2. Submitting the Master's thesis

1. Start by uploading your thesis on u:space so that it can be checked for plagiarism. Once you have uploaded the document, you will receive an upload confirmation ("Hochladebestätigung"), which you should sign and send to geographie.spl@univie.ac.at.
2. If any textual similarities are detected between your work and other texts, the study program management will examine whether it constitutes plagiarism. Please do not proceed with printing your thesis until you have received feedback (via email to your u:account) confirming a successful plagiarism check. The printed version must exactly match the electronically submitted version.
3. After a successful plagiarism check and submission of the upload confirmation, you must submit the thesis in duplicate and hard bound to the SSC. Alternatively, you can leave it with the NIG porter in the Geography mailbox.

Please note: From 05.03.2024, the digital version of the academic thesis has to be submitted via u:space. 

Firstly, you need to review and verify the data in u:space that will be printed on the title page. This information is automatically loaded from university’s database and includes your name and academic degrees, as well as details regarding the supervision of your thesis.

Every thesis must contain a German and English abstract of at least 500 characters. The abstract is a brief summary of the central points of your thesis. 

For the title page of the thesis, there are concrete specifications regarding the layout and the data listed. To ensure that your title page is correct in terms of form and content, the system in u:space will create it automatically from your data. Please do not use a title page you have created yourself in advance, as this will not be accepted during the formal check.

Once we have received the upload confirmation and the bound papers, your Master's thesis will be forwarded to your supervisor by the SSC. They have 2 months to assess your thesis. As soon as we receive the grading and assessment back, we will forward it to you together with the registration form for the defense. 

3. Final examination (public defence)

You will receive a form for registering for the final defence together with your Master's thesis report. Fill in all the fields, including the first and second examiners and the chairperson (these three persons form the examination committee) as well as a date agreed upon with all committee members. The examination location is to be left free and will be organized by the SSC.

In principle, the chair - depending on the respective subject area - is taken over by the directorate of studies:

Gudrun Haindlmaier for Humangeography, Spatial Research and Planning
Christiane Hintermann for Economics and Subject Didactics
Robert Peticzka for Physical Geography
Andreas Riedl for Cartography and Geoinformation

The first examiner is always the supervisor of the Master's thesis. The second examiner must be chosen and contacted by you - depending on the field of research, focus of the topic, etc. You can find a list of eligible persons here.

Please submit

• the form for registering the defence
• and the confirmation for the survey UHStat2 of Statistics Austria (Information see below)

to the SSC by e-mail (geographie.spl@univie.ac.at) at least two weeks before the scheduled date of the defence examination.

After reconfirmation of all commission members, you will receive a confirmation of the fixed date including room details from the SSC.

The duration of the presentation is limited to approx. 20-25 minutes (after 25 minutes the presentation will be stopped), followed by a discussion with the members of the examination senate (approx. 20-30 minutes).

Please be sure to send your presentation (with two pages of the PowerPoint presentation on one DIN A4 sheet each) to all members of the committee (chair, first and second examiner) by email before your defensio!