Examination Office of the Faculty of Humanities

Information on the application for admission to the M.A. thesis


  • The application for admission to the Master's thesis is submitted to the Examination Board for Bachelor's and Master's Degree Programmes of the Faculty of Humanities in accordance with Section 9 (2) of the Framework Examination Regulations for Master's Degree Programmes of the Faculty of Humanities.
  • To register for the Master's thesis please use the form Application for Admission to the Thesis in a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree Programme of the Faculty of Humanities, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen provided by the examination office.
  • The Master's thesis is usually written in the subject. In addition, it is also possible to write it in one of the two module packages "Gender Studies" (the responsibility for this lies with the examination office of the Faculty of Social Sciences) and " Latin Philology of the Middle Ages and the Modern Era", for which there are no separate Master's degree programmes. The prerequisite for this is that they have been selected as a 36 C module package and an additional 6 credits from the relevant field have been brought in. Furthermore, the module package must be related to the Master's subject. The examination board of the Master's degree programme in which the student is enrolled decides on the admissibility of the interdisciplinary combination.
  • The student confirms under point 6 of the application form that the modalities of supervision have been discussed in a personal consultation with their supervisor.
  • Furthermore, they affirm that they have not yet definitively failed any final examination in the same or a comparable degree programme or partial degree programme at a university or equivalent institution of higher education in Germany or abroad.
  • The application must be submitted as a PDF to the member of staff responsible for your subject in the examinations office for final processing (email).

  • The requirements for the registering of the M.A. thesis can be found in the examination and study regulations of your degree program. To get there, please click on the desired degree on the team page of the examination office after the relevant subject, then navigate to “structure” and click on “current and older versions”. The opening page will lead to the study regulations which are containing the examination and study regulations.

  • The candidate suggests a topic to the supervisor for the thesis. Together, they finalise the topic and title for the thesis. An English translation of the title can optionally be added. In this case, this translation will appear instead of the German title on the English-language version of the certificate. (Technical note: Students who are familiar with this software are also welcome to use "LaTeX grammar").
  • The title of the thesis is binding. Any changes (additions, omissions or changes even to individual words) must be notified to the examination office by e-mail by the supervisor before the thesis is submitted.
  • Generally, the thesis has to be prepared in German language. If it is to be written in another language, an application has to be made as per § 15 (16) 1-2 of the General Examination Regulations for Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree Programmes as well as other Academic Programmes at the University of Göttingen (APO), via the examination office to the examination board for Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes of the Faculty of Humanities. Such application is not required, if students are writing the thesis in English or in the language of the subject, for which the thesis is being prepared. This does not apply to German studies.

  • The candidate obtains from one of the authorised examiners of the subject their consent to supervise the thesis as the first reviewer.
  • In addition, the consent of another authorised examiner must be obtained to assess the thesis as a second reviewer.
  • Rejection of supervision: If the student assures that they have not found a supervisor, the examination board will appoint the reviewers and determine the topic of the thesis.
  • Who is allowed to act as reviewer? As per the resolution of the faculty council of June 03, 2009 generally both of the evaluators must hold a doctorate. In exceptional cases examiners who have not a doctorate, can, with their acceptance, take over the second review, if the Master’s thesis being supervised is thematically linked to a course that was held by them, and that was meant among other things to prepare students for a Master’s thesis. In the process, an examiner who does not hold a doctorate should not supervise more than a total of three Bachelor’s and/or Master’s theses in a semester, provided the personnel situation in this subject permits such a restriction. First evaluator and second evaluator should be employed at the university, adjunct professors and those with habilitation are exceptions.
  • External persons (from other faculties or universities, e.g. in the context of interdisciplinary theses) can only be appointed as evaluators if this has been applied for by the managing director of the subject in which the thesis is to be written to the faculty before the application for admission to the thesis is submitted.

  • On the one hand, this applies to students in the study programme History: The requirements according to § 5 of the Examination and Study Regulations of the Master's Programme History have to be proven. Whether they have been fulfilled is checked by the relevant departmental student advisory service.
  • And on the other hand, this applies to students of the study programme Art History: The fulfilment of the requirements according to § 4 of the Examination and Study Regulations of the Master's Programme Art History is checked internally in the examination office.

  • The application can only be accepted if the student gives their consent to the processing of their personal data. The way in which this is done can be found in the data protection declaration for examination administration. Under point 5 of the application form the student gives their consent.

  • The examination office uses the FlexNow examination records to check whether the requirements for admission specified in the examination and study regulations for the degree programme have been met. If the requirements are fulfilled, admission is effected.
  • Students and reviewers are informed about the admission date and the submission deadline via e-mail. Additionally, students can view all data relevant to the thesis in their FlexNow account (title, end of deadline, actual date of submission).

