Exams and Master's Thesis

Yes, via Online Portal ZEuS. The registration deadlines are cut-off deadlines, later registration is generally not possible.

The registration is only possible with a valid TAN-number. Generate your TAN-list on ZEuS ► My Studies ►Student Service ► Reports. Registration is only possible within the registration period. For information regarding the registration period, visit the following websites:

• Department of Politics and Public Administration (in German only)
• Department of Computer and Information Sciences
• Department of Economics
• Department of Mathematics and Statistics (in German only)
• Department of Sociology
• Department of Psychology 

Yes, within the registration period via the Online Portal ZEuS.
Important: It is not possible to withdraw from the examination after the registration period.

Students can retake every failed course-related performance assessments once. In general, there is a resit-examination for each exam in April/October. Resit exams should be taken at the next possible examination date. If the corresponding course-related performance assessment is not completed within the next academic year, the right to take these examinations expires, unless the reasons for not completing them in time were beyond the candidate's control.

Excluded from this regulation are performance assessments completed during the course, e.g. grades for intermediate exams, papers or short presentations.

For further information please see official Examination Regulations (§15).

If the student’s performance in an exam retake is yet again graded "fail", the StPA may permit the student to retake the examination a second time if this is deemed justifiable in view of the student's overall performance. In this case, please submit an official request to the MSc SEDS StPA and contact your Program Coordinator (seds.admin@uni-konstanz.de).

A performance assessment is finally failed if the maximum number of exam retakes was failed or the examination can no longer be retaken. If a performance assessment has finally been failed, the entire master's examination will be finally failed.

If you cannot attend an examination due to illness, please proceed accordingly:

A doctor of your choice must exam your inability to take an examination. For this purpose, only the form of the Central Examination Office can be used.

Please note that the form must be filled in completely (particularly, the examination(s) affected, the date and your signature). Please ensure that the doctor signs the form, gives the correct period of the performance impairment and that the form includes the stamp of the doctor’s surgery.

The medical form must be issued on the day of the examination. In the case of prolonged illness, the medical form can be recognised if it is issued before the day of the examination. Medical forms, which have been issued at a later date, cannot be recognised.

For exams from the Department of Politics and Public Administration, you must inform Ms Bozer before the exam begins and forward a medical certificate form immediately (i.e. on the day of the exam) to the examination office (Tel: 07531 88 2341, e-mail: pruefungsverwaltung.polver@uni-konstanz.de.

For exams from the Department of Economics, you must inform Ms Böhler before the exam begins and forward a medical certificate form immediately (i.e. on the day of the exam) to Ms Böhler (Tel: 07531 88 2314, e-mail: pruefungsverwaltung.wiwi@uni-konstanz.de). 

For exams from the Department of Computer Science, you must inform Ms Dutt/Ms Elsner before the exam begins and forward a medical certificate form immediatly (i.e. on the same day) to Ms Dutt/Ms Elsner (Tel: 07531 88 3227 or 07531 88 4413, e-mail: mastercis.inf@uni-konstanz.de).

For exams from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, you must inform Ms Barjasic before the exam begins and forward a medical certificate form as soon as possible to Ms Barjasic (Tel: 07531 88 2559, e-mail: andrea.barjasic@uni-konstanz.de).

For exams from the Department of Psychology, you only need to forward a medical certificate to Ms Dreher (Tel: 07531 88 2147, e-mail: studisek.psychologie@uni-konstanz.de).

For exams from the Department of History and Sociology, you must inform the lecturer and Ms Reinhuber by e-mail before the exam begins and forward a medical certificate form as soon as possible (i.e. on the day of the exam) to Ms Reinhuber (Tel: 07531 88 2526, e-mail: pruefungssekretariat.gessoz@uni-konstanz.de).

Unexcused absence is assessed with the grade 5,0 (fail).

Study requirements that apply to all students can, however, put students with disabilities and chronic illnesses at a serious disadvantage. To offset some of the additional difficulties and impediments students face, we provide academic adjustments.

Further information can be found here.

Procedure:

1. Please, talk to your study coordinator/advisor if you need support.
2. Send an official request to the Examination Board.
3. Attach a medicial certificate to your request.
4. Inform the study coordinator by time about the exams you want to take.

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According to § 19 (9) of the Study and Examination Regulations at least one of the assessors must be Principal Investigator or associated Professor of the Graduate School of Decision Sciences.

Dept. of Politics and Public Administration:

• Peter Selb
• Susumu Shikano
• David Garcia
• Termeh Shafie

Dept. of Computer Science

• Sven Kosub
• Michael Grossniklaus

Dept. of Sociology

• Thomas Hinz
• Maarten Buis

Dept. of Economics

• Ralf Brüggemann

Dept. of Psychology

• Ulf-Dietrich Reips
• Fridtjof Nussbeck

Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics

• Jan Beran

Or associated Professors of the Graduate School of Decision Sciences:

To be found here.

