BOKU University, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, organises its doctoral programmes through Doctoral Schools, each with its own supplementary agreement on top of the general rules. That structure matters: several of the requirements below are set per school rather than university-wide, so the guidelines tell you the framework and your school's agreement tells you the numbers.
Which rules actually govern you
Three layers apply, and they are not interchangeable.
The Universitätsgesetz 2002 (UG 2002) is the federal law behind Austrian university degrees, including the obligation to make a completed thesis publicly accessible through the library. BOKU's own Satzung and the curriculum for your programme sit beneath it. For doctoral candidates, the Guidelines for the BOKU Doctoral Schools implement that curriculum and are the document to read closely.
Then there is the layer students most often miss: your programme-specific supplementary doctoral thesis agreement, concluded between you, your supervisor and your Doctoral School coordinator when you are admitted. That agreement sets the minimum ECTS credits and the mandatory courses for your school. A signed copy goes to the BOKU Doctoral Center.
If general BOKU advice and your Doctoral School agreement disagree, the agreement is the one that binds you. Read it when you sign it rather than in your final year.
Doctoral candidature: registration and the advisory team
Admission requires 300 ECTS credits across your prior studies and at least one MSc or equivalent, and your topic has to fall within one of BOKU's fields of competence. If your qualification is not fully equivalent, up to 60 ECTS of additional examinations can be added.
You register the doctoral project itself with the Dean of Studies, through Study Services, using a project registration form. The registration covers the dissertation topic, the degree to be awarded, and the nomination of a supervisor holding full teaching authorisation (venia docendi) who is part of your Doctoral School's faculty. The dissertation may be written in German or English.
An exposé of roughly five pages, approved by your supervisor, goes in with the form. It sets out the working title, project outline, research objectives, questions and hypotheses, theoretical background, current state of knowledge, intended methods and key literature, plus a time schedule, a resource plan and your proposed courses.
Your advisory team must have at least three people. Alongside your supervisor it needs at least one further faculty member of your Doctoral School with venia docendi, and at least one member who is not from BOKU or your school's faculty. At least three must hold a PhD in a related discipline. You are required to report your progress to them in writing at least once a year, and to present your findings at an annual meeting attended by at least two of them. That meeting is documented, signed by everyone present, and lodged with the Doctoral Center.
One procedural detail worth knowing: if the Dean of Studies raises no objection within four months of your proposal reaching the Dean's Office, your doctoral project is deemed approved. If you need to change supervisor or topic, a statement from your previous supervisor must be submitted within six weeks, and the new supervisor is formally appointed within four months.
Coursework rules that catch people out
Your minimum ECTS total comes from your Doctoral School agreement, and BOKU verifies external credits against a workload of 25 hours per ECTS credit. The exclusions are specific:
| Not permitted | Capped |
|---|---|
| Bachelor's courses | Courses involving your supervisor: max 4 ECTS beyond mandatory ones |
| Courses at Universities of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschulen) | Soft skills courses: max 6 ECTS |
| Additional doctoral seminars | Publications recognised as course equivalent: max 5 ECTS |
| Language courses, study trips, "introduction to scientific research" courses, Privatissima |
Publications can be recognised as equivalent to a course, but not if they form part of a cumulative dissertation — you cannot count the same work twice. If your supervisor is not from BOKU, at least 10 ECTS must come from BOKU courses.
Monograph or cumulative dissertation
BOKU allows either, with your supervisor's approval, and the Dean of Studies decides which one you have actually submitted.
A monograph is a self-contained treatment of a single subject: introduction and aims, theoretical framework and methodology, results, discussion and conclusions, summary and bibliography. The guidelines are explicit that it may not consist of chapters that have the character and structure of self-contained journal articles. If your chapters read as separate papers, you have written a cumulative dissertation and it will be assessed as one.
A cumulative dissertation requires:
- At least one publication as first author, and at least one as first author or equally contributing first author where contributions to the methodology are separate
- Publications in journals listed in Web of Science or SCImago
- A Rahmenschrift summarising the research: connecting the research questions, documenting methodology and underlying data where needed, and locating each publication within the overall theme. It may contain unpublished data.
- A declaration of authorship for every publication, listing authors, title, processing stage and the extent of your contribution
- Publication status: at least one accepted for publication, and at least one accepted with minor revisions
The assessors decide whether these conditions are met and must say so explicitly in their assessment.
Submitting the dissertation
You submit two bound copies, each with your name on the spine, plus a digital version to Study Services. One bound copy is forwarded to the Austrian National Library and the other to the University Library.
