The role of academic competences and learning processes in predicting Bachelor's and Master's thesis grades

Writing an academic thesis is an important and complex task and the thesis grade should reflect students' academic competences. The present study aims, firstly, at exploring how Bachelor's and Master's students selfevaluate their academic competences and approaches to learning and whether their evaluations differ from each other. In addition, the study aims at investigating how academic competences and approaches to learning are related to the thesis grades of Bachelor's and Master's students. The data consisted of 1 019 Bachelor's and Master's students, all of whom completed an electronic questionnaire at the time of their graduation. The results imply that Bachelor's students already possess a considerable number of academic competences. It seems that students' organising skills should be supported, especially in the Bachelor phase. Finally, the present study raises the question of what the thesis grade actually measures if its relations to both learning processes and academic competences are questionable.