SUPERVISOR’S MEMO
Students of SEBA, TUT must during the studies write several papers. Information on how to
write and format these papers can be found in the General Guide to Writing and Defending
Papers and in the Formatting Guide for Written Papers. The former contains among other
things part 2.1. “Cooperation with supervisor” where the students are informed of the
supervisor’s role in the process of preparing relevant papers.
As these instructions are quite sizeable and meant primarily for students, this Memo contains
only what directly concerns the supervisors of bachelor’s and master’s theses.
Supervisor may be a TUT faculty member who has at least an equal diploma or academic
degree, or an equivalent qualification with the academic degree to be awarded to the student.
If necessary, an associate supervisor may be appointed for bachelor’s and master’s thesis
(from some other university, a senior executive from a firm analysed in the thesis etc), who
has to be willing to cooperate with the principal supervisor. Both names shall be written on
the title page of the graduation thesis.
Though it is the students’ independent job to write and format papers, supervisor has an
essential role in preparing these papers. It is the task of the supervisor to assist students in
choosing the topic and presenting a good work, ensuring that the conclusions drawn have a
scientific value; also to incite and urge students to submit papers in time and format papers
correctly.
The first step in the preparation of a bachelor’s or master’s thesis is to choose a topic and find
a supervisor. Cooperation between the student and supervisor begins with the approval by the
supervisor of the topic chosen by the student. The supervisor has to be convinced that he/she
knows the research field and methods of the topic and is able to supervise the research in this
field. Before giving his/her approval, supervisor has to weigh not only his/her research
interests but also his/her work load and time limit, because he/she has to find both time and
will to deal with the research related problems and answer the questions asked by the author.
According to the Timetable for Writing Papers (at the homepage among the instructions for
writing papers), the supervisor and topic of the bachelor’s and master’s theses are subject to
approval at the supervisor’s chair. The Timetable provides an obligatory timetable for
preparing graduation theses, which the student and supervisor must abide by during the
cooperation.
After the topic and supervisor are approved of, the student shall prepare an extended plan and
starts to search literature. The plan (it is recommended also to make an initial list of
references) has to be submitted by an agreed date to the supervisor, who, based on the plan,
makes sure the problems to be discussed are appropriate for the topic; also that the plan
covers the topic to a sufficient extent, is logically organised and fulfils other requirements.
The supervisor looks through the list of literature to make sure it is adequate and appropriate.
During the process of work, the supervisor has to communicate with the student, answer
his/her questions and offer assistance when the student needs it. The student must him/herself
display initiative to be in contact with the supervisor and inform the supervisor of the work
process and problems. Cooperation is particularly necessary in the initial stage, so that the
supervisor could timely advise the student how to continue work in order to remedy mistakes
and avoid them in the future.
As the students’ abilities are different, we cannot give one and only possible recommendation
how supervisors should work with students. In some cases you should “keep an eye” on the
whole process of work; in other cases it is necessary to study single parts of the work;
sometimes it is enough if you just read through the first version of the paper. The deadline of
submitting the papers is provided in the Timetable for Writing Papers. In all these cases it is
the task of the supervisor to verify if there are any shortcomings, inconsistencies, inadequate
argumentation, formatting mistakes etc. The supervisor is not obliged to improve the paper;
his/her task is only to point out weaknesses and suggest solutions. And it is the task of the
student to improve the paper based on the recommendations.
The author alone, not the supervisor, is responsible for the correctness of data and viewpoints
presented in the paper and for the conformity to the requirements. If the student decides to
make changes in the formulation of the topic or in the initial plan of the paper, he/she has to
inform about this the supervisor and get his/her approval.
The supervisor is responsible for that an eligible paper will reach the defence commission.
And so as to ensure that every graduation paper would be eligible, the supervisor has to
support students, encourage them, if necessary, and guide to amend the shortcomings.
The supervisor has to review the paper after the student has submitted the final version, in
order to make sure whether or not the student has taken into consideration the supervisor’s
recommendations. If the student has not taken account of the principal recommendations,
he/she must be able to defend his/her decisions. And if the defence shows mistakes in the
work the supervisor should have pointed out, then the supervisor’s work has been inadequate.
A predefence helps to decide whether or not the master’s thesis is eligible for defence.
Predefence is held prior to submitting the full/final version of the master’s thesis. A
predefence either gives permission to move forward or vetos the defence. The final decision
whether or not to recommend the thesis for the defence shall be made by the supervisor. The
decision should be made by the supervisor on the basis of what is the author’s contribution to
the subject of research; how deep are the conclusions drawn and how relevant are the sources
used.
When the paper is improperly structured and the treatment diffused, statements not proved,
conclusions trivial, not correctly formatted, there are shortcomings in references and the
language is incorrect, then there are reasons not to grant permission to defence. That the
supervisor thinks the paper is not eligible for defence should not be a shocking surprise to the
student. When the supervisor is from the very beginning well informed of the work, he/she
should be aware of the threat and inform the student of this. Then the student can improve the
paper and remove the shortcomings.
More precisely, particular reasons for not granting permission to defence may be:
1) the paper does not conform to the subject
2) Introduction is diffused (as you know, introduction should clearly identify the
objectives and main results of the work)
3) the paper is not organised so that it opens the subject of research adequately
4) Conclusions do not include the main conclusions, the author’s contribution is not
indicated
5) the foreign language summary does not contain enough information on the
research and the language is incorrect
6) language of the paper is incorrect
7) the paper is not formatted as required of TUT student papers
8) the number of reference sources is insufficient or these are not relevant (only in
mother tongue, principal textbooks, only newspaper articles)
9) references to original sources are inadequate or incorrect
10) the list of references is not formatted as required
11) the paper has been submitted and prepared with disregard of the requirements or
deadlines
12) the extended summary in a foreign language is missing (except MBA theses)
13) the paper is a plagiarism
Of course, not all of these shortcomings are of equal weight. The student can, if he/she really
wishes to, amend some mistakes before the defence. But if there are essential shortcomings
(e.g. items 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8 in the list), you should seriously think of not permitting the paper to
defence.
The most serious flaw is the plagiarism. According to the rules applicable at TUT, a
commission appointed by the dean of SEBA may, when a plagiarism has been discovered,
propose to dismiss the student.
In order to notify the defence commission of the supervisor’s opinion about the graduation
thesis to be defended and to get better feedback from supervisors, the dean of SEBA in his
order No 30 of 23 October 2006 requested all supervisors to present the opinions about the
graduation theses on the attached form to the defence commission not later than two days
before the commission starts its work.
If the supervisor recommends permitting the paper to defence, he/she superscribes his/her
signature on the reverse side of the title page declaring that the paper meets the requirements
of the relevant degree paper. The mark for the work is awarded in the defence by the defence
commission. The supervisor is not responsible for the mark awarded to the paper,
Mare Randveer