Master's degree

Detailed steps for the submission of Master's theses and all necessary forms can be found on the website Examination Unit.

Brief overview of the steps to be followed

1. registration of the Master's thesis with the Examinations Office at the start of work.

2. after completion, the thesis must be submitted in electronic form to the Examination Office. The thesis must be assessed by the supervisor within two months of submission.

3. the guidelines of the Rectorate for safeguarding good scientific practice must be observed and it must be ensured that the online publication does not infringe the rights of third parties. More detailed information can be found on the website of the Examination Office.

4. theses must always be published. If this is not possible for legal reasons, it is necessary to clarify with the supervisor of the thesis and the Dean of Studies whether blocking or partial publication is an option. If a suspension or partial publication is possible, this must be applied for using the form in the Examination Office. Please formulate the reasons credibly and enclose the relevant evidence such as the non-disclosure agreement.

5. complete the forms and send them together with the diploma or master's thesis as a PDF file to the Examination Office. The following forms must be completed:

- Form for the submission of the diploma/master's thesis

- Assessment form up to and including "Topic"

- Recording form for the ULB

6 Only after submission does the Dean of Studies assign the Master's thesis to a suitable person for assessment; this may or may not be the supervisor.

7. the assessment or expert opinion and the registration for the defence must be received by the Examinations Office no later than one month before the defence.

In order to ensure that the forms are up to date, we do not link to them here but refer to the page of the Examination Office. The overview provides a quick overview of the necessary steps for submitting the diploma or Master's defence.

Examination dates

With the exception of an "examination-free window" from 15 July to 15 September, students are free to choose their examination date in consultation with the members of the examination senate. The prerequisite for registering for the defence is a positively assessed Master's thesis.

Examination content

The final oral examination at the end of the degree programme takes the form of a defensio, i.e. in addition to the presentation of the Master's thesis, topics from the Master's thesis in the overall context of the Master's degree programme are the subject of the examination.

The time schedule is not formally regulated and is the responsibility of the examination senate. For a standardised procedure within the faculty, the following procedure is recommended:

• Presentation by the student on the topic of the Master's thesis (20 minutes)
• 30-minute defence of the thesis (15 minutes per examiner or 30 minutes together).

The defence is open to the public.

Examination board

The examination senate is made up of three people who must normally have a teaching authorisation (venia docendi):

First examiner: usually the supervisor of the Master's thesis. The supervisor can also examine if there is no authorisation to teach. A completed doctorate is always required, and the topic of the Master's thesis must fall within the supervisor's field of research.

Second examiner: can be chosen by the student from among the persons assigned to the relevant Master's degree programme who are authorised to teach at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, provided they do not belong to the same field of work as the first examiner.

The registration for the defence must be submitted to the Examination Office, stating the two examiners with their confirmation (signature or e-mail) and stating the room, date and time. You will then receive a list of possible chairpersons whom you can contact (see below).

Chairperson:r:

Students search for a chairperson using the list of persons with teaching authorisation provided by the Dean of Studies, whereby the list is to be processed sequentially. The order of the persons on the list ensures that the chairmanship is evenly distributed among all persons with teaching authorisation at the faculty. The topic of the Master's thesis (Civil Engineering / Environmental Engineering / Mechatronics / Electrical Engineering) is not taken into account when electing the chairperson. The task of the chairperson is to ensure the proper conduct of the examination, including

• Keeping the examination record (sent out by the Examination Office before the examination).
• Opening and sending an invitation link for virtual examinations to the candidate, the examination senate and the examination centre (will be publicly announced).

Deadlines

The registration for the defence should be received by the examinations office 4 weeks before the desired date with an examination date agreed with both examiners (e-mail confirmations from the examiners are sufficient). A shortening of this deadline requires the approval of the Dean of Studies and is associated with the risk that a new date will have to be arranged if no chairperson can be found in time.

2 weeks before the date, the defence must be publicly announced with the examination senate and location. This is done by the Examination Office.

You can find an overview of all the forms required for graduation at Curriculum Forms.

• Forms Master Civil engineering
• Forms Master Environmental Engineering
• Forms Master Mechatronik
• Forms Master Electrical engineering

Or on the website of Examination Unit.

Templates for the formal structure of theses are available at fileshare.