That library deposit is the UG 2002 publication requirement in practice. If you need to delay it, BOKU allows an embargo of up to five years with good reason, applied for on a form to Study Services; the library then prevents viewing and borrowing for the approved period. Decide this before you submit rather than after.
When you submit, you also indicate your preferred date for the second part of the viva voce, which gives the Dean of Studies time to obtain the evaluations and appoint the examination board. You are entitled to suggest assessors.
Assessment and the defence
Your supervisor cannot be an assessor, and neither can any co-author of a publication in a cumulative dissertation. Other members of your advisory team are eligible. At least one assessor must be from an institution other than BOKU. Assessors are allowed two months to produce a written evaluation with a proposed grade, which is worth building into your timeline.
Once the dissertation is assessed as satisfactory, the Dean of Studies sets a date and constitutes the examination board. The assessors' reports go to the whole board and to you one week before the defence, so you have time to prepare for the specific criticisms raised.
The defence itself:
| Element | Rule |
|---|---|
| Language | English, regardless of the dissertation's language |
| Total length | No longer than 90 minutes |
| Presentation | Approximately 30 minutes |
| Board | At least two examiners with venia docendi plus a chairperson with venia docendi |
| External member | At least one board member from another institution, not part of your Doctoral School |
| Supervisor | Cannot be a board member, but may be appointed to provide additional information |
| Audience | Public; questions permitted after the board has finished, time allowing |
Every board member must be present throughout. You have the right to suggest who sits on it.
The board assesses your presentation skills, ability to explain your own work, knowledge in the core subject and in associated areas, how you answer questions, your argumentation in discussion, and how you handle the critical points the assessors raised.
Your overall doctoral grade is weighted: examination subjects 25%, the dissertation 50%, and the first part of the viva voce 25%. All parts must be passed, or the overall result is a fail.
Master's theses: expect institute-level rules
This is where BOKU differs most from universities that publish one central formatting standard. At master's level, the only university-wide formal regulation concerns the organisation of the title page. Everything else — length, font, spacing, margins, citation style, structure — is set by your institute.
Those institute rules are real and they differ. The Institute of Silviculture guideline runs to eleven pages covering the opening protocol, supervision arrangements and submission process, while other institutes publish their own separate guidance with different expectations on length and citation. One institute's requirement is not evidence of another's.
Ask your institute for its current master's thesis guideline at your first supervision meeting, and treat anything you find on a general BOKU page as background rather than a rule.
What does apply across the board: you register the master's thesis with the BOKU registration form before you start work on it, not once it is underway. The thesis must contain an affidavit confirming good scientific practice, signed by hand, referencing the guidelines of the Austrian Agency for Research Integrity (OeAWI). Bound copies go to Study Services, stiffly bound with your first and last names on the spine. The application deadline for the Defensio is three weeks.
Academic integrity
BOKU's affidavit is not a formality. It is a signed declaration that you followed good scientific practice, and it references the OeAWI guidelines, which cover authorship, data handling and citation. For cumulative dissertations, the declaration of authorship for each publication is where your actual contribution is recorded, and assessors read it.
If you are using AI tools at any stage, ask your supervisor and your Doctoral School what is currently acceptable and what must be disclosed. BOKU's doctoral guidelines predate the current generation of these tools, so the absence of a rule in them should not be read as permission.
Pre-submission checklist
- Doctoral project registered, with exposé approved by my supervisor
- Advisory team of at least three, including one member from outside BOKU
- Annual progress meeting documented and signed, lodged with the Doctoral Center
- ECTS minimum met per my Doctoral School agreement, within the course exclusions
- Decided monograph or cumulative, and my chapter structure matches that choice
- For cumulative: publication statuses met, Rahmenschrift written, declaration of authorship per paper
- Preferred defence date indicated at submission
- Two bound copies with name on spine, plus digital version, to Study Services
- Embargo form submitted if I need one, before submission
- Affidavit of good scientific practice signed by hand
- Prepared to defend in English within 90 minutes, with a 30-minute presentation
Where to get help
Your supervisor and Doctoral School coordinator come first for anything about scope, methodology or your school's specific requirements. The BOKU Doctoral Center holds your agreement, registration and progress documentation. Study Services handles submission, the embargo form and the defence date. Your institute secretariat is the right place to ask for the master's thesis guideline that applies to you.
If the writing itself is where you are stuck rather than the regulations, our thesis writing support works chapter by chapter, and the same applies to a research paper you are preparing for publication as part of a cumulative dissertation.
