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, free attempts).

Depending on the study objective, various sets of examination regulations are valid concurrently, for example the General Examination Regulations (APO), the regulations for conducting online examinations (OPO), 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

Examinations are important milestones in a degree course. In the examinations, you demonstrate that you have the knowledge and skills required to enter a profession later on. Here you will find an initial rough guide to examinations, final theses and final documents. Many procedures are similar in all degree programs that are subject to the APO. However, details can always be found in the  regulations applicable to your degree program and on the website of the respective school.

Registration

Before you can write your Bachelor's or Master's thesis, you must officially register it.

• Beforehand, you talk to the examiners about a topic and supervision. These are only preliminary discussions.
• Only when you have a fixed topic and a timetable do you have to register the thesis with the Examinations Office. Subsequently, admission is granted. The thesis may not be written without registration and admission.
• You will receive approval from the examination board. The admission will also indicate the deadline for completion.

Title and topic

You can only return your topic once and only in the first third of the processing period.

The title is normally identical to the topic. Minor changes to the title are possible if your first examiner agrees - be sure to discuss this with the Examinations Office.

Admission & Uni-Mail

You will receive official notification of admission to your thesis by email to your university address (@uos.de).

Important: Check your university e-mail regularly, as this is where all official notifications are sent.

Please note: If you are only provisionally enrolled in the Master's program, you cannot be admitted to the Master's thesis.

Extension of the processing time

If you need more time (e.g. due to illness), you must apply to the Examinations Office immediately and provide proof of this. The examination board will decide on your application.

• In the case of illness, the processing time is usually extended by the certified duration.
• The time may be doubled at most. If you need longer, you will be given a new topic. The other attempt is deemed not to have been made.

• Please note: In the event of inability to take an exam due to illness, the examination regulations require expert proof that the health impairment has caused a reduction in performance due to illness. The name of the illness is useful, but not decisive. A simple certificate of incapacity for work (AU) is not sufficient. Here you will find a  form for determining inability to take an exam due to illness (PDF, 158 kB) (in German), which you can have filled out by a doctor.

Submission

You always hand in your work to the examination office - never directly to the examiners.

• Submission: in due form and time, as stated in the letter of admission.
• Pay attention to the opening hours of the examination offices.
• If you send the paper to the examination office by post, the postmark is decisive (i.e. the paper must be sent by the submission date at the latest!)
• The time of submission is documented.

Repetition

You may repeat a failed thesis once - in the same subject (in multi-subject degree programs). To do this, you must re-register within 12 months of being notified that you have failed. Otherwise the thesis will be deemed to have been definitively failed.

Matriculation

Please note that you must be regularly enrolled for the registration and submission of your thesis as well as during the entire preparation period - even if you are repeating your thesis! However, you do not need to be enrolled for the subsequent correction phase. You should therefore pay attention to the  re-registration deadlines if your work extends beyond the end of the semester. If you de-register immediately after submitting your thesis, you do so at your own risk.

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

Assessment/correction time

• Two examiners will assess your work.
• Correction periods: usually 6 weeks (Bachelor), 8 weeks (Master).
• Even if you submit your thesis earlier, the examiners may only start correcting it after the official submission deadline and make full use of the correction time. Plan for this.
• If the two grades differ greatly (in terms of their difference by two or more whole grades), you can request a third examiner. In this case, please contact your examination office.

Declaration of Authorship and use of AI

At the end of your work, you confirm that you have written it yourself (or, in the case of group work, the part marked accordingly) with a Declaration of Authorship. You must sign this page.

Your examiner will decide whether and for what purpose you are allowed to use AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT).

You can find the current template for the Declaration here:

Attempted cheating

All work is checked for plagiarism. Attempted cheating may result in the entire final examination being deemed to have been definitively failed.

Support services

Further information and support is available for writing papers. It is worth taking a look at these pages:

 KI recommendations for action (in German)
 Writing advice / workshops
 Academic writing

Final Documents

Apply for graduation documents

• You can apply for the final documents digitally in HISinOne → Student Services.
• Important note: Please submit the  Form on Stays Abroad (PDF, 1.77 MB) together with your application and fill it out completely, even if you have not completed a stay abroad as part of your studies! This is for statistical purposes and is required for all students.
• You will receive the final documents by post.

If the final thesis is your last examination, you can have the Examination Office confirm that you have completed your studies before the final documents are created - but after the final thesis has been assessed (e.g. for job applications, traineeship).

Duplicates of final documents

A duplicate is a copy of the original and serves as a replacement. In narrowly defined cases, you can apply for a duplicate if

1. the original has been completely or partially destroyed
2. the original has been lost and there is reason to replace it or
3. in cases of certain name changes.

Please note that the creation of duplicates is subject to a corresponding  fee schedule (PDF, 82 kB) (in German). For your specific individual case, please contact the examination office that was originally responsible for preparing your final documents.