GENERAL RULES

Students - with the exception of doctoral studies - are required to compose a separate thesis (diploma thesis, portfolio) for each of their programmes at the end of their studies. The educational units (institutes, departments) are responsible for offering thesis topics in the Electronic Registration System or provide the student the option of choosing a topic of their own.

The student submits the thesis electronically via the Electronic Registration System by the deadline specified by the Faculty in charge of the programme. The thesis must be evaluated by one or more opponent appointed by the head of the educational unit responsible for the programme (or in case of the teacher training programme subject to the provision of Nftv.: the head of the programme) and then defended publicly by the student in front of a committee.

MANAGING THE CERTAIN CONTENT USED IN THESES, CONFIDENTIAL THESES

The thesis may only contain information warranting its confidentiality in justified cases. If the thesis can be interpreted and prepared without the information warranting its confidentiality, (e.g., personal data can be anonymised), then there is no reason to include such information.

Students must ensure that their thesis is prepared and submitted in accordance with the law and internal regulations and that protected data is handled properly. A successfully defended thesis will be made widely available online in the university repository. This is why it is particularly important for students to comply with some of the copyright, other confidentiality and data protection rules that affect the choice of content for the thesis, in order to avoid infringements:

• when using a part or the whole of the intellectual property of others the source must be indicated properly;
• in the case of fair use of intellectual property which goes beyond free use (quoting), the student must seek the consent of the author, or the rightsholder (even when using an unreleased work) for the use of the content (e.g. picture, diagram);
• if personal data (e.g. name, photograph) are collected or used for the writing of the thesis, the consent of the data subject is required (after reading the privacy notice), but the consent form must be uploaded in the Electronic Registration System only from the data subjects whose personal data are included in the thesis;
• if the thesis involves the use of business secrets (or other types of secrets, e.g. classified information), the permission of the company or the holder of the business secret must be obtained;
• if the thesis contains information linked to the business interests of the University, the supervisor may initiate its classification during the process of preparing the thesis, in which case the student must act accordingly to protect the information.

If the permissions and consents mentioned in the above list do not cover publication, and the use of the data in the thesis is still justified, the student must consult the supervisor and if necessary the classification must be initiated. The relevant permissions, and if the thesis contains personal data, the consent of the data subject and, in the case of classification, the relevant permission of the supervisor must be uploaded to the Electronic Registration System by the student in a zip file altogether with the thesis. In the case of classification confidentiality must also be marked during the process.

Students can consult with supervisors on their thesis, including clarification of the above issues.

Information and document samples on data protection:

• guidance on data protection;
• requirement for obtaining consent;
• in case of data subject aged 18 or over
  • privacy notice for processing of data (online research);
  • consent to data processing (paper based research);
• in case of data subject aged under 18
  • privacy notice for processing of data (online research);
  • consent to data processing (paper based research).

In connection with the content, length and formal requirements of the theses the Faculties and in case of the teacher training the Council for Teacher Training and Teacher Professional Training may issue further regulations. More information on this can be found on the website of the given Faculty or of the Teacher Training Centre.

PLAGIARISM CHECK

There are strict rules on the use of intellectual property of others in theses, which are set out in the Academic Regulation for Students and the faculty information materials. After handling the theses in, the lecturer checks whether the student violated these rules with a specialised software.

The Turnitin Originality Check service can be accessed by ELTE lecturers and students via the following link, but the usage is different for the two roles: https://shibboleth.turnitin.com/.

During the login process, both the lecturer and student roles are identified. Lecturers can use the interface immediately after logging in, but students can only use it if their lecturer decides to give task to them in connection with plagiarism check. In this case, students can join a group specifically created for them in the software using the data that the lecturer sends them directly.

As the rules for theses may vary and the faculty's regulations should be followed, the instructors are assisted by colleagues assigned by the given faculty/unit: