A report on Thesis and Licentiate (degree)

A dissertation may or may not be required depending on the program.

In Switzerland, the old Licence or Diplom (4 to 5 years in duration) is considered equivalent to the master's degree.

2) University students obtain an American equivalent bachelor's degree in their respective fields after completing four years of education, and a licenciatura licentiate degree completing one more year of studies (and meeting other requisites unique to each institution, it is common to write a dissertation on the professional field), this enables them to work as professionals in their chosen areas; for example, a Profesor en Enseñanza Secundaria ("Licentiate degree in secondary education") enables a person to work as a high school teacher. Currently, the trend is for universities not to offer a bachelor's degree and to offer instead a licentiate's or "ingeniero" degree after five years of education.

In the case of some schools, such as Bates College, Carleton College, Colby College, Middlebury College, Guilford College, Franklin College Switzerland, and larger universities like the University of Virginia, Princeton University, North Carolina State University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, a senior thesis for degrees in the humanities or laboratory research for natural science (and sometimes social science) degrees is also required.

Criteria for research doctorates vary but typically require completion of a substantial body of original research, which may be presented as a single thesis or dissertation, or as a portfolio of shorter project reports (thesis by publication).

3) A ph.d. degree, which replaced the licentiate in 1988, and does not grant the holder the right to the title dr. or doktor.

Since the Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region in 1997 and the Bologna declaration in 1999, higher education systems in Europe are being harmonised through the Bologna process, based on a three-cycle hierarchy of degrees: Bachelor's/Licence – Master's – Doctorate, with the later addition of a "short cycle (within the first cycle)" to cover sub-bachelor's qualifications.

Study at the maestría level takes 1–3 years and mandates completion of a thesis.

The lowest graduate degrees are Magister and Diplom, which typically fulfill a thesis requirement (including final examination and thesis defence) and can be obtained after four to six years of study.

Only medicine and dentistry retain their non-standard degree structure, where the Licentiate (higher than a master's degree, but less extensive than Doctor of Medicine or Dentistry degrees) is the basic degree.

The admission to a Master program (Maestría) in an Argentine University requires the full completion of an undergraduate degree, as well Licentiate's degree as Professorate degree of four to five years duration from any recognized university.

In Austria, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, obtaining the Magister requires at least five years of study including coursework and a final thesis, similar to a Diplom degree.