Degree
Before you can officially register for the (final) defense, all subjects must be completed and the dissertation must be officially assessed and graded. After your supervisors have evaluated your dissertation, you can apply for your (final) defense by submitting the form"Antrag auf Abschlussverteidigung" (and the"Stammdaten" if the person(s) of the committee were not previously readers/members of a dissertation committee at the University of Graz) to the coordinator.
Before submitting the form to the coordinator, please get in touch with your two supervisors and ask them for three suggestions for dates when they (and you) could attend the final defense. In other words, please agree with both supervisors on three suggestions for dates and times when the final defense could take place. Send the proposals to the coordinator, who will coordinate the dates with the program director and the dean of studies of the Faculty of Law, as you, your supervisors, the program director and the REWI dean of studies must be able to attend the (final) defense. There must be a few weeks between the submission, the evaluation and the proposed dates for the final defense.
The submission process
Open UNIGRAZonline and go to "My theses" in your business card
- Complete the mandatory attributes (see instructions)
- Please note that the length of the abstracts must not exceed 4,000 characters including spaces.
- Your supervisor will receive an automated notification that the thesis has been submitted and must approve it.
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Attention: The thesis is only considered officially submitted after the plagiarism check!
Plagiarism check
After approval by the supervisor, the plagiarism check is automatically started by the Department of Studies and Teaching.
Once the plagiarism check has been completed, the supervisor will be informed that the thesis has been officially submitted and will be given access to the plagiarism report, which serves as one of the bases for preparing the assessment of the thesis.
The assessment period is 4 months from the date of the plagiarism check. This date is also the assessment date.
Registration
As soon as you can view the assessment of the dissertation in UNIGRAZonline, please arrange three proposed dates with your supervisors (please note: at the earliest two weeks after the assessment of the dissertation) and send them to us via the completed online form "Registration for the Rigorosum and issue of the Rigorosum certificate".
The Rigorosum
The final defense (Rigorosum) is a public, oral examination before the examination committee. At the beginning, the candidate gives a twenty-minute presentation in which he/she particularly addresses his/her results in connection with the dissertation. After the presentation, the candidate is asked questions until all members of the examination committee agree to end the final defense. The candidate is then asked to leave the room to give the committee the opportunity to discuss the evaluation and grading of the final defense. This discussion is not public. The examination board agrees on an evaluation/grading of the final defense according to the Austrian grading system. Once agreement has been reached on the assessment/grading of the final defense, the final result will be announced to the candidate immediately.
Assessment
Once the defense has been completed, the certificate of defense is issued and signed by the Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Law. This can take about four weeks. Please send an application with your current postal address to rewi.studium(at)uni-graz.at using your student e-mail account at the University of Graz. Your diploma (Certificate of Graduation) will then be issued by the Registrar's Office.
