Guidelines for the Master’s thesis

If you are unable to complete all or part of the master’s thesis in the described form or within the deadline due to a chronic illness, a disability, pregnancy a/o maternity leave, you may apply for compensation for a disadvantage. Accordingly, the Master's Examination Committee may extend the processing time for examinations or the deadline (paragraph 10a and 10b of the M-RPO).

For this purpose, please contact the Diversity Officer (Diversitätsbeauftragte) of the University of Erfurt, who is supported by Department 1: Study & Teaching (Dezernat 1: Studium & Lehre), or the representative for Studying with Children before proposing the topic of your master’s thesis.

The master’s thesis could be written either in German or English. Should you want to write your thesis in a language other than the above mentioned, you will need to get your first supervisor’s approval before issuing the topic of the master’s thesis (paragraph 21 (6) of the M-RPO). In this case, the master’s thesis must contain a short summary in German as an appendix.

The master’s thesis can also be written as a group thesis if its contribution could be assessed clearly and distinguishably. Further details are regulated by paragraph 21 (4) in conjunction with paragraph 21 (1) of the M-RPO.

Any professor or other person who is authorized to conduct examinations and hold a teaching position within your master's program can supervise the master’s thesis (paragraph 21 (2) of the M-RPO).

You have found a person who does not (regularly) teach at the University of Erfurt, but agrees to review your work? Then you can request the appointment of an external second supervisor. This person must have at least the university degree you are pursuing. Thus, it could be an expert from a company or another university, but their appointment must be justified and well-founded.

Formalities for appointing an external second supervisor

• Clarification of the importance and advisability of appointing an external second supervisor with the first supervisor.
• Submission of a written requestto the M-Examination board (M-Prüfungsausschuss) stating why this external second supervisor would perform this task to the same extent instead of a professor, or another person authorized to examine at the University of Erfurt. This written application shall be co-signed by the first supervisor.
• Submission of the application along with the contact details of the second supervisor as well as the "Application for issuing the thesis’ topic".

The topic can only be returned once and only within two months after the issue of the master thesis’ topic (paragraph 21 (3) of the M-RPO). For this purpose, please send an informal letter with a short justification to the M-Examination Committee (M-Prüfungsausschuss) and submit it via the Dean's Office.

Changing the thesis' topic of the thesis is only possible in justified exceptions. For this purpose, a written request with reasons must be submitted to the Master's Examination Board no later than 4 weeks before the submission deadline (final deadline). This request requires a written statement from your supervisor. Adding an (additional) subtitle is possible at any time without an application. However, this addition will not (!) be shown on the certificate.

Illness

In case you are unable to submit on time due to an illness, you must immediately submit the sick leave notification to Department 1: Study & Teaching (Dezernat 1: Studium & Lehre).  For this purpose, it is mandatory to use the given form.

If the inability to work on the thesis is recognized, the Deadline will be extended according to the respective number of days of illness or delay. After processing the documents received by the Dean's Office for this purpose, students receive a letter with the recalculated deadline.