How to write a Master Thesis

Schedule

1. Mid November 2024: You will receive a list of potential master thesis topics.

2. If you already have a topic, submit it with a written agreement by your supervisor that they will supervise your stated topic (email confirmation is sufficient) to the program managers.

3. End of December 2024: Approach the lecturers and make individual agreements with them.

4. End of January 2025: Double check with your supervisor that your master thesis has been registered in the "Betreuungsdatenbank".

5. February 2025: Students who have not reached supervision agreement by February are contacted by the program managers and, after consultation with the lecturers, will be assigned to one of the remaining topics

6. February to June 2025: 

   General Information:

   1) Discuss page limit, word limit, template, etc. with your supervisor

   2) Study carefully the guidelines summarized on:

   https://www.wu.ac.at/en/students/my-program/masters-student-guide/masters-thesis/

   3) Please add the declaration of authorship to your thesis

   Note: the thesis counts for 20 ECTS, this means you are expect to work on your thesis for around 500 hours

7. End of June 2025: Defend your thesis.

8. End of July 2025: Complete and submit thesis.

9. Mid-September 2025: Complete your studies online.

10. ~ November 2025: Graduation Ceremony

 

How can you find a good master thesis topic?

1. You will receive a list of potential master thesis topics. Everyone who teaches in your program can put thesis topics on this list. You can pick any topic(s) from this list. subject to topic popularity and supervisor capacitiy, of couse.
   No need to email supervisors directly, you will have time to chat at the master thesis info session.

2. You really like your industry or research lab topic? Contact your supervisor and ask whether you can extend it / dig deeper in some aspects in your master thesis.

3. You have an idea for your own topic? Contact a possible supervisor and discuss with them.

 

In cases 2 and 3, please make sure that you have an official email by your supervisor in which he or she states that they will supervise your stated thesis topic. This is really important to avoid miscommunications.

When do you need to decide on a topic?

After the master thesis info session. At the info session, we will take you through the master thesis process @WU, and you will have time to chat with supervisors of topics you are particularly interested in. After the session, you indicate your topic preferences in a LimeSurvey. The program managers will help with assigning everyone a topic.

What if you already have a topic?

You only “have” a topic if you have an official email by your supervisor in which he or she states that they will supervise your stated thesis topic. Please forward this email to the program managers so we can make sure that everyone has one, and only one, topic. You don’t need to sign up to LimeSurvey in that case but you might still want to attend the info session to hear what the next steps in the master thesis process are.

What if you have more questions?

Contact the program managers. We will also collect general questions and take them to the master thesis info session.