Final Defence

Before applying officially for the (Final) Defence, all courses (DQ and SE) have to be completed and the thesis has to be officially assessed and graded. As long as the your thesis has not been graded yet, you must not apply for your (Final) Defence. When all the courses and the thesis have been completed, apply for the Defence per e-mail. Before applying, please contact both of your supervisors and ask them for three proposal of dates when they (and you) could attend the Final Defence. In other words, please agree with both of your supervisors three proposals of dates and time when the Final Defence could take place. Please note the the first one of the dates suggested should not be closer than two weeks onward from the date of submission of the proposals. Send the proposals to the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Law and we will check with the Dean of Studies of the Law Faculty since you, your supervisors and the Dean of Studies of the Law Faculty have to be able to attend the (Final) Defence. After that, we will confirm a date and time when the Defence takes place.

The Final Defence is a public, oral board examination. At the beginning, the candidate gives a presentation of twenty minutes focusing in particular on his/her findings related to the dissertation/thesis. After the presentation, the candidate will be asked questions until all members of the board agree to end the Final Defence. Then, the candidate will be asked to leave the room in order to give the board the opportunity to discuss assessment and grading of the Final Defence. This discussion is not open to public. The board will agree on an assessment/grading for the Final Defence in accordance with the Austrian grading system.  After having agreed on an assessment/grading for the Final Defence, the final result will be immediately announced to the candidate.  

After having completed the (Final) Defence, please submit the form "Application Diploma Certificate" to the Dean's Office of the Law Faculty in order to obtain the Certificate of the Final Defence. After your Certificate of the (Final) Defence has been signed by the Dean of Studies of the Law Faculty which might take up to 4 weeks, it may be collected at the Dean's Office of the Law Faculty. Please note that you have to do so in person, showing a valid photo ID-card as a proof of identity. If a person does so instead of you, he/she has to show a letter of authorization (signed by you) and a valid photo ID-card (of himself/herself). 

Afterwards, your diploma  (Certificate of Graduation) will be issued by the Office of Academic Affairs. Please check the opening hours and prerequistes in advance.