Index

Master’s Thesis

General Information on the Master’s Thesis

  • Students start the Master’s project after having passed all other exams and program requirements: normally a practical work, documented by a written thesis (typically 80 – 100 pages)
  • The project can be carried out at any MAP, CBI, WW chair at FAU. Please contact the chair of your interest in good time to discuss projects available.
  • Projects carried out externally (e.g. in industry) are discouraged and require approval of a MAP, CBI or WW professor (not normally given except for when there is an established collaboration between the professor and the industrial host)
  • Duration: exactly 6 months from the registration day
  • The Master’s Thesis should comprise original and unpublished work (publications can be written based on the completed thesis).
  • Typical contents of the thesis: introduction to the topic, scientific background (relevant theory and recent literature), materials and methods, results and discussion of the results, conclusion, summary and outlook, bibliography
  • Graded (by the supervising MAP, CBI or WW professor)
  • The research and documentation work of the Master’s project cannot be combined with a job as a student assistant (“Hiwi”).

Registering your Master’s Thesis
For the registration of a Master’s Thesis the Examination Office needs to receive an official letter from your supervising professor stating

  1. student name and matriculation number
  2. starting date
  3. topic of the thesis.

The letter needs to be signed by a MAP, CBI or WW professor with “Prüfungsberechtigung”. At the time of registration, all courses and exams “Prüfungsleistungen” need to have been passed by the student. The student’s transcript needs to show 90 ECTS (to be shown by the student to the supervising professor at the time of registration). Your supervisor has to send the registration letter to Ms. Fischer-Willmanns, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Prüfungsamt der Technischen Fakultät, Halbmondstr. 6, 91054 Erlangen. After registration, you will receive information on the further procedure and requirements directly from the Central Examination Office.

If the title of your Master’s Thesis at the time of the registration differs from its title at the time of submission, the title of your supervisor’s grading information to the Examinations Office (address see above) will be used for your transcript of records. For this grading information, there is no official form needed. The letter has to include the following information:

  • matriculation number
  • Your name
  • Final title of the thesis
  • Date of submission
  • Date of presentation
  • Grade of the Master’s thesis
  • Grade of the presentation
  • Signature of your supervising professor

FAQs about the Master’s Thesis
1) Is there a way to start the Master ‘sThesis before all mandatory courses have been passed?
The MAP regulations are very clear on this: at the time of registration of your Master’s Thesis, all mandatory courses and exams must have been passed by the student, which means that you need to have acquired 90 ECTS on your transcript. Actually you would even need to show your transcript to your supervisor to proof that you have fulfilled all requirements before starting with your Master’s Thesis.
You can ask your supervisor if you may nevertheless already start preparing your Master’s Thesis. Officially, you have 6 months time to work on your thesis after you have started. However, you may also hand in your thesis earlier, even shortly after the official registration.

2) When and where will I have to hand in my thesis?
Information will be provided by the Central Examination Office following your registration.

3) In what form will I have to hand in the thesis?
There are certain regulations on that, too. The most important is that the thesis needs to be bonded and includes a short statement, the so-called “Declaration of Authorship” signed by you (not the professor) and stating that you have done the thesis by yourself and all sources are cited. More detail (professor, title etc. pp.) should be included, but this information will be provided by your supervisor. We would suggest to include the logo of FAU as well as the MAP logo on the cover page.

4) What happens if I cannot finish my thesis in time?
In case any difficulties (severe illness, technical problems, refurbishing the lab etc.) occur in these six month, please let the Central Examination Office know immediately. Do not rely on your supervisor only. Regulations on extensions are very strict indeed. The rules are quite explicit. You are requested to apply as soon as a problem occurs for an extension of the thesis period. It is next to impossible to get an extension one week before the deadline! Of course, you may have heard of cases, where that worked out well. However, more often than not, an extension is not granted.
In this respect, we need to point out, that the deadline for handing in the thesis is a very strict one. If you miss the deadline by a day only, the Master’s Thesis counts as not handed in at all and you failed.

5) When will I get my degree certificate?
This is up to the Examinations Office. There, they will issue the official transcript as well as the Master’s certificate. Please take care that both the MAP Office and the Examinations Office will have your current address. This is especially important for those who are planning to leave Erlangen after graduation.

Additional information
Prolongation in case of sickness:
Please send a medical certificate to Ms. Fischer-Willmanns of the Examination Office directly (please copy that certificate to the MAP Office). Ms. Fischer-Willmanns will then add the period stated on the doctor’s certificate to the duration granted for finishing your thesis. Be careful, that your doctor confirms not only the time of the operation/stay in hospital, but the full period of your not being able to work on your Master’s Thesis. Please send the doctor’s certificate together with an accompanying letter stating the above mentioned to:

Kerstin Fischer-Willmanns
L 6 Prüfungsverwaltung
Halbmondstr. 6
CC MAP-Office

Prolongation for other reasons:
Your supervising professor needs to send a letter stating the reasons as well as the duration of the requested prolongation to the Examinations Office.

Nachweis Studienabschluss/ 4,0-Bescheinigung / 4.0 confirmation
For a corresponding certificate a letter of your MAP, CBI or WW supervising professor is needed confirming that he/she already assessed your Master’s Thesis to an extent, that he/she can confirm, that you will at least achieve a 4.0 as grade for your Master’s Thesis in keeping your submission deadline.
With this letter the Central Examination Office (Ms. Fischer-Willmanns) can prepare the requested 4.0-Bescheinigung.

External Master Thesis
Please refer to the information sheet by L1 on allocating topics for and completing external Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral theses. The thesis must be completed under the supervision of a MAP, CBI or WW professor. In certain cases the examination regulations may permit the topic of the thesis to be suggested by a third party – a company in this case. In such cases it must be ensured that the candidate is supervised by a suitable person in the company and that permission is given by a MAP, CBI or WW examiner. Permission must also be given by the examinations committee of the Faculty of Engineering. The precise topic of the thesis and the entire formal process for this element of the thesis remain the sole responsibility of the MAP, CBI or WW professor supervising the thesis. Good collaboration between the MAP, CBI or WW supervisor, the company, and the person acting as supervisor there is essential.

Master-Thesis Printing
Student suggestions for places to print your Master’s Thesis: