Master Thesis and Completion of the Programme

1. Selection of Supervisor

These supervisors will be available for new thesis projects:

• Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sarah Davies
  
• Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ulrike Felt
• Assoc.-Prof. Dr. Maximilian Fochler
• Fredy Mora Gámez, PhD
• Dr. Christian Haddad
• Dr. Andrea Schikowitz
• Dr. Nina Klimburg-Witjes

Twice per year, the programme director offers a matchmaking between supervisors and students to assure the ideal allocation of supervisors to student topics. Information about this is sent out via the STS student mailing list.

2. Approval of Supervisor & the Topic

Please hand in the following items at the secretariat of the Department of Science and Technology Studies (office hours), or send an electronic version to sec.sts@univie.ac.at:

• 2 copies of the Notification Form, signed by you as well as your supervisor.

• 1 signed copy of the Regulations Relating to Good Scientific Practice

• 1 signed copy of the Record of Exams, with all courses completed so far filled in. (We recommend saving this file on your computer as you will need the complete version later on, in the process of completing the Master.)

• 1 copy of your Research Exposé, signed by your supervisor. 

• You will be notified within 3 weeks (during the semester) by email whether your thesis' topic has been approved.

3. Submission of the Complete Record of Exams

As soon as you have completed all your courses (at the latest 2 weeks before you upload your thesis on HOPLA - step 4), please submit the following documents to the secretariat of the Department of Science and Technology Studies (either as hard-copy, or an electronic version by email).

• a signed copy of the complete record of exams. Please note: All grades must be registered and assigned to the appropriate modules in u:space!
• a copy of your acceptance letter ('Zulassungsbescheid')
• (if applicable) a copy of the official notification of recognition of examinations ('Anerkennungsbescheid')

Also, 1-2 weeks before the date of uploading your thesis, please contact one of the second examiners (please also see item 5. Public Defense / Final Examination) whether he or she would be ready to serve as such.

4. Submission of the Master Thesis

Important information on the timeline:

2 weeks AFTER having sent the complete record of exams to sec.sts@univie.ac.at (contact: Karin Neumann)

1) submit the thesis on 'Hopla' & to the 'SSC', PLUS at the same time contact a second examiner (if not even before updoading), 2) receive the grade, 3) two weeks after grading is the earliest date the defense can take place!
For details see Steps A-D:

Step A

Submit your thesis to the university's electronic submission system HOPLA in order to perform a plagiarism check. The uploaded thesis must be the same as the one submitted in binding. Print out/save a file of the upload-confirmation (needed for the submission of your thesis, see step B). For the formal guidelines please see the forms/download section. 

To ensure the protection of your personal data, the plagiarism check will be performed on the basis of pseudonymized documents. The first 6 pages (containing the cover sheet, acknowledgements etc.) of the uploaded document will be removed automatically and only the remaining text will be forwarded to the external service provider. In order to guarantee an anonymized plagiarism, please - starting with page 7 - check:

• do not include any personal data (like your name or student ID)

• do not include your CV

• do not include your name in the header or footer

Also remove your personal data from the document properties before uploading your thesis,
plus email the abstract of your thesis to sec.sts@univie.ac.at (your abstract will be published on the Department's website). The abstract should not exceed 300 words.

Step B

Submit the following items to the "StudienServiceCenter Sozialwissenschaften (SSC)" by email: ssc.sozialwissenschaften@univie.ac.at (contact & location)

• the confirmation that your thesis has been uploaded to HOPLA, signed by yourself

• the form 'submission of master thesis' (see download section below)

• master thesis: electronic version as .pdf - the same as uploaded (for formal guidelines, template cover sheet, example cover sheet: see download section below)

After the electronic submission: for the libraries please submit two hard-copies of the thesis to the porter at the NIG (Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna), or by postal-mail to: StudienServiceCenter Sozialwissenschaften, Universitätsstraße 7, 6th floor (room A 628), 1010 Vienna.

Step C

The supervisor has 2 months to evaluate your thesis and send the report to the StudienServiceCenter. A couple of days after the supervisor has handed in his/her evaluation, you will receive an email with a scanned copy of the evaluation form containing the grade.

5. Public Defence

Step A

Around the date of uploading your thesis (or even better: 1-2 weeks before), please contact one of the following second examiners whether he or she would be ready to serve as such:

• Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sarah Davies

• Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ulrike Felt

• Assoc.-Prof. Dr. Maximilian Fochler

• Dr. Andrea Schikowitz
  

Step B

If the examiner consents, please agree on the literature for the exam*,

and coordinate a date for the defence/final examination with your supervisor, 2nd examiner, and chair.

The date of the examination must be at least 14 days after the evaluation date of the thesis.

*For students who enrolled in the programme before winter term 2014/2015 the reading list comprises 2 books and 5 articles. For this format, there is a list with recommended literature for all examiners. For students who enrolled in the programme in winter term 2014/2015 or after, the reading list comprises two books. For this format, each examiner has his/her own list of literature.

In both cases, the literature should predominantly be from an STS area other than your master thesis.

Step C

Submit the registration for master's examination form and the examination literature form to the institute´s secretariat (by e-mail to sec.sts@univie.ac.at).

Please read the information sheet about the defence/examination attentively,and consider that the time span between the moment you have handed in the master thesis at the StudienServiceCenter and your defensio can be up to 2.5 months.

6. Acquiring your Diploma

To acquire your diploma, you have to fill in a form of the Statistik Austria, that you will receive by email. Once you´ve filled in the form, you'll receive a confirmation of the statistical data acquisition. You need to send the pdf-confirmation of it to ssc.sozialwissenschaften@univie.ac.at, and will then receive ALL your signed and officially approved diploma-documents by email to your u:account:

• “Bescheid über die Verleihung eines akademischen Grades”

• “Abschlusszeugnis”

• Diploma Supplement (including grade point average)