What do you mean, graduating without a bachelor's thesis?

Is it wise to stick to a written bachelor's thesis at all costs? Two directors of education of the Faculty of Humanities posed this question last month in a well-read article on DUB.

The faculty board agreed with their view: if the nature and structure of a programme call for a different way of graduating, what is wrong with that? All teaching teams should therefore start brainstorming alternatives to the thesis.

Not everyone is on the same page, however. Two thesis coordinators from History, interviewed for the same article, fear that the academic level of their programme will decline if the thesis is discontinued. 

What does the rest of the UU community think about this? DUB asked the students and employees of our DUB panel to react to the following statement by email:

“The final project for the bachelor's programme must remain a written thesis”

Associate Professor Kirsten Buist says that alternatives to the thesis are also being considered in her programme, Educational Sciences, to ease lecturers' workload and deal with budget cuts. This is also a reaction to signals from the labour market, which would prefer the final assignment to be more in line with practice, as well as to recent developments in the field of Generative AI. 

"In a university programme that produces scientist practitioners or academic professionals, it is essential that students gain experience in setting up, conducting and reporting on scientific research. The question is whether it is really necessary for students to do this in both their bachelor's and master's programmes," she says.

"We could imagine designing a different end product for one of the two levels that would also cover the learning objectives. Other universities have had some positive experiences with alternative assignments. At Leiden University, for example, some master's students write an extensive literature review instead of a research thesis. Our colleagues there are enthusiastic about it, and students also appreciate it."

Look at relevance
Levi Bierhuizen is a writing coach at the Skills Lab and a master's student in Clinical Psychology. He's heard that some bachelor's programmes give students hardly any writing assignments and then require them to write a thesis at the end, with all the consequences that this entails.

"In theory, I don't think it's such a crazy idea to rethink the role and format of the bachelor's thesis. For certain programmes, a thesis is simply not relevant to professional practice. For other programmes, such as Law, writing a thesis is very appropriate. I think each programme should assess the added value of a thesis for them. 

At the same time, I believe that a thesis is part of an academic education. So, at the master's level, the graduation project should remain a written thesis. I'm currently working on my master's thesis, and I've become much more familiar with the research process. I am better equipped to handle the obstacles that come with this process than I was when I wrote my bachelor's thesis. Based on that experience, I certainly see the added value of a bachelor's thesis."

Learning objectives
According to innovation scientist Frank van Rijnsoever, whether programmes should consider alternatives to the written thesis depends on their learning objectives. But he "can see where the Faculty of Humanities is coming from."

"This also reflects the university's changing role. Making an impact is becoming increasingly important. However, lecturers should be able to supervise these other thesis formats, and there should be sufficient independent assessors and assessment criteria. In my view, these are major challenges."

"I think that writing is a crucial skill for structuring your thoughts for yourself and others, but a written thesis does not have to be essential for testing the final objectives of a programme."

Measurement and process

Elma Zijderveld works as an educational advisor at Educational Development & Training. As an academic skills teacher, she has difficulty taking a position in this debate. She doesn't see it as a black-and-white issue. However, she considers it worthwhile to reevaluate the status and format of the final assignment. 

"Writing and researching are complex cognitive skills; a process in which deep learning plays a central role. Students must familiarise themselves with a relevant issue and find answers to it in a critical, systematic manner."

"In that sense, the bachelor's thesis functions as a sort of master's test: it is a moment of measurement in which all the acquired knowledge, research skills and academic writing come together. On the other hand, it is a process in which students are tested on their ability to grapple with content, structure, formulation, and often also with themselves. And that's what makes a written thesis so valuable."

"At the same time, the final assignment must not always take the form of a traditional written thesis. That's not self-evident. It depends on the programme's final attainment levels, the curriculum structure, and the extent to which students have already worked on papers or research reports throughout their studies, among other factors."

"It may be useful to offer the option of submitting an advisory report or another profession-related graduation project in addition to the traditional thesis. After all, many academics do not become researchers, but rather move on to positions in which core skills, such as independent critical and research-based thinking and the ability to communicate with target groups, are of great importance."