Master's students are increasingly able to graduate from university by passing an exam instead of writing a thesis. In some fields, students are given the choice, while in others there is still only one option.

At the University of Tartu, for example, exams are an option in around a quarter of the different study programs on offer, while at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), final exams are generally discouraged.

At TalTech, it is believed that engineering specialists must be able to demonstrate their knowledge in a master's thesis. Exams are only used in study programs lasting under two years.

"As a rule, we are talking about a one-year master's program, and in such cases, it is simply not possible to complete a master's thesis within that one year, so final exams are common in those programs. This has also started to happen in applied higher education programs," said Jarek Kurnitski, vice rector for research at TalTech.

"For example, we have one-year master's programs in economics, IT and engineering. What they all have in common is that they are attended by people who already have previous educational and work experience but lack a master's degree. So, they are coming here to further develop themselves. In such cases, this form of final exam works very well," Kurnitski added.

However, if a student completes a bachelor's degree on a course requiring them to pass an exam rather than write a thesis, then does the same at master's level, Kurnitski believes they will not be sufficiently equipped to embark on an academic career, nor to continue on to undertake doctoral studies.

"It is definitely not suitable for doctoral studies and does not provide the experience needed for an academic career or scientific work," Kurnitski said

"And it is certainly not suitable for regular forms of technical higher education either. When we talk about a high school graduate coming to us, studying for five years, graduating as an engineer, and obtaining a professional qualification, the thesis still involves solving a real-life work-related task, which they also supplement with research analysis," he explained.

At the same time, Kurnitski added that the preference for some universities to introduce exams instead of theses may be down to the limited amount of funding in Estonian higher education.

"This may reflect the fact that higher education in Estonia is so underfunded that alternatives like this are necessary. However, we do not see this as an option in technical higher education, as many of our graduates are professionally qualified specialists, who bear a great deal of responsibility, and the university cannot be held responsible if their abilities are not proven by a thesis," Kurnitski reasoned.

"A thesis is very time-consuming and requires around 50 hours of supervision by a professor. In comparison, taking a final exam is naturally a much quicker way to go, and it also takes less of time for teaching staff," said Kurnitski.

The Ministry of Education does not have an overall picture of the extent to which thesis writing has been replaced by exams at Estonian universities. However, the ministry does not see it as a problem caused by lack of funds.

"Starting in 2022, the higher education system has received a significant amount of additional funding, and this is likely to lead to other problems in this area.

When it comes to supervision, the question is whether there are suitable supervisors available for every topic," said Margus Haidak, head of higher education policy at the Ministry of Education.

"Estonia is a small country, so we probably don't have all the specialists we need, and if a student wants to research a specific topic, that can be a very practical problem," Haidak added.

However, at Tallinn University, lecturers are well aware that due to the increased use of AI, master's theses' are becoming a much less suitable way to accurately assess students' abilities.

To mitigate that, exams are not considered a bad option at all. Significant changes to the requirements for master's theses are therefore being considered.

"Considering the amount of aids available, it is definitely not clear that it is reasonable to continue with theses at the current length and format. The defense procedure will also definitely have to change. We have discussed the idea that master's theses will probably become significantly shorter. No longer 40-50 pages, but perhaps only 10 or 15, and the defense procedure will also become significantly longer," said Katrin Poom-Valickis, professor of teacher education at Tallinn University.

"(The defense) is similar to an exam. We actually want to understand whether you really know the subject, whether you can answer these questions substantively, and whether you also understand the limitations of your work and what you would still need to research in order to give your answer," Poom-Valickis added.

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