Bachelor | 5. Finalizing your bachelor's thesis

5.1 Green light

Before completing your bachelor’s thesis, you need to have received the green light by both your supervisors. You will submit the entire thesis to the supervisory committee twice. You will receive feedback on the first complete version, which you can use to alter your thesis. The second final version is called your green light version, which is being officially evaluated by your supervisors, with respect to (at least) sufficient or insufficient for presentation. The daily supervisor can give some final feedback on your green light version but the amount of feedback and advice must be reasonable in order to receive a green light.
The green light version that you submit to your supervisor, must also be uploaded to the bachelor’s thesis Canvas page for a plagiarism check. One approved copy of the thesis is archived along with the assessment form by the programme.

5.2 Presentation bachelor's thesis

Once your thesis report is finalized and approved, the final step in completing the bachelor’s thesis is to present your assignment to your supervisors. Your second supervisor can be present as well; however, the second supervisor does not assess your presentation. The presentation of your bachelor’s thesis is part of your final assessment. Your presentation needs to last around 15 minutes, after your presentation, your supervisors and/or other visitors have the opportunity to ask questions (5 minutes). Other interested parties of your programme can also attend the presentation, for example a teacher, but also for example, first year students who want to get an impression of the different research topics in the bachelor’s thesis. To prepare yourself in the best way possible you can visit a presentation from your fellow students as well. Furthermore, you are allowed to invite family and friends, with a maximum of 10 persons. Do know that the presentation of your bachelor’s thesis is not an official ceremonial moment and thus afterwards will not receive your diploma.

5.3 Tips for your presentation

Preparation presentation

Visit a few presentations of other students. These are open to the public, so you are free to visit them;
Consider the audience that will attend your presentation, and make sure not to overcomplicate matters. Not everyone attending is a specialist and people might not know anything about your topic, so for example do not use too much jargon;
You might want to discuss the general course of the presentation with your supervisors;
Give a practice presentation to friends or fellow students. This is extremely important. For while you might believe you have the presentation down pat, you will only know this when actually giving it. You will also feel more confident when having done it once before;
Have a look at the room in advance and check the equipment you plan to use. This can best be done during a break. Consult with the building manager or reception staff.

Presentation sheets

Start your presentation with an overview of what you will be talking about (content or structure), so your audience will know what to expect;
Slides and sheets are presentation aids and should only be used to support what you are saying. So don't fill a sheet with text;
Slides and sheets should be clear and easy to read, also for people in the back of the room, so keep this in mind when selecting font and font size;
Go easy on the amount of text - your audience is listening to you and doesn't have the time to read entire paragraphs - and the special effects, as these are only distracting;
Don't use too many slides.

Presentation itself

Be well in time;
Make sure that all equipment you are going to use is in proper working order;
Avoid just reading out a piece of text, but explain what you are showing;
Look at the audience, do not tilt your face towards the screen, as nobody can understand you when you do this;
Do not talk too quickly, it is fine to have a few short silences;
Do not be afraid of being or looking nervous: the audience usually does not notice it at all;
Keep an eye on the clock;
Try to avoid verbosity, keep things simple;
Make sure to reserve plenty of time for questions by your supervisor and the attendants (consult on this with your supervisor beforehand).

5.4 Submitting the thesis report and evaluation survey

To complete the thesis, please take into account the following:

A few weeks prior to your presentation, you will receive a link from Evasys to the bachelor's exit evaluation ‘Final Programme Satisfaction Survey BACHELORS’ by email. Fill in the survey; afterwards you will receive a confirmation email. Please send this confirmation email to BOZ (boz-psy-ces@utwente.nl)
No later than the day of your presentation, submit the following:
a) A digital version of your report (in .docx and .pdf format) by e-mail: boz-psy-ces@utwente.nl
b) Upload your thesis to (http://essay.utwente.nl). More information about uploading your thesis can be found at: http://essay.utwente.nl/upload.html. After the thesis has been uploaded, the student, the supervisors and BOZ will receive an automatically generated e-mail. The thesis will be available in UT Student Theses within three working days, and will be linked to your file in the university archive.

Please note: your grade will only be registered once you have submitted the thesis, and uploaded, and forwarded the confirmation email of the evaluation survey to BOZ.

5.5 Registration diploma

When you have completed your complete Bachelor's programme, including your subject hours, you can register for the diploma. You need to submit the application form for the Bachelor's degree certificate to BOZ (boz-psy@utwente.nl).