From the third semester at the latest, students should start planning and carrying out their master's thesis. A mandatory colloquium must be completed in the respective profile area. The master's thesis must be registered via the OEI examination office.

Registration

Once you have found a topic and supervision, you should register for your master's thesis. According to the study plan, this happens in the 4th semester. The processing time starts with the topic issued at the end of each registration month.

The examination office provides relevant information for registering for the master's thesis on its website. Master's theses can be registered in the summer semester until mid-April, mid-May and mid-June, and in the winter semester until mid-November, mid-December and mid-January. The examination office will announce the exact dates (see information on registering for the master's thesis).

In order to register, the registration form must be submitted. To fill out the form you need the topic of your thesis and the signatures of the supervisors and the examination board.

Supervision

Students must independently seek primary and secondary supervision. In principle, the teachers from yor chosen profile area, are responsible for supervising and evaluating your master's thesis. Find out what topics and areas the teachers in the various profile areas work on and visit their office hours.

Emeritus or retired university professors at the FU Berlin are allowed to teach and examine for life. Anyone who has moved to another institution and is authorized to take examinations there can also supervise a master's thesis.

First, you should look for support at the OEI. If no one is found here, the search can be extended FU-wide and then beyond. In individual cases, the examination board can approve external supervision (informal application with CV of the desired person and a justification). However, this option is only available to students who are enrolled in the SPO 2023. At least one supervisor (primary or secondary supervisor) must teach at the OEI. FU employees who do not have teaching obligations (e.g. third-party funded project employees) are not allowed to supervise theses.

Content 

The master's thesis must be written in German or English and should contain approximately 21,000 words. This scope may not be exceeded by more than  (±) 10%. The processing time is 23 weeks.

Extension of deadline

If a student was prevented from processing his or her master's thesis on time due to an acute, temporary illness, the examination board can, upon request, extend the processing deadline by the period of proven inability to take the examination. The reason for the inability to take the examination must be reported to the examination board immediately in writing and substantiated by submitting a medical certificate. A medical certificate is a certificate stating why the student is unable to study or take exams. Neither a certificate of incapacity for work nor a simple note from the doctor that the examinee is unfit to take the exam is sufficient. Rather, the content of the medical certificate must be a description of the health impairment/symptoms and an indication of the resulting effects on performance in the exam. The examination committee decides on the inability to take the examination.

The application for an extension of the processing time, including the original medical certificate, can be sent by post to the examination office or dropped into the examination office mailbox. You will be informed by email about the new submission deadline for your bachelor's/master's thesis.

Submission 

The master's thesis must be sent by email to the examination office (ma-oei@polsoz.fu-berlin.de) by the submission deadline at the latest and only as a PDF file. Students will receive confirmation of receipt by email. The thesis will be forwarded to all reviewers.

Please make sure to state that you wrote your master's thesis independently and did not use any sources or aids other than those specified.

Grading

As soon as both assessments for your master's thesis are available, you can view the result in Campus Management. If you no longer have access to Campus Management, you can request the result by email from the examination office. Failed theses may be repeated twice.