Academia Stack Exchange is a question and Anybody can ask a question

answer site for academics and those enrolled in

Log in Sign up
higher education. It only takes a minute to sign
up. Anybody can answer

Sign up to join this community The best answers are voted up and
rise to the top

What makes a Bachelor's thesis Ask Question

different from Master's and PhD

theses? [duplicate]
Asked 7 years, 7 months ago Active 5 years, 9 months ago Viewed 66k times

15

Home
8
PUBLIC

Questions
This question already has answers here:
Tags
What are the main differences between undergraduate, master's, and doctoral
Users theses? ﴾2 answers﴿

Unanswered Closed 5 years ago.

TEAMS
All the three types of research revolve around an argument, a thesis. They of
Stack Overflow for
course differ in terms of student level, that is complexity.
TeamsYour
– Collaborate
privacy
and share knowledge But, what makes a bachelor's thesis different from master's and PhD theses
By clicking “Accept all cookies”, you agree Stack Exchange can
with a private group. in terms of procedures of researching given that all of them may follow the
store cookies on your device and disclose information in
samePolicy.
accordance with our Cookie process of research, questions or hypotheses, review of the literature,
methodology, results and discussion?
Accept all cookies
phd research‐process masters research‐undergraduate
Customize settings
Create a free Team
Share Improve this question Follow edited Jan 23 '16 at 9:30
Ooker
What is Teams?
8,115 6 43 108

asked Mar 29 '14 at 8:16

EasternRiver
1,573 5 16 29

13 In a bachelor thesis you are usually not expected to expand the existing body of
human knowledge in contrast to a PhD. Bachelor theses are closer to literature
reviews. – Marc Claesen Mar 29 '14 at 9:08

1 I see what you meant but I'm not really convinced. Concerning the contribution
to human knowledge, I think this depends on whether the thesis is innovative. If
an undergraduate thesis is genuine, it can be published in a respectable
academic journal. In that case, it would expand existing body of human
knowledge. Concerning its similarity with literature reviews, how can it be
similar if the literature review is but a chapter of the thesis? –  EasternRiver Mar
29 '14 at 10:26

5 You are very unlikely to do anything really innovative as a BA, unless you just
happen to be lucky to be working in a very new field, or under a very, very good
mentor. The idea that you're going to make a meaningful contribution to some
well established, famous open problem at 22 is really, really low. – user10636
Mar 29 '14 at 12:00

2 A PhD thesis requires original research, a master's does not required it, and a
bachelor's thesis ... they just do assignments. – Philip Gibbs Mar 29 '14 at 15:25

6 This graphic is a bit instructive: An illustrated guide to a Ph.D. – Matthew G. Mar

29 '14 at 16:37

Show 1 more comment

3 Answers Active Oldest Votes

17

The PhD thesis should be on a much higher level than the Honours/Masters
thesis, offering a contribution to human knowledge that is of a sufficient
level of "significance" to warrant publication in a respected journal.

Significance is highly subjective, and you also do not necessarily have to

publish to be awarded the PhD ﴾sometimes the peer‐review delay means
that they come out afterwards, or there may be some intellectual property
issues that make it beneficial to refrain from publication﴿. It is awarded based
on your supervisors consent and a review of academics in your field. So the
"significance" would probably be judged by them in terms of how much
original work they see as a reasonable expectation at that stage of your
development ﴾first 3 years of serious/committed research﴿. Unfortunately it
also means that some people who probably do not deserve PhD's are
awarded them anyway for fulfilling grunt work for their easy‐going
supervisors.

It is possible that some Honours/Masters thesis might even be more

significant/higher quality than a PhD thesis. Unfortunately, this does not
mean that the submission of the thesis will award the degree that they
deserve. The university may have a policy to upgrade the student's
enrolment if the supervisor senses that such progress is being made.
However, it is impossible to upgrade to a PhD without completing Honours
and I believe nearly every single university has a policy of a minimum period
of enrolment before submission is allowed. A subsequent question that you
may have is how to gain a PhD without enrolling in one, which is another
level of achievement completely.

As for the difference between Honours/Bachelor and Masters it would

depend on your university, but both have no requirement for publication
quality research and are usually small tasks/ideas that are not worth the
supervisors time to think about alone, or involve a lot of labor. In fact, in my
school, many Honours thesis are of a higher level than the Masters, because
the smart Honours students will either graduate into the work force or go
straight into a PhD. The Masters students are usually those who cannot find
a job and are not suited to research. However, I believe some other
universities may require a mandatory Masters degree to start the PhD.

You may get a better idea by looking at some titles/abstracts of completed

theses. The PhD level will be something like a new
method/observation/application whereas the Masters/Honours will be an
application specific set of measurements/simulations or even simply a
literature review to gauge the needs of future work. The word limits are also
typically different ﴾although note that quality is NOT proportional to the
number of words﴿, with PhD at 100K, Masters at 50K and Honours at 30K at
my university.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Mar 29 '14 at 12:00

answered Mar 29 '14 at 11:45

xyz
1,077 11 18

Add a comment
 14

Go back to basic definitions... In history of university degrees ﴾500 years ago﴿

A bachelors degree is about learning existing knowledge. Historically from

the book﴾s﴿ written by the univ staff.

