Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Life Sciences

Theses (bachelor and master theses)

Registration: Theses are registered in your Examination Office. Please use the registration form (see downloads). Please note the prerequisites for registration as well as the editing times and submission deadlines which can be found in your subject-specific study and examination regulations, usually in the annex to the examination regulations (overview of examinations). The subject-specific study and examination regulations can be found here.

Topic and deadlines: If you have completed the application form and submitted it to your Examination Office (including signatures of both examiners), the topic as well as the examiners must be approved by the Examination Board. The confirmed topic will be communicated to you in writing, at which point the thesis completion period begins. The submission deadline can also be viewed in AGNES.

It is not possible to register AND submit your thesis at the same time.

If you are planning to write your thesis at an institution other than Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, this will generally result in different supervision/examination conditions. In this case, please consult your Examination Office for more information.

Who can supervise and/or examine theses? As a general principle, you can refer to the corresponding lists for theses supervision (see "Betreuer-innen-Liste" at the end of the German download list) in your Department. Please note that at least one of the examiners MUST be a "Hochschullehrer*in" (Prof./J-Prof.). 

If you want to be supervised or examined by a person you can not find on the lists, please contact your examination office in time.

Specifications: A template for the cover sheet can be found here. A template for the Declaration of Authorship can be found here. Please note that a general principle of freedom from advertisement is in place at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, meaning no logos of other institutions may be displayed on the cover page. Formal criteria, such as citation method, font size, margin settings, paragraph, etc. are determined by the supervisor.

Submission: The thesis must be submitted in writing (in triplicate) and in addition electronically to your responsible Examination Office. You can send the electronic version by e-mail as a PDF file from your HU account to the Examination Office. It is not necessary to hand in USB sticks or CDs. You can hand in your thesis in person during the office hours of your examination office. Alternatively, you can send the thesis by post. The date of the postmark of the HU Berlin counts when sending the thesis by post! You can also use the night mailbox of the HU Berlin, further information on this can be found here.

Please note that there is a minimum thesis completion period for submitting theses in the degree programmes of the Department of Biology. This amounts to half of the thesis completion period specified in the study and examination regulations. This means that if, for example, 18 weeks are required to complete a thesis, the work can only be submitted to the Examination Office 9 weeks after the topic has been confirmed by the Examination Board.

Defence: Please refer to your subject-specific study and examination regulations to determine whether you need to defend your thesis. The defence can only take place if both examiner reports have been submitted to the Examination Office and the written part has been passed. You should regularly check on AGNES (or in the Examination Office if you have already been removed from the Register of Students) whether your grades have been entered. If this is the case and you have passed the written part, please let us know the defence date you have agreed with your examiners by email from your HU account. Alternatively, the examiners can inform the Examination Office of the agreed defence date. This date is stored in AGNES and is binding.

Extending the thesis completion period: see "Extension of completion periods"

Retakes of a failed thesis attempt: Please note that failed theses and failed thesis defences can be reattempted twice. Attempts must cover a different topic.