grade remains on the 0-5 scale. The Faculty also makes clear that the overall grade does not have to be a simple mathematical average of the separate areas. The nature of the thesis can affect how different areas are interpreted and weighted.

The seventh area is especially important because it makes the research process visible in assessment. It covers independent work, the way you receive and use feedback, time management and systematic working. This area is assessed only by the supervising reviewer. For this reason, supervision should not be treated as a sequence of emergency meetings immediately before submission. Bring specific questions, keep track of agreed changes, respond to feedback and maintain a realistic work schedule.

Examination: two doctoral examiners

After formal submission, two examiners are appointed. One is usually the thesis supervisor, and both examiners must hold doctoral degrees. During teaching periods, if the thesis is submitted on a published due date, the Faculty expects the examiners to submit the grade proposal within the defined examination timetable.

The Dean makes the final decision on approval and grading based on the examiners’ proposal. This is why the submission date is not the same as the date on which the final grade is formally decided.

Your thesis abstract is also the maturity test

In the Faculty of Social Sciences, the master’s thesis abstract functions as the maturity test. It is not just a short promotional summary. The Faculty expects it to stand as an independent academic text that communicates the objective and theoretical background, the material and its scope, the methods and the key results.

The maturity test is recorded as a separate 0 ECTS study attainment and is graded pass/fail. It is usually assessed by the thesis supervisor. The language requirement depends on your secondary-education language and whether you previously completed a maturity test that demonstrated the required Finnish or Swedish language proficiency. Students with different educational histories can therefore have different maturity-test language obligations.

One rule is universal: AI must not be used in a maturity test. Because the thesis abstract functions as the COS maturity test, do not use generative AI to write, translate or revise the maturity-test abstract.

AI use in the thesis must be disclosed correctly

The University of Helsinki generally permits AI use in learning unless a more specific instruction restricts it, but the student remains responsible for the accuracy, legality and academic integrity of the submitted work. Current University guidance requires written work to disclose AI use or non-use according to the applicable instructions.

For longer work such as a thesis, the general disclosure guidance asks students to explain the scope and purpose of AI use, the model used, how the tool functioned and how its output was checked, and what was learned from using it. If AI was not used, the general guidance also expects this to be stated. A teacher, Faculty or degree programme may provide more specific requirements, so discuss AI use with your supervisor before using it for substantial literature organisation, translation, coding support, analysis assistance or language revision.

Do not place confidential, personal or otherwise protected research data into an AI service unless the University’s data-protection and information-security rules clearly allow that use.

E-thesis submission and the final-file rule

The formal thesis is submitted electronically as a PDF through E-thesis. The system is used for submission, examination and assessment, and approved theses are transferred into the University’s Helda repository according to the publication arrangements.

Before the final submission, check that the correct degree programme and valid study right are available in E-thesis and that your thesis file is genuinely final. University instructions are explicit that after the thesis is submitted for assessment, you can no longer make changes or corrections to the thesis. Do not submit a version with unresolved comments, incomplete citations, missing appendices or provisional tables.

Master’s theses are public documents. Confidential information must not be included in the thesis, its appendices or its abstract. Confidential background material may need to be handled separately from the assessed thesis. If open publication needs to be delayed for a justified reason, such as closely related unpublished research, the University provides an embargo request mechanism through E-thesis. An embargo delays open publication but does not make the approved thesis a confidential document.

Faculty of Social Sciences submission dates for 2026-2027

The current Faculty timetable gives the following submission rounds. All thesis submission deadlines are at 23:59 Finnish time.

The University states that theses are not assessed in July and that supervision and feedback are generally not provided in July unless a faculty or programme specifically requires otherwise. Plan backwards from the formal deadline. Your own writing should be substantially complete before the deadline week so that you still have time for final checks, supervisor-requested corrections and technical preparation of the PDF.

A practical COS thesis workflow

At the beginning of the project, confirm your track-specific seminar and supervision instructions, narrow the research problem and prepare the thesis plan. Then build the scholarly framework and decide whether the project is empirical or theoretical. If empirical, verify access, ethics, consent, personal-data and data-management requirements before collecting material. If theoretical, define clearly what literature is being analysed and what broader scholarship frames the argument.

During the main writing period, keep the research question visible. Your literature, theory, method and analysis should not become separate mini-projects. Each part should help the reader understand how the thesis answers the stated research problem. Use supervision regularly, document major decisions and revise the project if the scope becomes unrealistic.

Before submission, review the thesis against all seven assessment areas rather than proofreading only the language. Check whether the objective is precise, the literature is used analytically, the research design is justified, the results or argument are clear, the conclusion actually answers the research question, referencing is consistent and the final document is technically complete. Prepare the abstract carefully because it also functions as the maturity test, and do not use AI in that abstract.

Finally, submit only the final assessed PDF to E-thesis. Once it is submitted, the thesis itself cannot be changed. Keep the official University, Faculty, study-track and supervisor instructions as the controlling sources whenever they are more specific than this guide.