At the point where you have finished (most of) our lectures and exams it is time to read the Examination rules again in order to prepare for the final phase of your studies.
There is no central announcement of thesis topics available. Thesis topics are announced by the institues on their web pages and/or their bulletin boards. You will have to look for a suitable topic and in case you have a preferred institute you may contact the Professor and/or the Ph. D. student being responsible for the respective lecture(s) to ask for a thesis topic. The natural contact to ask for a thesis topic is an institute where you got a good or better very good mark in the repsective exam. Here you can easily prove your interest in the topic.
A mini thesis is not registered in advance but only at the end of the thesis by the supervising Professor directly to ZPA with marks. A Master thesis needs to registered in advance by the supervising Professor directly to ZPA. In neither case the Examination Board is involved. In both cases the multipurpose application form is used. Thesis works may be started at any time and do not fall under the registartion deadlines for exams.
Prior to Mastre thesis registration you will need to provide evidence of 82 CP. In exceptional cases an “Early start” of the Master thesis can be permitted by the Examination Board upon student application using the multipurpose form for applications to the Board. Please note that in any case all fundamental subjects (first semester according to standard study plan) must be passed before Master thesis registration.
Please follow the following outline:
Duration:
The mini thesis consists of approx. 300 hours, i. e. roughly 8 weeks in full time. It has to be carried out within 6 months, with a maximum extension of 6 weeks. Tipp: If you apply for an extension please ask for 6 weeks. Should you submit earlier this is no problem, whereas a second extension is impossible.
Number of copies to be submitted:
A mini thesis is submitted to the internal supervisor. He/she defines the number of copies required. A mini thesis is NOT submitted to ZPA directly, only through the supervisor.
Please follow the following outline:
Duration: The Master thesis duration is 6 months, with a maximum extension of 6 weeks. Tipp: If you apply for an extension please ask for 6 weeks. Should you submit earlier this is no problem, whereas a second extension is impossible. The thesis may be submitted earlier than the deadline but not earlier than after 4 months. Thus, the maximum time frame starting with registration date is 4-7.5 months.
Number of copies to be submitted A mini thesis is submitted to the internal supervisor. He/she defines the number of copies required. A mini thesis is NOT submitted to ZPA directly, only through the supervisor.
A Master thesis at RWTH needs two supervisors, a mini thesis only needs one. Any supervisor must be listed at RWTH administration office (ZHV) as examiner. All Professors of RWTH are by definition examiners as well as all Jülich Professors with affiliation to RWTH (which is the case for most of them, but not all!). You may check if a Jülich Professor is affiliated with RWTH by typing the last name(!) in RWTH contacts. If you find the person there it has an affiliation with RWTH. Any person not being a Professor, e. g. PostDocs, group leaders etc., generally are not listed as examiners with the exception that Professors may appoint PostDocs as Second examiners with limited rights: They may only act as examiners with an appropriate regular examiner (Prof.) going in for the lead.
Other than for the students in the German master courses who are only allowed to do external theses if there is a proven cooperation with the external institute/company students of MatEng have much broader options for external theses. In turn, in order to ensure that the 30 CP assigned to the thesis are equivalent to a regular internal thesis the examination board is stricter about internal supervision. The internal supervisor is responsible for maintaining this equivalence. By definition all regular Profs. of our department AND all Professors involved in teaching in Materials Engineering (International profile), e. g. being located in Jülich, are examiners. Any Professors outside our department are generally external supervisors. There are rare exceptions of Professors with affiliation to two faculties, in this case sentence 1 of this paragraph is valid. You may check which Professors are affiliated with our department of the department´s webpage. The mark is given by both, the internal supervisor and the on-site supervisor. Formally, the directly supervising person (mostly Ph. D. students) is of no relevance.
Please note: There is no rule against one Professor being the supervisor of mini thesis AND Master thesis. However, it is not intended that you do all theses works at the same institute/on the same topic. This will narrow down your academic profile which may be helpful if you want to pursue a career in this specific field but may impede job offers from other related fields.
