1. Steps with the Students’ Secretariat (Alice portal)
How to Register for the Graduation Exam
Registration for a graduation session is done through your personal area on the Alice Portal, under “Conseguimento titolo”. Before starting the procedure, consult the FAQ and the guide.
You can submit your graduation application even if you haven’t completed all your exams. If needed, you can cancel and resubmit for the next session at no cost. Before proceeding, print a certificate of your exams from the Alice portal and compare it with your university record book.
When to Submit the Application
Submit your application at least 30 days before the start of the session. Specific dates and deadlines are available on the graduation session calendar.
Late Applications
If you miss the deadline, email Maria Grazia Benvenuti (grazia.benvenuti@unipi.it) using your institutional email. You will need to fill out a paper form and pay a €200 late fee. The application must still be submitted at least 15 days before the session start date.
After Submitting the Application
Complete the graduating student survey. Save the receipt and upload it to your Alice portal under “Conseguimento titolo” at least 15 days before the session.
Required Documents:
- Copy of the university record book or a self-declaration of exams.
- Survey receipt.
Postponing the Exam
To postpone your exam, cancel your application on the Alice portal at least 15 days before the session.
Academic Year of Graduation
- Sessions from 16/06/2023 to 29/02/2024 fall under the academic year 2022/2023.
- Sessions from 01/03/2024 to 28/02/2025 fall under the academic year 2023/2024.
For more detailed information, visit the University of Pisa graduation information page.
2. Steps with the Departmental’s Secretariat (Didattica portal)
Art. 1 -When and how a student can apply for the final examination
Students may only submit their request after having accrued at least 130 ECTS credits. Applications must be submitted by the student through the portal accessible via the following link: didatticaeco.ec.unipi.it.
Each instructor is required to be available to supervise a minimum of 15 students per year, distributed evenly over the three specified periods, subject to the possibility of supervising up to a maximum of 24 students per year (8 per trimester). For instructors holding institutional roles (department heads and deputy heads, degree program presidents, members of the academic senate, board members, vice-chancellors, and chancellor’s delegates) and for those who are on fixed-term contracts, the minimum number can be reduced from 15 to 9 per year (3 per trimester) upon request.
Vacant positions from one trimester cannot be carried over to the next. Each trimester is autonomous, and the available positions are as specifically stated, regardless of the number of students supervised in the previous trimester.
Art. 2 – Process for selecting an advisor, thesis topic assignment, and preparation of the final examination paper
Students may request an academic advisor through the portal during 3 “application windows” each year, as follows:
- February 20 – March 2
- June 20 – July 1
- October 20 – October 31
Within these time windows, students must log into the portal and select an advisor from among those available, who must be one of the instructors with whom the student has previously completed an exam included in their study plan.
Within two weeks after the closing of the application window, the advisor should contact the student, possibly in a “group” setting, to schedule an initial meeting. During this meeting, the thesis topic will be assigned (considering certain thematic areas outlined by the advisor on the portal) and important aspects for drafting the paper, such as structure – introduction, objective definition, theoretical framework, data and information analysis, conclusion, bibliography research, etc., will be discussed. During this meeting, the advisor will share the evaluation criteria that will be applied, as stated in Art. 3 of these regulations. The final examination topic must be uploaded to the portal by the student. At least one intermediate meeting will be held to monitor progress and discuss any issues encountered by the student during the writing phase. The student must mandatorily upload the completed paper to the portal no later than 4 months after the start of the process, specifically by the day before the beginning of the next application window used. For instance, if a student began the process during the February 20 – March 2 window, they must upload the paper by June 19. The upload deadlines for each application window are as follows:
- February 20 – March 2: deadline June 19
- June 20 – July 1: deadline October 19
- October 20 – October 31: deadline February 19
Failure to upload the final paper within these terms requires the student to restart the process. For such students, access to the portal in subsequent trimesters will be delayed by 2 days compared to other students (thus reducing their application window by 2 days).
Art. 3 – Final examination: upload of presentation slides and evaluation of the final paper
Once a student has accrued all 177 ECTS credits, they must complete the process by uploading to the portal:
- a PDF file containing only up to 5 presentation slides of their paper
- a PDF file with a declaration of authenticity and originality of their work.