External assessors... 

• have to be university professors
• can only be appointed in well-founded exceptional cases 
• can in principle only be second assesors (Zweitgutachter­*i­­n)
• must be approved by the MSc SEDS Examination Board

How to apply for an external assessor:

1. Talk to the first supervisor (MSc SEDS Principal Investigator) and ask if he/she agrees that an external co-supervision makes sense
2. Send a request to the attention of the MSc SEDS Examination Board 
3. Attach a curriculum vitae and a recent publication list of the potential external assessor to your request

You are welcome to write your Master’s Thesis in cooperation with a company, research institute etc.

However, your two assessors (1. supervisor and assessor, 2. assessor) must be university professors from the University of Konstanz (one of them must be a MSc SEDS principal investigator). An external assessor from a company etc. is not possible. 

Please pay attention to data security issues! 

An extension of the editing time for the Master's thesis by a maximum of 4 weeks is possible, if a student cannot complete the work in the given time frame and the reasons for the delay are out of her/his reach. Please, submit an official request and contact your Program Coordinator (seds.admin@uni-konstanz.de) as well as the Examination Office (pruefungsverwaltung.polver@uni-konstanz.de). The application for the extension of the period of completion needs to be submitted 2 weeks before the submission deadline at the latest.

If the reasons for a delay are related to the topic of your work (for example, problems with the data set, cancellation of an important interview partner), your application must be endorsed by the first supervisor. The examination board forwards your application to the first supervisor for confirmation. Please make sure that your first supervisor is informed about the application and supports it.

In case of illness no application is necessary. Please inform the examination office administration immediately and submit a medical certificate promptly (template see link on the right in the box).

The standards about formal criteria and citation style for the thesis may vary between the individual department chairs. Please, find out more about the relevant guidelines on the chairs' websites or ask your supervisor.

You can apply for a title change of the Master's thesis no later than one week before the official deadline for the thesis. Please submit an official request. Your first supervisor has to agree that she/he approved the new title and therefore, the examination board forwards your application to the first supervisor for confirmation. Please make sure that your first supervisor is informed about the application and supports it.

Please indicate the following data in your application:

• Old title (English)
• New title (English)
• Name and e-mail of your first supervisor

• Number of Copies: Three copies must be submitted by the specified deadline.
• Length: The guidelines for the Master's thesis at the Department of Politics and Public Administration are 50 - 70 pages. Other participating departments have different guidelines. Please inform yourself. 
• Binding: The Master's thesis must be securely bound with a front and back cover, for example, by means of cold adhesive binding. 
• Duplication: A high print quality is necessary for written work. For photocopies, use a high quality photocopier.

In conjunction with your Master‘s thesis you need to collect 3 ECTS (ungraded) for your Master‘s colloquium. 

During the colloquium you present the research design of your Master‘s thesis in front of your peers and first supervisor. Furthermore, you use their feedback to improve, finalize, refine your Master‘s thesis.

Please inform yourself at your respective department about the specifics. The Department of Politics and Public Administration offers specified research seminars/colloquia every semester.

Once you have found your supervisor (Erstgutachter*in) it is very important to clarify the colloquium with him/her at the very beginning.

How to allocate the colloquium?

Your supervisor (Erstgutachter*in) needs to confirm that you have fullfilled the colloquium via e-mail. No form required. Supervisors must send the confirmation to: seds.admin@uni-konstanz.de.

You can apply for reimbursement of (partial) costs for your thesis up to a certain amount. Please submit an informal request with an overview of costs, the type of costs (e.g. access to databases, software licences, travel expenses, etc.) and a justification to seds.admin@uni-konstanz.de.

The department will check whether and how much of your costs might be refundable.

At the Dept. of Computer and Information Science, the final part of studies comprises approximately the last two semesters and consists of the seminar, the project, the Master’s thesis and the colloquium. Normally, the Master’s thesis builds on the project, which is itself very often closely related with the topics of the seminar. That means that with choosing the seminar, you actually already set a direction for your Master’s thesis.

Important: For SEDS students it is not obligatory to do the seminar and the Master's Project at the Department of Computer and Information Science. It is only a possibility to be well prepared for the Master's Thesis.

Further information can be found here.

Important: For SEDS students it is not obligatory to do a Master's Project at the Department of Computer and Information Science. It is a further opportunity to build the basis for their Master's thesis.

To register for the Master's project, please fill out the registration form. This must be signed by you and your supervisor. You will also need to add a time schedule. The deadline for the project is determined by the date you register for it.

Please hand in the complete documents during the registration period at the examination office (PZ 807) or send it to mastercis.inf@uni-konstanz.de.

Further information can be found here.

The registration periods for the Master's project at the Department of Computer and Information Science can be found here.