DISSERTATION

A Dissertation is a scientific, preferably applied, project work, conducted by the Department of Environmental Sciences students, aiming to consolidate and apply the knowledge they have acquired during their studies, on the one hand, and study a specific subject matter in-depth, on the other.

More specifically, a Dissertation constitutes: either a critical study of findings from some specific academic literature; or an experimental investigation of a topic including an original research section, as well; or experimental work; or data analysis and interpretation of results; or software implementation; or software testing and evaluation; or any other research activity related to the topic.

Students are eligible to apply for a Dissertation topic when they are in their 7th or 8th semester of studies and have successfully completed at least 30 courses (Compulsory, Elective and Foreign Language courses) by the time they submit their application to the Department Secretariat. The Dissertation is a compulsory module and carries 10 ECTS.

Aiming to ensure transparency in the assigning and examining process of the Bachelor Dissertations, the Department of Environmental Sciences has established the following procedure:

1. faculty members post the proposed topics in the Secretariat and on the Department website,
2. students sign-up their prioritized preferences regarding the topics to the Department Secretariat,
3. the Coordinating Committee distributes the dissertation topics to students based on their preferences, as well as their detailed academic profile,
4. the Department Assembly approves the assigning of the topics based on the Committee recommendations.
5. The Department Assembly ensures a balanced distribution of Dissertations per faculty member per year.

Dissertation evaluation criteria taken into account are: originality, degree of difficulty of the topic, structure of the Dissertation, use of bibliography, clarity of the objectives, the methodology, the discussion, documentation of the results, conclusions and their connection to important problems in the Greek and international reality, etc.

The formal requirements and binding regulations that apply can be found in the Dissertation Regulations (in Greek).

Instructions for Submitting and Defending a Dissertation

Students are required to submit their dissertation to the Three-Member Supervisory Committee for examination at least 10 days before its scheduled presentation, to allow the Committee sufficient time to evaluate and grade it. At the same time, the first two (2) pages, indicating the title in Greek and English, signed by the members of the Committee, are submitted to the Secretariat. Upon completion of their Dissertation, students, in collaboration with the supervising professor, are required to check the percentage of verbatim copying in the text, using special software, and include the software report when submitting the Dissertation. The percentage of verbatim copying is not allowed to exceed 30% of the text in total. This percentage does not include bibliographical references.

A prerequisite for the validation of the dissertation degree and its submission to the Secretariat is the open oral presentation by the students before faculty and students at a meeting which is organized after each examination period. The Three-Member Supervisory Committee and other faculty members are invited to ask the examinee questions, within five (5) minutes after the end of the presentation, and comment on the dissertation presented. Students are expected to answer the questions in order for their work to be evaluated. After the end of the oral presentation, a special grading form for the Dissertation is completed and submitted to the Department Secretariat.

After its presentation, students are required to submit one electronic copy (cd) of their final dissertation for cataloguing and storage in the Library, along with a printed version of the first two (2) pages.