In 1977 teacher education (TE) in Sweden was integrated in the universities and was regulated by the university law (SFS 1977:218). This was also an introduction of explicit demands of a research-based TE, even if also preparation for the professional work also was emphasized. In the higher educational reform in 1992 the final thesis was regulated for 13 professional educations in higher education and for mainly different programs of TE (Råde, 2016). The length of the thesis was not regulated at that time but in the TE reform of 2001 the thesis was given 15 ects (Prop. 1999/2000:135). The reform of 2007, in connection with the Bologna reform, the length of the thesis was elaborated (SFS 1993:100). The thesis in TE in the first cycle, as preschool TE, got 15 ects, and TE in the second cycle, as for primary school TE, got a thesis of 30 ects or two theses of 15 ects each. In the regulation of today the final thesis is called “independent work” and is often understand as a small doctoral thesis (Mattsson, 2008, Råde 2016). During several years there as been a discussion by researchers in Sweden about the orientation of the final thesis in TE. Some researchers emphasise the scientific orientation of the TE (Beach & Bagley, 2013). Other researchers advocate the professional orientation of the thesis (Karlsudd et al., 2017; Mattsson, 2008; Wernersson & Hansen Orwehag, 2016) and some highlights the integration of the two orientations (Erixon & Erixon Arreman, 2018; Råde, 2019). One important factor that has highly influenced the importance of the final thesis in higher education in Sweden was the introduction of the thesis as a quality indicator of scientific quality in the government´s evaluations of higher education (Svärd, 2014). In recent years the final thesis is not the only quality indicator in these evaluations as they are combined with the universities self-evaluations. But still the final theses are quite important and if they are evaluated as having lacking research base the education program receive a rating as having low quality. The use of scientific rigour as a standard for evaluation of TE is problematic in that theses should integrate scientific and professional aspects. If this circumstance is not dealt with in a satisfactory manner the university can lose the right to operate this program. This has resulted in a more clearly focus on the scientific orientation of the final thesis in TE, which can reduce the professional orientation of the thesis. Despite this, ongoing research identifies the role of didactics in final theses, pointing towards predominance of subject-matter and a strong focus on topics related to professional work (Börjesson & Nyman, forthcoming).