‘Pivotal but Not a Priority’: Exploring the Process and Affecting Factors of Undergraduate Thesis Writing in China

ABSTRACT Undergraduate thesis writing is widely regarded as a capstone of higher education. Yet most research has examined the quality of the finished thesis and has paid little attention to the writing process and the factors that shape it, especially in English‐as‐a‐foreign‐language (EFL) contexts. This study examined the process of undergraduate thesis writing and its influencing factors among English majors at one Chinese normal university. It framed thesis writing as an academic‐literacies practice and drew on self‐regulated learning to interpret student engagement. A qualitative‐dominant single‐case design was adopted. Data came from 121 senior English majors through a structured questionnaire (111 valid responses), one‐to‐one interviews with 12 students, and their graded theses. The data were analysed through descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis, with triangulation across sources. Thesis writing was pivotal in students' stated beliefs but not a priority in their practice. It was compressed by competing career tasks and undermined by methodological and linguistic difficulties. It was also strongly conditioned by supervisor responsibility, the rigour of institutional management, and students' own self‐regulation. The study argues that thesis quality depends less on isolated writing ability than on the alignment of curriculum, supervision, management and student agency. It concludes with implications for EFL thesis pedagogy and quality assurance.