A masters degree, after you have learnt what is already known and in books
in your topic area, is about learning evolving knowledge ‐ that is near recent
and current literature in academic journals and conference presentations.

A doctorate degree is about creating new knowledge by research.

So it is now easy to understand a thesis/dissertation for each degree.

A bachelors degree should be a critique of existing knowledge, often

looking for inconsistencies in view points from different sources and
synthesising arguments or positions in a DISSERTATION ﴿that is you
disserting !

A masters thesis ﴾thesis is Greek for 'I believe'﴿ can be either an assembly of
new knowledge from new published research or simply a critique and
integration. It might have propositions ﴾not hypotheses﴿ that the masters
student offers as a conclusion from bringing together new knowledge from
different sources.

A doctoral thesis is where the author undertakes research, usually collecting

primary new data which is presented as both factual findings and conceptual
findings and thus new knowledge in the form of a new model or theory. Also
possible, is to challenge existing knowledge and show earlier published
knowledge is invalid.

Well that's what they all should be. In practice there is some overlap and
different universities and faculties have their own custom and practice. It all
starts to break down about 40 years ago when a masters degree become
post graduate in time rather than post graduate in level. Thus engineers with
a bachelor degree might take an MBA to make them more employable and
did more a less a bachelor degree in business in 18 months rather than 3
years as they were already a graduate.

But still thinking in the above categories can help students today focus on
the overall agenda.

I have examined over 55 PhD theses. And several hundred masters theses
I have examined over 55 PhD theses. And several hundred masters theses
and I base my approach to assessment on the above.

Prof Peter Woolliams, B.Sc﴾hons﴿, B.A., PhD, Emeritus professor, Anglian

Ruskin College Cambridge, U K

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Mar 29 '14 at 17:59

Prof Peter Woolliams
141 2

Your answer is very clear. However, I have come across many Bachelor's and
especially Master's theses following the processes of research. personally, I am
writing my Bachelor's thesis. I've followed the same of research. Specifically I've
used online ethnography, collected data through participant observation and
interviews, and trying to analyze data through constant comparative method.
My supervisor did not impose this on me, but students have to follow the
processes of research, literature review, data collection and analysis and
discussion, etc. I really wonder if I am doing it wrong. –  EasternRiver Mar 29
'14 at 20:51

1 As I said, many units and supervisor have their local specific requirements, peter
– Prof Peter Woolliams Mar 30 '14 at 10:14

Add a comment

Roughly speaking, there are three levels of tasks:

1. Recitation
2. Application
3. Transfer

For a Bachelor's thesis, you would only expect 1 and 2, that is the student
should do something ﴾e.g. solve a well‐defined problem﴿ with the knowledge
they have aquired during their studies.

For Master's thesis, you would want to have a non‐trivial amount of 3, that is
the student should transfer the competences aquired during studies to new
problems. This usually includes ﴾more﴿ extensive literature research.

A formal difference that ﴾imho﴿ derives from the above is volume; Bachelor's
theses typically award less credits than Master's theses and should thus take
up less time and fewer pages.
Share Improve this answer Follow answered Mar 29 '14 at 14:25
Raphael
1,727 12 22

1 Note that excellent students will often move to 3 in their Bachelor's thesis and
on to independent research in their Master's thesis. That's fair, encouraged
even, but should by no means be required. – Raphael Mar 29 '14 at 14:26

Add a comment

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged
phd research‐process masters research‐undergraduate or ask your own

question.

Featured on Meta

Now live: A fully responsive profile

Please welcome Valued Associates #999 ‐

Bella Blue & #1001 ‐ Salmon of Wisdom

Linked
33 What are the main differences between
undergraduate, master's, and doctoral
theses?

2 Electronics Engineer Doing a Bachelor

Thesis in Physics

2 As a MA Student, there is no requirement

of 'originality' ‐ what does this mean?

Related
31 How to write a Ph.D. thesis Introduction
chapter?

46 How can I improve the effectiveness of my

literature searches?

7 How does one learn research

methodology?

2 Should definition of terms section be

included in the introduction or the
literature review chapter?

2 How could I convince my PhD adviser that

the method, which is provided by him to
me, does not work?

1 Is a Master's thesis considered 'published'?

1 Master's and Bachelor's theses on the same

topic?
 Master's and Bachelor's theses on the same
topic?

1 Is it common in all or most scientific

research areas to look for metrics or
measurable indicators/variables?

41 Frustration with machine learning and deep

learning research

6 How to move from a physics background to

a career in biology research

Hot Network Questions

Why is the sea salinity high in the Mediterannean
and Red Sea and low in Indonesia and Malaysia?

Would there be issues changing out necks

frequently with a bolt‐on?

Would Anthropomorphic Bugs and Crustaceans

Need Armor?

Bijective meets mixed base

How should a robot distinguish between scrap

metal and other robots?

more hot questions

ACADEMIA COMPANY Blog Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram

Tour Stack Overflow

Help For Teams
Chat Advertise With Us
Contact Hire a Developer
Feedback Developer Jobs
Mobile About
Disable Responsiveness Press
Legal
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Cookie Settings
Cookie Policy

STACK EXCHANGE
NETWORK

Technology
Life / Arts
Culture / Recreation
Science site design / logo © 2021 Stack Exchange Inc;
user contributions licensed under cc by‐sa.
Other rev 2021.11.5.40661