  • The processing time for completing the Master thesis is 6 months.
  • If the deadline is exceeded without reason, then the thesis is assessed with “not sufficient” (5.0).
  • The thesis can be repeated once.
  • Where good cause exists, a reason not attributable to the candidate, the processing time can be extended by a maximum of 6 weeks. Due to the time needed for processing and resolution, the application of the candidate has to be sent to the examination board for Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes of the Faculty of Humanities no later than 4 weeks prior to the submission date of the thesis. Applications concerning an illness can be made during the entire preparation period. Please note that the illness has to be notified to the examination office without delay, i.e. within three days, and must be attested by a medical certificate. An application for extension due to objective reasons requires the consent of the first evaluator. If the impairment of performance requires an interruption of more than 6 weeks duration, the processing shall be discontinued. This will not be counted as a failed attempt. Afterwards, a new admission procedure (with a new topic!) can be applied for at any time.
  • If a student is entitled to compensation for disadvantages in accordance with § 21 (1) of the General Examination Regulations, a processing time exceeding the regular 6 months may be granted. The application must be submitted in good time before registering for the thesis and must be accompanied by a detailed statement from a medical specialist. Further information on compensation for disadvantages: Barrier-free studying
  • Attention graduation date / standard period of study! Of course, you can also upload your thesis to FlexNow before the deadline. Keep in mind that - if the thesis is your last examination in the degree programme - the day of submission determines whether you have remained within the standard period of study of 4 semesters, which is particularly relevant for BAföG recipients. If you submit your thesis on the first day of a new semester (i.e. April 01 or October 01), this will extend the duration of your studies by a whole semester.
  • You should also note that the time at which you can exmatriculate (i.e. after submitting the last examination required for graduation) is also decisive for whether you can apply to the university for a refund of tuition fees.

  • The topic can be - regardless of illness - returned once and only within the first 4 weeks of the processing period. A new topic must be agreed upon immediately, at the latest, however, within 4 weeks. The binding choice of subject already made remains unaffected by the return of the topic. If the current thesis is already the second attempt, the return of the topic is only permissible if no use was made of the return option during the first attempt.

  • The thesis must be submitted in electronic form by the deadline. The digital version is submitted via the menu item "Theses" in Flexnow. Please keep in mind that you still have to complete the upload by clicking on the "Hand in finally" button, because only then will the file be saved in the system with the submission date and forwarded to the examiners for review! The time of upload is decisive for meeting the deadline.

  • Master theses should generally not exceed 80 - 100 pages (text: 1 ½-line, font size 12 pt). However, the recommendations of the subjects/departments and possible individual agreements with the evaluators must be observed.
  • To be submitted or uploaded to FlexNow:
    a) A digital version of the thesis (as editable pdf-file).
    b) During the upload, the candidate makes a declaration that they have written the work independently and has not used any sources or aids other than those indicated (declaration of independence). This declaration is made automatically by ticking a box when uploading the work. Without ticking the declaration of independence the upload is not possible.
    c) Furthermore, in your own interest, you should attach the following statement to the work, which provides information about the extent to which you have used ChatGPT or comparable AI tools:
    “In this thesis, I have used ChatGPT or another AI as follows:
    [ ] not at all
    [ ] to brainstorm ideas
    [ ] when creating the outline
    [ ] to write some passages, altogether to the extent of ...% of the entire text
    [ ] for the development of software source texts
    [ ] for optimising or restructuring software source texts
    [ ] for proofreading or optimising
    [ ] Other, namely: ...
    I declare that I have stated all uses in full. I am aware that missing or incorrect information will be considered as an attempt to deceive.“
  • The thesis should include the following information:
    Title page:
    from top to bottom: Faculty, subject, reviewers
    below that: Title in full wording
    in the centre: “Thesis in the Master degree programme [or: Master’s module package] X to attain the academic degree “Master of Arts” (M.A.) of the University of Göttingen“
    bottom: „submitted on… [date of submission]“, „by [first name and last name]“, „from [place of birth]“
  • Other parts:
    Index
    Bibliography and list of references
  • Attention data protection! Please note that your thesis and related annexes will be saved in the electronic student’s file (ESA). In case you plan to collect and process personal data for your thesis (e.g. audio files, transcripts of interviews) please explain to your interview partners how their data will be used and ask them for a declaration of consent which allows you to do so. Ideally you should anonymize or pseudonymize the data!
  • It is permitted to use the logo of the University of Göttingen.

  • The duration of the assessment of the thesis should not exceed 8 weeks. If it is likely that this deadline cannot be met, the first supervisor and second supervisor as reviewers can obtain a one-off extension of a maximum of 2 weeks by notifying the examination office; the extension must be recorded by the examination office in the examination administration system. (§ 10 of the Framework Examination Regulations for Master's Degree Programmes of the Faculty of Humanities)
  • The reviews are sent to the examination office by the evaluators (by e-mail). If the examiners have made comments in the electronic copies of the thesis, these are also added.
  • For the final grade of the thesis, the two grades awarded by the assessors are averaged.
  • If the difference between the first review and the second review is at least 2.0 or if one assessment is “not sufficient”, but the other is “sufficient” or better, the examination board determines a third evaluator for assessment of the thesis. They can decide in favour of one of the submitted assessments or for an assessment in between. Their assessment determines the grade.
  • In the examinations office, the reviews are archived in the electronic student’s file (ESA).
  • The evaluations of the reviewers and the final grade are released in FlexNow. This means the grade of the thesis is placed on record.
  • After the grade has been announced in FlexNow, students can, upon request (informally by e-mail to the responsible subject advisor in the examination office), view the reviews and - if the examiners have made comments in the paper - the evaluators’ copies online via electronic access.

  • According to Section 9 (5) sentences 3-4 of the matriculation regulations, no examinations may generally be taken during a leave of absence. However, in accordance with Section 10 (5) sentence 5 of the Enrolment Regulations, students who are on leave of absence due to a period of study abroad may be permitted to be admitted to the final thesis. However, the thesis must be submitted in a semester in which the student is no longer on leave of absence.