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Student Success Hub

The Student Success Hub is a service platform application for Aalto staff that brings together student guidance and support activities. The student interface to the Student Success Hub is the digital portal MyStudies. 

If you are not familiar with the Student Success Hub as a system, read more about logging into the system and finding the application at /en/teaching-and-learning/student-success-hub-instructions

Access rights affect what the user sees in the Student Success Hub.

Thesis supervisors/Aalto advisors see the data of those students for whom they are acting as advisors (as thesis advisors/supervisors for a master’s or doctoral thesis, or as academic advisors). 

Through the Home menu, the thesis supervisor can see all the theses they are supervising and look at an individual thesis record in more detail (All Master Theses and All Doctoral Thesis). 

In addition to the students whose theses they are supervising, the programme directors or heads of major can see all the students of their own programme or major and their theses. The 'My Supervisor Thesis List' view shows only those theses that the programme director/head of major is supervising.

In addition to the students whose theses they are supervising, the heads of major can see all the students of their own major and their theses.

LES can see all students and theses.

The Student Success Hub home page (Home) lists all the theses being supervised by the supervisor. You can also view theses by selecting ‘Theses’ in the navigation and then a list of your choice.  The thesis of an individual student is also available in the student's 360 view. 

To open an individual thesis:

1. Go to the navigation and select Home.
2. Select the desired thesis from the list titled All Master Thesis by clicking on the ID code beginning with the letter T, found in the column Thesis Name.  If needed, you will be able to view more theses by clicking on the list name. Programme directors can also see a list titled My Supervisor Thesis List, which contains only the thesis or theses they are supervising.
    

Thesis record

The thesis record brings together the information and tasks concerning a specific thesis.

The thesis record is divided into three sections: the sections A and C show only saved data, while the middle panel B contains all the functionalities, i.e. the middle panel is used to supplement, process and approve data.

A. Basic information of thesis and supervisor and advisor details.

In the left column, you can find the basic information of the thesis.

1. Basic information of the thesis (Basic Thesis Information). The student gives the information in MyStudies after which it becomes visible to the staff through the Student Success Hub. Personal data and data on the rights to study are transferred automatically from Sisu.
2. Thesis supervisor and advisors (Supervisor & Advisor(s)). Here you can see the thesis supervisor and advisors assigned for the thesis.

3. Updating the thesis information on behalf of the student (Update thesis data on behalf of the student). It is important that the student gives the information they are responsible for in MyStudies. In exceptional cases, LES may use this button to open the student's thesis information in MyStudies and update it. No data must be changed without the student's consent.

   B. Operating panel and process view

4. From the top corner of section B, you can open the Chronic view, which shows all the dates concerning the thesis that have been recorded in the system.  Depending on the process stage, other functions may be displayed here, such as ‘Supervisor Acceptance' or ‘Set in Review’, which are related to the supervisor accepting the offer to supervise the thesis.
5. The Status view shows the thesis status (the different statuses are described in item Stages of the Process). When the student or a staff member performs certain functions, the status changes automatically. LES has the opportunity to manually change the status of the thesis through the ‘Mark status as complete’ button. You will find more detailed instructions on the primary use of this function later on in these guidelines. In other situations, contact the MyStudies support at mystudies@aalto.fi, if you need to change the status manually.
6. The middle panel is divided into three menus: Supervisor Reviews, Programme Director and LES Reviews. As a rule, each menu contains only the tasks related to that role in the process.

7. The menus for the different actors are categorised according to the earliest stage to which a task belongs: (A) 'After applying for supervisor approval' – tasks performed once the student has applied to have someone approved as their thesis supervisor. (B) 'After submission for evaluation' – tasks performed once the student has turned in their work for evaluation (C) 'After grading' – tasks performed after the thesis has been approved.

   C. Aalto Staff tool and checklist

8. The Aalto Staff tool shows which Aalto staff (supervisor and thesis advisor) are connected to the thesis. It also shows advisory relationships that have been marked as finished. The Aalto Staff tool enables the supervisor and advisor to be added to the student's MyStudies Success Team.
9. The tasks that have been performed, according to the middle panel (B), are grouped together in the Checklist on the right. They are shown in the Checklist and include reviews (checks) and approvals that are considered important in terms of the process. These are also usually the kinds of tasks that affect which status the thesis is in. For example, the thesis moves from 'Submitted' to 'Evaluation' status once the administrative check has been marked as completed.
    

Approval of the thesis for supervision (supervisor)

The requested thesis supervisor, once marked in the system (whether by student choice or by e.g. the programme director assigning one), will receive an email requesting their acceptance of the task of supervising the thesis. By pressing the email’s ‘Respond to request’ button, the supervisor will be directed to log in to the Student Success Hub and will be brought to the front page.