Upon registration the title(s) in English and German are defined. Even a slight change, e. g. a hyphen introduced, will formally be rejected by ZPA. Thus, a change in title is not an easy task. It requires an application to the examination board and involves the board, ZPA and the host institute. To avoid this tedious work it is, hence, recommended to define a title that is broad enough to cover a wide field and not to be too narrow in the description. In case a title needs to be changed please fill out the respective from downloadable at the department´s webpage, have it signed by yourself and your supervising Prof. and send it to the examination board.
The official date for the end of your study on your diploma will be the submission date of your Master thesis. The presentation date is not relevant (see below). Extensions of deadlines both, for student mini theses as well as master thesis may be granted only once, with a maximum duration of 6 weeks. It is thus recommended to always apply for a 6 weeks extension to be on the safe side. In case you finish earlier this is unproblematic. Extensions need to be applied for using the respective form (see department´s webpage ⇒ downloads) signed by yourself and your supervising Prof. indicating that the reasons for the delay are outside your responsibility!
A student (mini or master) thesis is the personal work of a student during his studies. In turn there is no format required. However, your supervisor may suggest a suitable format and may allow(!) to use the respective institute´s logo (which you have to plly for at the institute). Thus, it is recommended to ask the supersivor for a template.
A mini thesis is unmitted directly to the supervisor. A Master thesis is submitted to ZPA with a minimum of 1 printout. For all Master theses started from 01.10.2025 on a digital reistration and submission through the RWTH Online system is mandatory.
Presentations need to be given in front of the supervising Professor(s). This may be done in person or via video meetings. In case of an external thesis both professors need to be present. Duration of the presentation is 20-45 minutes plus approx. 15 minutes of discussion, depending also on the supervisor´s regulations. The presentation may be carried ou e. g. in a group meeting as long as the supervisors are present in person or by video. Please negotiate the appointment for the presentation well ahead with your supervisor. The presentation date needs to be within the first six weeks after submission. This is for the students´ protection and can be modified if both, the student and the Prof. agrees.
External thesis may be carried out outside our department
In case of a student mini thesis no theses in industry are permitted. Student min theses at any institute of RWTH are possible. A Master thesis can also be done in industry. In any case this requires at first (prior to starting the thesis) an application to the examnination board asking for a permission to do the thesis externally. This is to be submitted via paperless. Thesis supervision is an issue with external theses, see above.
The department needs to offer thesis topics to students of MatEng per definition. Hence, students have the right to get “a topic” but not necessarily the topic you want. There is no right for a student to get an external thesis, nor can any Professor be urged to supervise an external thesis. Thus, there is no such thing like “I secured a Master thesis at company XY” since this will only be possible if you secure Professors willing to supervise it.
A student looking for an internal supervisor for an external thesis should look for a Prof. with an expertise in the field of the intended thesis. In case of doubt please check with the closest Prof. first. In case this Prof. feels unable to supervise the thesis he/she will be able to redirect you to a colleague.
Supervisors of your thesis may issue a so-called 4.0 certificate indicating that you passed the thesis at least with a mark of 4.0. Please note that this certificate may only be issued if the thesis is submitted AND the presentation is held. The examination board will not issue this type of certification, please contact your supervisor.
An external thesis host company may ask for confidentiality of content of the thesis. This can be achieved by a non-disclosure agreemnet between the company and the supervizing institute/Prof. However, that means that the Prof. significantly narrows down his research field without a proper scientific research cooperation on the basis of a student´s work. This may happen but is highly unlikely.
The thesis needs to be officially submitted to Central Examination Office (ZPA) but is not published. The presentation at the supervizing Prof.´s institute may be carried out exclusively with the Prof. alone and the second examiner, if necessary. Thus, there is generally no need for any type of regulations. Should the company insist then this thesis would turn impossible and students need to opt for an internal thesis or for another company.