Graduation
For admission to the public defence, all the courses relevant to completing your studies—including any supplementary exams—must already have been completed and assigned to the correct modules. If you need assistance, please contact rita.gratzer@univie.ac.at
Submission of the academic thesis
A prerequisite for the submission of the master’s thesis is the approval of the topic and supervision, as well as the submission of the form "Regeln der guten wissenschaftlichen Praxis".
The formal requirements for master’s thesis must be observed. For data protection reasons, no curriculum vitae or affidavit must be included.
Submission procedure
- Start by uploading your thesis on u:space so that it can be checked for plagiarism. Once you have uploaded the document, you will receive an upload confirmation (“Hochladebestätigung”).
- If any textual similarities are detected between your work and other texts, the directorate of studies will examine whether it constitutes plagiarism. Please do not proceed with printing your thesis until you have received feedback (via email to your u:account) confirming a successful plagiarism check. The printed version must exactly match the electronically submitted version.
- After a successful plagiarism check, you must submit the hard-bound copy of your thesis. You will need to present the upload confirmation (“Hochladebestätigung”) for this submission.
Please note: From 05.03.2024, the digital version of the academic thesis has to be submitted via u:space.
First, you need to review and verify the data in u:space that will be printed on the title page. This information is automatically loaded from university’s database and includes your name and academic degrees, as well as details regarding the supervision of your thesis.
Every thesis must contain a German abstract of at least 500 characters. The abstract is a brief summary of the central points of your thesis. Optionally, you can also include an English abstract.
For the title page of the thesis, there are concrete specifications regarding the layout and the data listed. To ensure that your title page is correct in terms of form and content, the system in u:space will create it automatically from your data.
Please do not use a title page you have created yourself in advance, as this will not be accepted during the formal check.
Once the master's thesis has been successfully uploaded, send the upload confirmation together with the submission form to ssc.sozialwissenschaften@univie.ac.at. You will be informed by the SSC about the further procedure (forwarding the master's thesis to the supervisor, submission of the bound master's theses).
Registration for the public defence
The public defence is the defence of the master’s thesis. The examinations take place on site at the department. The examination committee—consisting of the chair, the first examiner (usually the supervisor), and the second examiner—examines the thesis and its scientific environment. The second examiner must be arranged by the candidate from the list of supervisors. After the opening by the chair, the candidate presents for 10–15 minutes (PowerPoint allowed), followed by questions and discussion. After approximately 40–45 minutes, the committee deliberates and announces the grade. Maximum duration: 60 minutes.
Students can reserve a preferred date for the public defence in consultation with their two examiners (email to rita.gratzer@univie.ac.at) as soon as dates become available. The reservation must be made at least 3 weeks before the planned date. You can find the list of possible dates and chairs at the following link. Empty time slots are not available for selection.
The registration for the public defence must be completed no later than 10 days before the date using the form Anmeldung zur mündlichen Abschlussprüfung. This requires that the master's thesis has been assessed.
After uploading the master’s thesis in u:space and subsequently submitting it electronically to the SSC, the supervisor officially receives the thesis for assessment (assessment period: max. 2 months). The assessment must be submitted to the SSC at least 10 days before the planned examination date. Discuss with the supervisor how much time they will need for grading; this will help you to determine the best time to upload your thesis.
After the public defence
You will be informed by e-mail to your u:account as soon as your documents have been completed. This happens around 2-4 weeks after the examination.
You will receive two separate e-mails:
"Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum erfolgreichen Abschluss Ihres Studiums!"
Automatic e-mail, the study program has been closed in the system. The SSC will send you a statistics form, which you must complete and return to the SSC. You will then receive a second e-mail with
"Studienabschluss".
You will receive the officially signed final documents by e-mail and have the option of requesting hand-signed documents from the SSC. It can take up to 6 weeks for the handwritten documents to be issued.
You can register for a graduation ceremony via u:space.