Examinations

Examination Regulations

Examination regulations contain legally binding regulations on the timing, content and organization of each degree course, e.g. information on the course content to be completed (mandatory and mandatory elective modules) and on examinations (procedures, retakes, no-penalty attempts).

Depending on the chosen degree program, various sets of examination regulations are valid concurrently, for example the  General Examination Regulations (APO) (PDF, 572 kB), the  Regulations for Conducting Online Examinations (OPO) (PDF, 162 kB), degree program and subject-specific examination regulations, and module descriptions. In multi-subject degree courses, there are also interdisciplinary examination and internship regulations.

The regulations applicable to your chosen degree program are located in the degree program descriptions under  Degree Programs A-Z. Alternatively, you can also find the links to the regulations for your chosen subject/degree program on the degree information pages:

Final Theses

Registration

Before you can write your Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis, you must register it officially with the examinations office.

• Prior to registration you should discuss an approximate subject area and your supervision with your examiners. These are only preliminary discussions.
• Registration is carried out at the examinations office responsible for your program. Different examination regulations require you to meet different prerequisites. Please consult the regulations that apply to you.
• The completion period of the thesis begins only with the official assignment of the topic after its registration and approval by the examination committee responsible.
• It is important to develop a timetable and keep certain deadlines (e.g. application for the Referendariat teaching practice placement) in mind. It is recommended to plan in your own writing time, the reviewers’ correction periods and the administration’s processing times. If the thesis is your final piece of work, you should also allow time for the preparation of your graduation documents (see  Requesting graduation documents).

Admission & University Email

Admission to the thesis is sent to you as an official notification to your university e mail address (@uos.de).

Important: You should check your university e mail regularly, as all official communications are sent there.

Note: If you are only provisionally enrolled in a Master’s program you cannot be admitted to the Master’s thesis.

Title and topic

You may return your topic once only, and only during the first third of the completion period. The title is usually identical to the topic. Small changes to the title are possible if your first examiner approves – be sure to coordinate this with the examinations office as well.

Extension of the Completion Period

Reasons that necessitate an extension must be communicated immediately to the examinations office and substantiated. The examination committee will decide about your request.

• If you are unable to take an examination due to illness, the examination regulations require documentation from a medical expert that your condition has caused an illness related reduction in your examination performance. The exact name of the illness is useful but not decisive. A simple sick note (AU) is not sufficient. Here you can find a  Form for Assessing Candidates’ Inability to Take Examinations Due to Illness (PDF, 164 kB), which must be completed by a physician. If the physician diagnoses an illness that compromises your ability to take the examination, then the completion period may be extended – after a positive decision by the examination committee – by the duration of the certified illness.
• Please note: The submission deadline may be extended to a maximum of twice the original completion period; otherwise the examinee is considered not to have attempted the examination and a new examination topic will be assigned.

Submission

Submit your thesis only to the examinations office – never directly to the examiners.

• Submission: must be in the correct form and within the deadline stated in the notification of admission.
• Observe the opening hours of the examinations offices.
• If you send the thesis by post to the examinations office, the postal stamp is decisive (the thesis must be posted no later than the submission day!).
• The exact date and time of submission is recorded.

Retakes

A failed thesis may be repeated once, and only in the same subject (in multi subject programs). The condition for admission to the retake examination is that you should re register within 12 months after receiving your failure notice; otherwise the thesis is considered irrevocably failed.

Enrollment

Please note that you must be regularly enrolled for the registration and submission of your thesis and throughout the entire writing period – also when repeating the thesis! You do not need to be enrolled during the subsequent correction phase. Therefore, pay attention to the  re-registration deadlines if your work extends beyond the end of a semester. Withdrawal from the university immediately after submitting your thesis is at your own risk.

For examinations of students on leave, please consult the  regulations for examinations for students on leave of absence (PDF, 172 kB) (in German).

Review / Correction Period

• Two examiners assess your thesis.
• Correction periods: usually 6 weeks for Bachelor’s theses, 8 weeks for Master’s theses.
• Note on early submission: If you submit your thesis before the official submission deadline, this does not automatically lead to earlier correction or assessment. Examiners may begin correction before the deadline, but they are not obliged to do so. It is also permissible for examiners to start correction only after the official deadline and to use all of the allotted correction period. Consequently, the official submission deadline – not the individual submission date – is the reference point for calculating the correction period. Keep in mind that examiners also need to schedule their correction times; take account of this in your time planning.
• If the two grades differ substantially (by two or more whole grades), you may request a third examiner. If you wish to use this option, you should contact your examinations office.

Declaration of Authorship and Use of AI

At the end of your final thesis you must sign a Declaration of Authorship, confirming that you wrote the work yourself (or, in the case of a group project, the portion that is clearly marked as yours). This page must be signed and bound into the thesis.

hether and for what purpose you may use AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) is decided by your examiner.

The current template for the Declaration of Authorship can be found here:

Attempted Assessment Offenses

All work is checked for plagiarism. Attempts to commit an assessment offence may lead to the entire final examination being declared irrevocably failed.

Support Services

Further information and support for writing academic texts are available. A look at the following pages is worthwhile:

 How to work with AI (in German)
 Writing Center – Workshops and Seminars
 Good Research Practice

Graduation Documents

Requesting graduation documents

• You can find the application for your graduation documents in the  HISinOne portal under the “Study Services” function.
• Important: Together with your application, please submit the  Form on Stays Abroad (PDF, 1.77 MB) and fill it out completely, even if you have not completed a period of study abroad as part of your studies. This is required for statistical purposes and is mandatory for all students.

After successful completion of all of the coursework and examinations required by your program (including the thesis), a document confirming the completion of all coursework and examinations may be issued. This document confirms that all examinations have been completed and assessed while the preparation of the graduation documents is still in progress. The document can be used to bridge transition periods, e.g. with employers, authorities, or for applications for the Referendariat teaching practice placement to cover the time before you can submit your official graduation documents. Please contact your particular examinations office if you need such a document. A so called “clearance certificate” (Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung, also known as a “4.0 certificate”) is not issued.

Duplicate of Graduation Documents

A duplicate is a reproduction of the original and serves as a replacement. In strictly defined cases you may request a duplicate if:

1. the original has been partially or completely destroyed;
2. the original has been lost and there is a need to replace it; or
3. certain name changes have occurred.

Please note that the production of duplicate copies is subject to the applicable  fee schedule (PDF, 82 kB) (in German). For your specific case, contact the examinations office that was originally responsible for issuing your graduation documents.