Administrative steps towards your thesis

A clearly defined process must be followed from the start of working on your thesis all the way to submitting and  your defense / final exam:

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Please follow Guideline complete your study programme for the Master’s degree in Applied Geoinformatics (SKZ: 066 856) program

available @: Applied Geoinformatics, Copernicus Master in Digital Earth – Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg (plus.ac.at)
direct link: Guideline complete study programme Applied Geoinformatics _November_2023_English:

in short:

  1. Discuss and mutually agree on a tentative topic with your prospective supervisor.
  2. Register your Master’s Thesis before beginning the thesis on your personal PLUSonline page (‘Visitenkarte’) choose the option ‘PAAV’ to enter your preliminary topic / thesis working title and supervisor and submit. 
  3. BEFORE submitting your completed thesis, completion of all class credits needs to be documented. This is done through a form = ‘Prüfungspass (‘list of finished courses’), for Request for a Master’s Degree Certificate found in the list of forms offered by the Prüfungsreferat / Fakultätsbüro. Carefully complete this form according to your transcript of studies and get it checked with your contact person at the Prüfungsreferat.
  4. Make sure all your consultations with your supervisor(s) are entered in PAAV under the ‘Protokollierung’ tab.
  5. A template for the title page of the Master’s thesis is available for download on the DAS homepage. See Thesis – Guideline Printcenter of the University of Salzburg page four (in Gerrnan)
  6. Immediately before submitting the thesis, enter the final title, an abstract plus keywords under ‘PAAV’ (see above) and a statistical classifier for the most suitable scientific discipline – this e.g. could be 1810 for ‘Geographic Information Systems’.
  7. For submission, upload your thesis in pdf/a format. After checking by your supervisor you will be able to download a version of your thesis – use this to prepare 3 bound hardcopies of your thesis.
  8. Submit this form to nominate proposed examiners for the defense / final exam together with your thesis to the ‘Prüfungsreferat / Fakultätsbüro’.
  9. Subsequently, you will receive an email with another form to schedule your defense / final exam. It is the candidate’s responsibility to schedule an exam date with exam commission members (chair and 2 examiners) and collect their signatures, then again submit this form to your contact person. The defense / final exam is to be scheduled at the earliest three weeks after submitting this form.
  10. Make sure you’re in good shape for your defense. The defense consists of a presentation of your master thesis (8 – 12min), a subsequent discussion and two subject-related oral exams. – good luck 🙂
  11. After passing, you again will communicate with your contact person regarding degree award and certificates, and you will receive information how to register for the (optional) official award ceremony in the University Aula.
This process sounds a bit complicated on first sight, but do not worry, it is much easier than to write a good thesis!