Theses

Official rules

  • Can be found in the examination regulations of your study program
  • According to the examination regulations (PO)
  • Only professors of the faculty (or staff members who have special authorization) are allowed to hand out a thesis topic, i.e. to be the examiner

When to start?

  • 3-6 months before the planned starting date
  • Look for topics at the institute web pages
  • Contact institutes or departments via e-mail
  • Please do not send emails to all members of an institute or department!
  • Ask several (not all!) departments in parallel for a topic
    • asking only your favorite department may delay your studies in case it does not work out
  • Often on-demand topics possible

Contact

How should I formulate my e-mail request to (hopefully) be successful?

  • Personal details
  • Name
  • Study program
  • Number of semesters
  • Current number of credit points
  • Attach your CV and transcript of records
  • Interests and qualifications
    • Which topics/courses do I / did I like?
    • What are you good at?
    • Which courses did you pass that may qualify you for a thesis at the respective institute?
  • Planned starting date of your thesis
  • Please note: The person who reads that e-mail possibly receives several requests per week and very often he/she may not know you personally. Thus you have to tell him/her everything that may be helpful for the decision process

What if the contact person does not respond?

  • Please wait for approximately 1 week (7 days)
  • Then you can send a friendly reminder

What if you receive a rejection?

  • You can ask whether it is worth waiting for a certain period and them ask again
  • Ask another institute

Theses in industry

  • The examiner who issues the topic has to be a professor (companies cannot give out topics)
  • Contacting potential examiners early is mandatory to discuss/adjust the topic, to involve the external supervisor, to clarify legal issues
  • Topic description
  • Often the description of the topic is fairly generic (e.g. identify and improve best method), i.e., neither the student nor the examiner knows exactly what to do
  • Sometimes thesis topics have lower scientific claims such that it is not sufficiently demanding for the degree you want to obtain