This upload must occur within a week from the start of the graduation session (dates will be posted on the calendar of graduation sessions)
The advisor will then receive an email requesting the insertion of the overall final examination grade in thirtieths within the deadlines set by the academic calendar, visible on the website in the Final Examination section.
The grade will be recorded if the student’s work reaches a sufficient level, considering the following criteria:
- Ability to correctly apply the skills and knowledge acquired during the Degree Course
- Degree of student autonomy in drafting the paper
- Accuracy and relevance of the bibliographic references section
- Clarity and correctness of presentation
- Coherence in argument development
- Capacity to incorporate guidance provided by the advisor
Based on the following conversion table, the thirtieths grade will be translated into a score ranging from 0.5 to 2, which will be used to calculate the final degree grade following the procedure outlined in Article 4
| Grade in thirtieths | Score |
| 18-20 | 0,5 |
| 21-23 | 1 |
| 24-27 | 1,5 |
| 28-30 | 2 |
Discussion of the paper is NOT included in the evaluation process
Art. 4 – Determining the Bachelor’s Degree Grade
The fundamental value for calculating the Graduation Average is the final average of the educational activities, expressed in thirtieths and denoted as M30. This is calculated by weighting the grades obtained in individual educational activities by their corresponding ECTS credits. Activities that do not involve a graded exam but rather a pass/fail assessment or judgment (such as the Computer Skills Test and Internships/Traineeships) are excluded from this average calculation. For the calculation of the bachelor’s degree grade, a grade of “30/30 cum laude” is computed as “30” in the average of the exam grades. The curricular average M30 is converted to a hundred and ten scale by multiplying it by 11/3, hence M110 = M30 * 11/3. To the curricular average in hundredths, the following scores are added:
- un score F corresponding to the grade obtained in the final examination, ranging from 0.5 to 2.
- un score Q to enhance the quality of the student’s academic curriculum; the Q score is calculated as 6% of the final average, i.e., Q = 0.06 * M110.
- un score B to value the speed with which the student completed their educational path; for this purpose, a student who graduates within three years from their enrollment (for example, students enrolled in the first year of the course in A.Y. 2022/2023 are considered on-time if they graduate by the February 2026 session). Specifically, a score B = 2 points is assigned if the student graduates on time, B = 1 point if the student graduates one year late, and B = 0 points if the student graduates two years late or later. The B score does not apply in case of course abbreviation.
The total sum expressing the Graduation Average is thus given by: ML=M110+F+Q+B.
The Bachelor’s Degree Grade is determined by rounding the Graduation Average to the nearest whole number (rounding down if the decimal is less than 0.5, rounding up if the decimal is 0.5 or greater). If such rounding provides a value of 111 or greater and a score of at least 1.5 has been obtained in the final examination, the Bachelor’s Degree Grade is equal to 110/110 cum laude.
Additionally, commendation is awarded if the student meets the following criteria:
- a grade of 110/110 cum laude
- a curricular average M110 equal to or greater than 106
- at least three “30 cum laude” grades obtained in individual courses
- graduation within three years from the first enrollment at the Department of Economics and Management.
Art. 5 – Additional Information on the Final Examination
The final examination for obtaining the degree (which, as specified above, consists of a written paper and up to 5 presentation slides) is allocated 3 ECTS credits, totaling 75 hours of work. The drafting of the paper aims to verify the degree of autonomy of the student in processing the knowledge acquired during their study path. The types of final examination papers can be:
- Current issue problem
- Topic addressed during the university career
- Experience gained during an internship period at research institutions, companies/administrations/public or private organizations.
For drafting the final examination paper, adherence to the following editorial norms is mandatory::
- Maximum length: 75,000 characters (excluding spaces)
- Font size: 12
- Line spacing: 1.5
Art. 6 -Degree Committee, Outcome of the Degree Grade, and Graduation Proclamation
The assessment uploaded to the graduation portal will be sent to the President of the Degree Program and received by the Degree Committee, which each Degree Program is required to appoint by rotating the faculty members. The Degree Committees will then proceed to sign the records and to the Graduation Proclamation which must take place in the presence of the graduates themselves.
Certificates related to the student’s career can be requested at the Student Secretariat.(L.go Pontecorvo, 3).