1. Thesis supervision requests are shown on the right side of the Home page.
2. Choose the thesis.
3. Pressing Next will allow the requested thesis supervisor to process the request for the thesis.
4. The requested supervisor may respond in one of the following ways:
   
   Accept the offer to supervise the thesis 
   At the same time, the supervisor can also approve the thesis topic and the thesis advisors.
   In the schools of technology (CHEM, ENG, ELEC and SCI), the programme director approves the supervisor after the latter has accepted the task of supervising the thesis. In ARTS and BIZ, approval by the programme manager is not applicable as the supervisor's own acceptance of the supervisory role is sufficient. The supervisor is added to the MyStudies Success Team as soon as the student or programme director has given a proposal. If the supervisor offers consultation times via the service platform, the student will be able to book appointments as soon as the supervisor is marked in the system, even before the supervisory relationship has been confirmed.
   
   Decline to supervise the thesis
   The requested supervisor may also, for justifiable reasons, decline to supervise the thesis. In that case, the thesis will be passed on to the individual serving as programme director, who will assign a different person to be the thesis supervisor. In ARTS and BIZ, the thesis will return to the student, who will receive further instructions for finding another supervisor.
   
   Put the thesis ‘In review’ 
   A requested supervisor who does not want to immediately accept or decline the supervision of a thesis (for example, due to wanting to have a discussion with the student first) may go to the Thesis Record and set the status of the thesis to ‘In Review’. The ‘In Review’ button is in the upper right corner of the middle bar of the Thesis Record (see item 4 in the picture about the Thesis Record).
5. In ARTS and BIZ: Once a requested supervisor has accepted the task of serving as thesis supervisor, the thesis status changes to Writing and both the supervisor and student receive an email confirmation.
   
   In CHEM, ENG, ELEC and SCI: When the requested supervisor has accepted the task of serving as thesis supervisor and the director of degree programme has approved it, the thesis status changes to Writing and both the supervisor and student receive an email confirmation.

Approval of the thesis topic and thesis advisors (supervisor)

The thesis supervisor, once having accepted to serve in the role, may at the same time approve the student’s thesis topic and thesis advisors. The supervisor may also choose to give these approvals later in the Thesis Record.

Approval of thesis topic and advisors in the Thesis Record.

1. Open the student's thesis from the thesis list on the home page.
2. Open the Supervisor Reviews tab in the middle panel.
3. Open ‘AFTER APPLYING FOR SUPERVISOR APPROVAL’.
4. You can change the status by clicking the pen icon, which appears by the heading Approve Topic and Advisor(s).
5. Remember to save the changes by clicking Save at the bottom of the page.
    

Once the supervisor has approved the topic and the advisors, the student will be able to change the information in MyStudies only if the supervisor or Learning Services (LES) changes the status to Pending in the Student Success Hub.

The topic is the working title of the thesis; the final title is requested separately when the work is submitted for evaluation. The two need not be the same as long as the student and supervisor have a shared understanding of the thesis’ subject matter and how its range is delimited.

Master’s theses may have two advisors at most. If there is no separate advisor, the supervisor will serve as one. According to Section 10 of the Degree Regulations for Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees, ‘[t]he thesis advisor shall hold at least a master’s degree. In the field of art and architecture, the second thesis advisor may also be some other expert in the field.’ The student provides the information about the advisor's highest completed degree. This information is visible to the supervisor when approving the advisor. 

Students in international double-degree programmes add the supervisor from the partner university as their first advisor.

Changing the topic or advisors (Supervisor/ LES)

Once the supervisor has approved the topic and/or advisor(s), the student will only be able to change the information in MyStudies if the supervisor or LES changes the status of these fields to pending in the Student Success Hub. If the thesis has already been turned in for evaluation and approval, LES can change the information on behalf of the student (contact studentservices@aalto.fi).

Changing the topic or advisors while the work is still in progress:

1. Go to the Supervisor Reviews tab; AFTER APPLYING FOR SUPERVISOR APPROVAL of the thesis record.
2. Change the Approval Status - Topic or Approval Status - Advisor(s) field to pending.
3. Save the information at the bottom by clicking Save.
4. Ask the student to change the necessary information in MyStudies. The student can change the data only when the thesis is in the writing phase, and its status in the system is Writing.
5. Once the student has changed the information, change the status to Approved by following steps 1-3.

Changing the topic or advisors when the work has already been submitted (LES):

1. Go to the Supervisor Reviews tab; AFTER APPLYING FOR SUPERVISOR APPROVAL of the thesis record.
2. Change the Approval Status - Topic or Approval Status - Advisor(s) field to pending.
3. Save the information at the bottom by clicking Save.
4. If the record is already in the Evaluation or Approval phase, change its status step-by-step to Submitted.
5. A button labeled Update Thesis Data on Behalf of the Student will appear in the lower-left corner of the thesis record.
6. Click the button and make the necessary changes to the basic information, save the data, and close the window.
7. Refresh the page (F5) to see the updated information on the Student Success Hub side.

