Registering and Submitting Your Thesis

  Copyright: © Martin Braun  

Registration

Before you can register your thesis, we at the ZPA first check whether you meet the admission requirements. In most degree programs, we confirm this on the registration form, which is then further completed by your examiner.

If the registration form is not available for download on the faculty or department website, you will receive it by email from your responsible clerk here at the ZPA. Please contact your ZPA contact person for this. They will also be happy to explain to you exactly how the registration process works for your degree program.

Once we have checked the admission requirements, we will either send you or the supervising chair the registration form by email. This is regulated differently among the degree programs. If the chair of your degree program sends us the registration form directly, please provide us with the necessary contact information in advance. In some degree programs, the registration form must also be signed by the examination board or the occupational field supervisor.

Once we have received the completed and signed registration form, we will register your thesis in RWTHonline. You can then view it there in the "My achievements" tab. Your latest submission date will also be published there.

 

Submission

In most degree programs, you have to submit your thesis to us at the ZPA. You can find out whether this also applies to your degree program in your subject-specific or discipline-specific examination regulations, available for download via the Official Announcements. Usually, the paragraph "Acceptance and Evaluation of the Bachelor's Thesis" or "Acceptance and Evaluation of the Master's Thesis" contains this information.

Please submit the following:

• the number of printed and bound copies specified in your subject-specific or discipline-specific examination regulations
• if applicable, a data carrier with a digital version of your thesis
• a separate (i.e. not bound) Declaration of Academic Integrity
• if applicable, your application for using a logo

If your submission is not complete, we will not be able to forward your work to your examiners. Therefore, until you have submitted the missing documents, your work will remain with us at the ZPA.

There are four ways of submitting your thesis:

Office Hours

If you would like to hand in your thesis in person, you can use our office hours. Please book an appointment via the appointment tool. Please note that we will send your thesis to your examiners by internal email in any case. You may not take your thesis with you and submit it to your examiners in person.

After-Hours Mailbox

You can submit your thesis via the after-hours mailbox around the clock. The submission date will be accurately recorded. Please pack your work in one or more envelopes and indicate the ZPA, including the name of your clerk, as the addressee. Please note that particularly large theses may not fit through the mail slot in one envelope. In this case, please use several envelopes and address them all as described above. If you are approaching it with the Main Building entrance in front of you, the after-hours mailbox is located on the right side, about 20 meters behind the entrance to the Bistro, covered under a glass roof. For directions, see this video.

Submission via Postal Mail

You can also send your thesis via postal mail. Please then pack your work in one or more suitable envelopes and address it to the clerk responsible for you. Please be sure to note that the date of receipt, not the postmark, is what counts when determining whether your submission is on time. Therefore, please allow sufficient postal delivery time.

Digital Submission

August 24, 2022, saw the start of a pilot project allowing students to submit their theses digitally using a new application (DivA). Students of the initially participating programs must now submit their theses in this way. You can find further information on the form of digital submission and transition periods in your course-specific examination regulations under RWTH’s Official Announcements.

Please be aware: Central European Time (CET) applies to the binding submission deadline.

If you will be submitting your thesis digitally, please also note the following:

If you would like to use an RWTH logo for your cover page, the corporate design regulations still apply, and you must upload an application for logo use. For more information and the application, please visit the Logo Usage webpage.

The title of the submitted work must be the same as the one under which you registered the work. If a title change is necessary, please apply to the responsible examination board for approval early on so that the ZPA can still change the title before your submission. Please note that, as a rule, the examiner must agree to the request for a title change.