Thesis Registration

ATTENTION: registration of thesis is allowed after internship is registered and all exams are registered and completed, but it doesn't mean you have to wait till the end to write your thesis, it just just has to be registered after all the other exams

Before your internship ends, remember to acquire a performance review or evaluation from your supervisor or the authority of your position in the company or school.

Note: if you need a bit more time to finish your thesis, you have to know that once thesis is registered, you only have 4 months to finish writing your thesis, so if you need more time, register a bit later to make sure that you'd finish writing on time

Steps for starting and registering your thesis:

1. Thesis Position

Find a thesis position related to PEESE program, a few ways to look for them is described in the post "Internship and Thesis."

2. Two Supervising Professors

Right before or right after finding a thesis topic, start talking to professors and ask them if they are willing to take on the supervision of your thesis topic. It is probably more likely if they are of the same study area as the topic. You need two professors as your thesis supervisors (officially stated on the Studienordnung). You really need two of them. One of them is your primary professor and one as a secondary professor. The primary professor chooses or suggests the secondary professor, OR you find a secondary professor whom you think may help you on the topic and get the primary professor to approve your choice of secondary professor.

Important: If you are working for a company, sometimes they would like a confidentiality (Sperrvermerk) to be signed. Some professors insist on not signing that, some don't care, some only want it to be a limited period of time. Make sure your professor doesn't have conflict with the company policy on confidentiality or if something could be worked out and compromised.
(i.e. My initial Sperrvermerk didn't have date on it and that implied it stays secret forever and ever. My professor wanted the allowance to be around 3 - 5 years. I talked with my supervisor at the company and he agreed to have 5 years as the limit.)
(i.e. A PEESE student had an unlimited confidentiality, his thesis professor was Professor Wozny. But Professor Wozny cooperates with the company policy, so it stayed a company secret.)

3. Miscellaneous Paper Work

Signing forms from the company and the school and turning in some required forms to school or the company as needed. Some may be signing the confidentiality papers, some maybe proof of requirement of thesis and so on (that proof is given by Professor Wozny's secretary).

4. Thesis Registration Form

Acquire a thesis registration form (a sample form) from Prüfungsamt. Fill out what your thesis topic is about on the form, describe the topic. Don't forget to get signatures from your thesis supervising professor (a professor you found) AND who approves your thesis topic (for us is Professor Wozny).

Instructions on filling out the thesis registration form.

Thesis registration steps:
1. Register your internship and get the thesis topic registration form.
(Note: Professor Wozny claims that you can only have one unfinished module open before you submit your thesis registration form, BUT Prüfungsamt actually checks for whether or not I had registered my internship and didn't check for how many modules I hadn't closed. I had all modules registered, but 2 were still open and they didn't want anything else. The same happened to other students, so I think Professor Wozny is wrong on this one. He does get the specifics wrong without checking them first. So if he says that to you, you can basically ignore his claim.)

2. Officially, you are supposed to fill out the form right when you found a topic and started working on your thesis, when you found a supervising professor and a topic to work on. You need to turn in the thesis registration form with only the top part before U. sections filled out.
But for people with thesis duration of longer than allowed by the registration, you should probably wait till the time is right and can't do it the official way. (i.e. I had thesis for 6 months, but according to PEESE 2002 guidelines, once I registered for my thesis, I only have 4 months to complete the thesis, so I should wait 2 months into my thesis before I register)
When you register, you could either personally bring the form to your thesis supervising professor and Professor Wozny to sign it OR the Prüfungsamt would send it off and get the signatures for you. (I didn't know how long Prüfungsamt would take, so I ran the errant myself).

Instructions on filling out the thesis registration form.

4. Once you registered your thesis, you are good for the period of thesis time allowed (4 months for PEESE 2002 Studienordnung), and you'll receive a thesis guidelines informing you about the what you have to include in the thesis copies you are turning in to the Prüfungsamt.

5. You need to have a grade by the end of the thesis, which would be turned in by your thesis supervising professor to Prüfungsamt.

5. Thesis Completion

Structure your thesis in an acceptable format and don't forget to inquire your company supervisor and the professors about what their expectations are. Touch bases with your supervising professors throughout the period to perhaps get a sense of what they expect from you and the changes they'd like you do make.

The hard copy of the thesis sometimes needs to be in different formats if you are working in a company and your thesis supervising professor wants another format. Make sure you fulfill the requirements.
(i.e. The company I worked in wanted my thesis hard copy in their format, my thesis supervising professor wanted it in his format. I asked both sides if it was O.K. to have company copies in one format and professor copy in the other, and they allowed it.)

You need to summit 2 hard copies of your thesis to Prüfungsamt and the copies would be sent to the supervising professors.

6. Thesis Defense or Presentation

At the end of the thesis, you'd have to defend your thesis in front of your supervising professors OR give a presentation. Arrange the time and place with the professors. They'd ask you questions and you'd have to be able to answer them. After the defense, remind your thesis supervising professors to send out your thesis completion with your grade on it.

And after this, you would have finally finished with your PEESE program!! Good luck! You'd have to wait 6 weeks before they have your certificate available. (I heard if you don't pick it up in 6 months, it'll be destroyed, but it's just a rumor...)