Assigning another examiner (supervisor or LES)

At times, a master's thesis may have other examiners besides a supervisor. In the Student Success Hub, one or two other examiners may be marked for a thesis. Their information can be saved in the Thesis Record, whatever state the process is in, after a supervisor has been assigned (the thesis status being Writing or Submitted).

If the school makes a decision on the examiner, it can be marked in the Thesis Record. For example, the supervisor may enter the name of a proposed examiner into the system; LES then prepares a decision based on this, and when the decision is made, it is marked in the system.

1. Click on the Supervisor Reviews tab in the middle panel of the Thesis Record.
2. Under ADDITIONAL EXAMINER(S) & SENDING EMAIL EVALUATION REQUEST, you may add information on one to two examiners and, if necessary, include information about their approval status, if a decision is being made on them. 

An examiner may be assigned to a thesis only after a thesis supervisor has been approved for it. If the thesis is still in ‘Planned’ status, no examiner may be added.

Sending an evaluation request to an examiner or advisor (LES or supervisor)

When the thesis is in Evaluation status (i.e. the student has turned in the thesis for evaluation and LES has carried out its administrative check), an evaluation request can be sent to other examiners or advisors. The request automatically generates a temporary link to the thesis. The link is valid for 90 days. Answers to the request for evaluation are directed to the sender's email.

1. Open the student’s Thesis Record.
2. Go to the Supervisor Reviews tab.
3. Under ADDITIONAL EXAMINER(S) & SENDING EMAIL EVALUATION REQUEST, there is the option of sending the thesis link with a cover letter to other examiners or advisors.

Please note: Cooperation on these evaluations occurs outside of the system and it is the supervisor who is ultimately responsible for saving the final evaluation in the Student Success Hub on schedule, even if there were other people involved in the evaluation.

Saving the thesis evaluation

When the evaluation is complete, go to the Thesis Record (either through Student Success Hub or by using the button in the evaluation request email you received):

1. Check the content of the maturity essay (thesis abstract); to approve it, click the pen icon and mark the task completed by ticking the check box. You can save the information and continue later if needed.
2. To mark the presentation of the thesis as completed, mark the date of the presentation in the Thesis Presentation Date field.
3. Use a whole number (1–5) when proposing a grade for the thesis.
4. Save the statement as a single PDF in the system. The statement recorded in the system will proceed to decision-making and will be distributed to the student once the thesis has been approved. NOTE! If the statement needs to be changed, delete the old statement and upload a new one. When you submit the evaluation proposal, the fields will change read-only. Please contact LES (studentservices@aalto.fi ) if you still need to change something. The statement should always be uploaded from the Upload your final evaluation here section, NOT directly from the Files section!
   
   Remember to save the information.
5. When all fields of the evaluation proposal have been completed and the information is final, send the evaluation to the approval stage by pressing the Submit evaluation proposal button.

1. The list shows all the theses that are awaiting for the requested person to accept the supervisory role. The list also shows other information on supervisors and on students.

2. When the ‘SupervisorApproval’ status is

   Suggested: The proposed thesis supervisor has not yet accepted the task of thesis supervision so the supervisor cannot yet be approved.

   Accepted: The thesis supervisor has agreed to supervise the thesis and can be approved by the programme director (using the form linked to the finger icon).

   Missing: The student has applied for approval of a supervisor without naming anyone in particular; the programme director can assign the supervisor by clicking on the finger icon.

   Declined: The thesis supervisor proposed by the student has declined to supervise the thesis; the programme director can assign a different supervisor by clicking on the finger icon.

3. The finger icon opens a form that allows processing of the thesis supervisions under the statuses of Supervisor Accepted, Missing or Declined.
4. By clicking on the identifiers that begin with ‘T-’ in the first column, you can see more about the theses, such as information on the thesis advisors, any additional information given by the student, etc.

Changing the supervisor during the thesis process (Programme Director/Major Head, LES)

The supervisor for an ongoing thesis can be changed either by LES or by the programme director/major head. The supervisor can be changed when the thesis status is Writing or Submitted.

The supervisor is changed in the thesis record through the programme director’s menu, under the section Need to change a supervisor. A new supervisor for the thesis is selected via the hand icon. After this, the process proceeds as before when the programme director appoints a supervisor, meaning the appointed supervisor receives a request to accept the thesis for supervision.

Once the new supervisor is appointed, the system will mark the end date for the previous supervisor in the Aalto Staff tool and remove the supervisor from the student’s success team. Similarly, the system will automatically add the new supervisor to the student’s success team.

If the student is clearly starting an entirely new thesis process within the same study right, for example, if the topic is also changing, it may be worth considering marking the current thesis process as completed by changing its status to Renounced. In this case, all approvals and actions related to the specific thesis will be cancelled, and the student can start a new thesis process through MyStudies.