Licensing of Final Theses
Rights and obligations regarding the commercialization of computer programs or other copyrighted works are governed by Dean’s Directive SDx2025_02_V01 - Commercialisation of school copyright works of FIT students (login is required to view).
Obligation to Report the Creation of a Student Work
If a student creates a student work in collaboration with a company (e.g., if the thesis assignment is from a company), the student is required to report the creation of the student work. In other cases, the student may report the creation of the student work if they believe it has commercial potential or intends to modify the university’s rights (e.g., open source).
In case of unclear rights between FIT and the student, the student may use the work, but FIT always retains the right to use the student work under copyright law (especially for teaching and scientific purposes).
Further Use of Student Work
FIT distinguishes three possibilities for further use of student work:
1. Commercialization of Student Work
🎯 Purpose: Suitable when commercializing work for a specific company.
🤝 Contract: An agreement is concluded between FIT, the student, and the company.
💰 Costs: Costs for creating the work are covered by the company; individually calculated.
📝 Note: FIT allows postponement of publishing the thesis by up to 5 years if an extension request is submitted at least 30 days before the submission deadline.
2. Waiver of School Rights
🎯 Purpose: Suitable for personal use by the student, a startup, or non-profit collaboration.
🤝 Contract: An agreement is concluded between FIT and the student.
💰 Costs: Costs are covered by the student, individually estimated in the range of CZK 10–20k. The earlier the decision, the lower the cost.
📝 Note: Costs may be partially or fully waived if a non-exclusive license is granted to a non-profit organization.
3. Open Source
🎯 Purpose: Suitable if the work is subsequently made available in public repositories.
🤝 Contract: No contract is concluded.
💰 Costs: No requirement to cover creation costs.
📝 Note: FIT reviews the rationale and comments on the proposed open-source license.
FIT Affiliation
If costs are reduced or waived under 2. Waiver of School Rights and always for 3. Open Source, the work must include FIT affiliation (e.g., in the license, repository README, or “About” section). For 3. Open Source, a link to the public repository with the chosen open-source license must also be provided.
Affiliation looks as follows:
This software was developed with the support of the Faculty of Information Technology, Czech Technical University in Prague. For more information, visit fit.cvut.cz.
Publication of the Thesis
The final thesis cannot remain unpublished. According to Act No. 111/1998 Coll. on Higher Education Institutions, the thesis is published.
Sections of the thesis that allow reviewers and readers to assess its quality must be published. The author must demonstrate functionality to reviewers upon request.
In very exceptional cases, publication may be postponed for up to 5 years (e.g., for security reasons). Such a case must be discussed with the dean. In the event of postponement, a decision document is temporarily uploaded to DSpace instead of the thesis.
In cases of commercialization of student work, FIT allows postponement of public access based on a signed contract.
Responsible Department
Communication and administrative processes for licensing student work are handled by the Office for Cooperation with Industry (SSP).
SSP maintains records of reported student works and their outcomes.
SSP contact: ssp@fit.cvut.cz
Declaration for the Thesis and Document Templates
The declaration for the final thesis is available in the Downloads section via Download.
- Agreement on Commercialization of Student Work
- Agreement on Waiver of the Right to Conclude a License Agreement for the Use of Student Work
- Request for Postponement of Publication of Bachelor’s/Master’s Thesis (The document is not available in EN yet. Contact the SSP department for more information.)
Additional Links
Public Repository
FIT prefers using its own GitLab as a public repository.
Set repository visibility to “Public”.
Other platforms (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) can be used as well, but FIT cannot guarantee open-source compliance in the future.
Open Source Licenses
Examples of open-source licenses, their definitions, and usage can be found at HERE.
Commonly used licenses include:
- MIT, BSD, Apache 2.0
- GNU GPL, GNU LGPL