At the end of the Bachelor studies, each student must write a dissertation. The work amounts overall to 6 CFU, corresponding to around 150 hours of work for the preparation of the dissertation and for its defence.
The written dissertation allows the student to dwell into any topic which is connected to a branch of physics. It consists of an essay based, for example, on the re-elaborated version of a scientific paper or on the participation to data collection shifts or on data analysis.
The dissertation must be written in the style and in the form of a scientific text.
If the document is written in English, the title must be provided in both languages (Italian/English) and the document must include an abstract in both Italian and English (UNIPV Teaching Regulations, art. 38 clause 6 and online instructions)
The supervisor of the Bachelor dissertation can be anyone in the following list
- Permanent Staff Members of the Univeristy of Pavia;
- Fixed Time Professors at the University of Pavia;
- Researchers working for public or private research institutes with which the University has signed an agreement according to the art. 27 of the D.P.R. 382/1980;
- "Cultori della materia" in any of the scientific disciplines FIS/*, nominated by the Department of Physics.
If the supervisor chosen by the student is not affiliated either to the Department of Physics or to Teaching Board of the School in Physical Sciences and Technologies or to one of the research institutes, with which the University has signed an agreement and whose research activities take place within the Department of Physics, then an internal cosupervisor has to be nominated.
Each candidate must apply to the final exam taking into account the deadlines of each session and following the instructions which can be found on the personal webpage on ESSE3.
For each candidate the evaluation committee must apply the rules which were valid on the year of enrollment. These can be found on the syllabus of that year. Observe that the present rules have been first introduced in the academic year 2014/2015.
English Translation of an extract from the current regulation (valid from 2014/2015):
The committee is invited to award the final grade, first computing the average between all grades of the exams, excluding the supernumerary ones, each weighted with respect to the associated CFU and after having subtracted the 12 CFU corresponding either to those education activities with a grade or to those with the lowest grade. The avarage, out of a maximum of 110, is approximated to the closest integer number. To the latter one must add:
- 1 point if the student has obtained at least 42 CFU by the end of September of the first year of studies;
- 2 additional points if the student concludes her/his studies on the third year of enrollment, before the beginning of the classes for the Master's Degree in Physics or 1 additional point if the student concludes her/his studies by the end of December of the same year;
- 1 additional point if the students has passed at least three exams cum laude.
The committee awards up to additional 3 points on the basis of the presentation and the discussion of the dissertation, taking also into account the whole curriculum studiorum, particularly the exams passed cum laude.
If the overall grade is greater or equal than 110, the students is awarded the Bachelor's Degree in Physics with a final grade of 110/110. If the overall grade is greater or equal than 113, the committee can unanimously award the Bachelor's Degree in Physics with a final grade of 110/110 cum laude.