Master's thesis written and defended at BOKU

In order to graduate from your Master Progamme you have to have positive completed all the courses stated according to your curriculum as well as the positive graded Master's thesis.

  • Before submitting the required documents for graduation you will need to submit a list of your courses for this Master Programme to undergo a pre-check at the Study services.
  • Afterwards you will receive an e-mail on what the next steps (e.g. a list of documents to be submitted when registering for the defence, or accreditation/recognition of exams from other universities, etc.) are.

NOTE: The pre-check of the list of your courses can take up to several weeks, therefore you need to make sure to submit it early enough. NOTE: After submitting the documents for the Graduation, there is a legal time-frame of 3 weeks until your Master's thesis defence can take place and your degree can be issued. The official list and forms of the required documents is to be found on the webpage of the Study services. Unfortunately the containing forms on this wegpage are in german only and therefore you find the list also below for guidance.

Graduation Process

You have to register your Master's thesis as soon as the task and the supervisors have been fixed. According to the law the Master's thesis has to be registered before you start working on it.

Please have your Transcript of Records from the home university checked a semester in advance, first at BOKU-International Relations administrative coordinator (BOKU-IR) and then at the Study services (Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, 1180 Wien).
Before you have your documents checked, you have to enter all courses done at the partner university (not BOKU) in your BOKUonline account (one data sheet per course) (info-guide accreditation/recognition)

After fulfilling the requirements of your curriculum you have to submit the required documents for graduating at the Study services (Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, 1180 Wien) at least 3 weeks before your defence.

The Master's thesis defence at BOKU is a presentation and defense of your Master's thesis.
According to the regulations the student coordinates a date for the defence with two university teachers (professors /"habilitated") - one of them being the main thesis supervisor. The chair for the defence will be appointed by the Study services and has to be a member of a different department than the thesis supervisor. Students have the possibility to suggest a chair. The co-supervisor from the home university can take part in the defense via video-conference or can be physically present; the BOKU administrative coordinator can help you with organising the video conference.
The defence (45 minutes) consists of a presentation (20 minutes) and a scientific discussion. Further details can be found in the guidelines.

 
Check further information on required documents for your graduation here