Bachelor theses

Bachelor studies and theses at the Department of Experimental Plant Biology follow the current guidelines and rules valid for the Biological Section of the Faculty of Science. The guidelines specify the content, form and the extent of the theses (see the „Pojetí a rozsah BP“ section – in Czech). We strongly encourage the students to read over the guidelines before they start writing up the thesis. The proper form and processing of the thesis is the student´s responsibility to submit her/his thesis of as well as the course of bachelor exams at the Biological Section.

Important dates: 

• For actual dates, please, check our Czech version of this page.

Basic requirements for the bachelor thesis:

• The thesis has to be written out and processed as a review. Experimental data are not required for the bachelor thesis.
• The thesis should be written in Czech. Slovak students can apply to write it in Slovak. English is allowed only in the case the student, the supervisor or the consultant cannot fulfil their roles in Czech properly.
• Typically the main text body should range from 15 to 20 pages and the text should not be shorter than 15 pages. The whole thesis, including figures and all attachments, must NOT exceed 40 pages. The formatting (obligatory) guidelines: 1,5 line spacing; margin width maximum 2,5 cm; at least 70 characters per line.
• The thesis must include following sections: Abstract (max. 2000 words in Czech/Slovak and English), keywords (5-10, in Czech/Slovak and English), Introduction, Review (the main body of the text), References. The thesis may also include an Attachment (tables, images etc.).
• The thesis may include a brief overview of the potential scopes of the research (methods, experimental set-up, approach to assess the data, possible problems or limits) or results of own experimental work.
• The thesis is submitted in printed, bundled form (2 pieces) as well as in electronic form (single pdf file on CD/DVD).

Topics of the bachelor theses:

You may find and sign up for currently offered bachelor theses in SIS.

• The topics for the Bachelor theses as well as the name of the supervisor and possible consultant must be listed in SIS. Here you can also find additional topics which have not been assigned to any student yet. Further theses topics may be discussed individually with a member of the department according to the student´s interest (for research groups and topics as well as members and affiliate members of the department, see the list of members and Research menu).   
• If you are an external or affiliate member of the Department of Experimental Plant Biology and you are interested in offering a topic for Bachelor or Master thesis, please check the validity of your password for SIS. In case your password does not work or if you need to gain new access to SIS, please contact RNDr. Hana Konrádová, PhD (hana.konradova@natur.cuni.cz). 
• Every supervisor can easily announce new project topics for Master theses by himself/herself in SIS/položka "zadávání prací". 
• According to the decision made by the Department of Experimental Plant Biology, it is necessary that each affiliate supervisor finds a consultant within the regular members of the Department who ensures that Faculty´s formal requirements are met.

Instructions for supervisors and opponents of the bachelor theses from the Department of Experimental Plant Biology:

• The supervisor announces the nominated opponent (who agreed preliminarily to act as an opponent) and his contact to RNDr. Hana Konrádová, PhD (Study advisor at the Department of Experimental Plant Biology, Faculty of Science, hana.konradova@natur.cuni.cz) at least a week before the bachelor theses submission deadline.
• The Chair of the Department or RNDr. Hana Konrádová, PhD as his/her deputy officially asks (by e-mail) the opponent to write his/her comments by the date of the bachelor theses submission deadline The official invitation of the opponent to write his/her comments is forwarded to the supervisor.
• It is the supervisor´s responsibility to hand over the printed thesis to the opponent as soon as possible, ideally, on the same day the thesis was submitted.
• Both the opponent and the supervisor submit their comments at least a week before the thesis defence.
• Please use the attached form to complete your comments on the bachelor thesis.
  • Form: Supervisor´s comments for a bachelor thesis -  skolitel_posudekBP.doc
  • Form: Opponent´s comments on a bachelor thesis - oponent_posudekBP.doc
• We kindly ask the supervisors and opponents for short and clear comments on each point of the form (please limit your answers according to the instructions). In bold are the mandatory parts of the comments.
• The comments should be submitted electronically to fyziol5@natur.cuni.cz and hana.konradova@natur.cuni.cz as well as signed original (1 print-out ) at the administration office of the Department of Experimental Plant Biology before the defence (p. Elena Kozlová), Viničná 5, 128 44 Praha 2. The print-out is a necessary part of the defence course report).

Notes:

The response of Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Petr Folka, CSc., vice dean of the Biological Section of the Faculty of Science, for the question: “May be the Bachelor thesis used as an Introduction for the Master thesis?” 

"The Bachelor thesis is a unique authorial body of the text as well as is the Master thesis. The Introduction or even parts of the Introduction of the Master thesis may not be identical to Bachelor thesis. In this case, it would be auto-plagiarism. When you are writing two different texts, in this case, to pursue two different academic degrees, you must complete two different author works. The situation may be also illustrated in the following example: the baker may sell one loaf of bread only to one customer, not to two customers. Moreover, the lack of improvement of the immature Bachelor thesis text would be lamentable, even in the case of similar topics of both Bachelor and Master thesis."

The course of the bachelor theses defence:

• The bachelor theses defence session is lead by the chair of the committee. After introducing by the committee the student gives a 10-12 min talk on his or her work. It is not allowed to exceed the time limit – the chair interrupts and ends up the presentation after 15 minutes.
• The supervisor´s and opponent´s comments are presented. Subsequently, the opponent asks questions one after another and brings up his/her comments. The student´s responses follow immediately. For this purpose, additional slides with answers are possible.
• Public discussion follows – the student is asked questions (supervisor responses only if encouraged by the chair). Estimated total time for 1 student defence is approximately 25 min.

The selection of recently defended Bachelor thesis:

Bachelor thesis defended September 3, 2015: