Teaching is organized in two academic semesters, Winter and Spring, each extending to 13 weeks of lectures followed by 2 weeks of examinations (examination period of January for course modules taught in the Winter semester and examination period of June for course modules taught in the Spring semester). Furthermore, in the examination period of September, students may re-sit in any course module exam, either of the Winter or of the Spring semester.

Students enroll in a number of modules in the beginning of each new academic semester. Attendance of classes for these modules is mandatory, as is the participation in all other educational activities of the program as detailed in the Curriculum and the Syllabus. In particular, it is important that students participate in all research-related events organized by the MSc program, the respective Research Labs or the Department.

Classes are taught according to the announced schedule. Delays beyond 15 minutes are considered as missed class; the student, however, may still attend the class. Students who have missed more than two (2) of the scheduled classes, automatically fail the module and are not allowed to participate either in the regular exam period or the September exam period. Student attendance is recorded by each class instructor who evaluate participation and progress continuously.

If a class is cancelled for any reason, it is rescheduled by the class instructor who announces the new date and time in the website. Students have to closely follow the MSc program website, to keep updated on announcements, news and events.

Student progress and performance may be assessed by written or oral exams, by projects and presentation, by tests and quizzes or in any other way detailed in the course module EVALUATION METHOD tab, in the page of each course module, along with the corresponding grade breakdown. Assessment may take place in midterm, at the end of the term, at both time points or continuously, throughout the semester.

Evaluation details per course module are given in the following table:

Grading is in the 0.0 – 10.0 scale. Grades are given with accuracy of one decimal digit. Passing grade is 5.0 for all modules. For graduation, however, a GPA of 6.0 or above is required. GPA is computed as the average of the final grades obtained by the student in each course module, weighted by the corresponding ECTS units. GPA is calculated with accuracy of two decimal digits. GPA is accompanied by performance ranking as follows:

8.50 – 10.00: Excellent

6.50 – 8.49: Very Good

6.00 – 6.49: Good

5.00 – 5.99: Unsatisfactory

0.00 – 4.99: Fail

In the case of an ‘Unsatisfactory’ or a ‘Fail’ result (GPA less than 6.00), the Department does not confer the MSc degree and title. Instead, the student receives a Certificate of Attendance stating all successfully completed modules or other educational activities, along with their grades and ECTS units.

Instructors file examination results and grades with the Secretariat within two (2) weeks after the end of the corresponding examination period. They also file with the Secretariat all documentation for the grade given, such as written exam sheets, technical reports, project reports, presentations, etc. All these are kept in record by the Secretariat.

The MSc thesis is written and submitted by the student under the research area and research title defined in the respective call. In the case that a modification of the research title (within the same research area) is deemed necessary, so that the new title describes more accurately the research work, an application along with a brief justification has to be filed with the Secretariat by the supervisor. Applications can be filed at any time before the MSc thesis examination procedure. They are forwarded to the Assembly of the Department for consent and become effective immediately afterwards.

MSc thesis is undertaken and carried out strictly on an individual basis. The MSc thesis text should extend to up to 20,000 words approximately. In case of theses that include the development of novel audiovisual or of other digital material or software application, the thesis text can be reduced to 10,000 words approximately. The thesis preparation must follow the plan, stages and schedule agreed between the student and the supervisor.

MSc theses are submitted for examination within the deadline announced by the Secretariat, at the end of each academic semester. Thesis preparation extensions are granted for exceptional reasons such as health issues. Thesis preparation extensions are granted by the CC for whole academic semesters only, after a written justified and documented application of the student.

MSc theses are submitted for examination along with a form signed by the supervisor who states that the thesis is completed and ready for evaluation. The thesis is submitted in digital form, along with any supplemental digital material. A single printed and bound copy is given to the Secretariat for MSc records, after examination, acceptance and grading of the thesis. Thesis text formatting should strictly follow the instructions and template of the MSc program, which is decided by the CC and made available online in the program website. The text should be preceded by an abstract of 300-400 words approximately, along with a set of 4-6 keywords.

An MSc thesis is examined by the tripartite examination committee that includes the supervisor. The student presents and orally defends the thesis to the committee. The procedure is held in public and the date and place are announced in time by the Secretariat. The committee may (i) accept the MSc thesis as it is, (ii) return the thesis to the student along with comments for improvement and set a new deadline for defense, or (iii) reject the thesis.

1. In the first case, the thesis is graded by the examination committee on the basis of the set of defined evaluation criteria and grade breakdown, as detailed in Appendix II of this Regulation. The final grade is the average of the grades given individually by each committee member. After the committee files the MSc thesis grading form with the Secretariat, the student has to upload the thesis in full text in the UNIWA repository POLYNOE, under the MSc program partition, for the grade to become final.
2. In the second case, the whole procedure is repeated for the defense and acceptance of the improved thesis version.
3. In the third case, the Department does not confer the Master of Science degree and title. Instead, the student receives a Certificate of Attendance stating all successfully completed modules or other educational activities, along with their grades and ECTS units.

Accepted and graded MSc theses must be uploaded in full text in the digital repository of UNIWA Library POLYNOE. After the examination committee files the MSc thesis grading form with the Secretariat, the student has to upload the thesis in full text in POLYNOE, under the MSc program partition, for the grade to take effect.

Students should clearly and meticulously cite any external sources of material(s) used in the text of the MSc thesis or in any other text(s) students submit during their studies to fulfill the requirements of the MSc program. They also take special care to place quoted text in quotation marks, so as to differentiate it from their own original text. Quoted text coming from external sources or text similar to already published text(s) of the same or other author(s) should not exceed 20% of the total thesis text, excluding bibliographic references and cover pages. Observation of the above limit is checked by the supervisor on the final thesis text, prior to submission of the text for examination, using the UNIWA-endorsed software tool (Turnitin® or other). In the cases of Technical Reports I and II and of the MSc thesis, the resulting percentage of similarity is forwarded by the supervisor to the other two members of the examination committee.

Plagiarism is considered a grave academic offense. The term covers all cases of

• appropriation or use of the work(s) or part of work(s) of others, either published or not, without the due reference,
• re-use of previous work(s) or parts of work(s) by the same author that have already been submitted and evaluated within a different framework, without clearly stating so,
• quotation of any documentation material without the due reference to its source.

In the unfortunate case that a student commits any of the above academic offenses and after a documented proposition by the CC, the Assembly of the Department may decide to expel of the student from the program. The expelled student receives a Certificate of Attendance stating all successfully completed modules or other educational activities, along with the received grades and ECTS units.