Three documents decide almost everything about a thesis at the University of Vienna. The federal Universitätsgesetz 2002 (UG 2002) requires the finished work to be deposited and made accessible through the university library. The studienrechtlicher Teil der Satzung, the study-law section of the University's own statutes, sets assessment periods, the shape of the Defensio and what happens when good scientific practice is breached. And the Verordnung über die Formvorschriften bei der Einreichung wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten, the statutory order on formal requirements, governs the file you upload and the book you hand in.
Below those sits your Curriculum, the programme-specific study plan. Where your curriculum or your StudienServiceCenter (SSC) says something more specific than this guide, the curriculum wins. That is not a disclaimer, it is how Austrian study law is built.
Agreeing the topic and finding a supervisor
For a Diplomarbeit or Masterarbeit the topic is set im Einvernehmen zwischen Studierenden und Betreuer*innen, by mutual agreement between you and your supervisor. One rule from that page is worth taking seriously at the planning stage: the task must be designed so that completing it within six months is feasible. If your proposed scope needs eighteen months, that is a signal to narrow the question, not to work faster.
Supervision can be taken by university professors, habilitated staff, associate professors and assistant professors. If you cannot find a supervisor, the Studienprogrammleitung assigns one. Co-supervision (Mitbetreuung) by a staff member holding a doctorate is possible once topic and supervision are settled, and is approved by the vice-dean for teaching.
Doctoral candidates work to a different rhythm. You conclude a Dissertationsvereinbarung (doctoral agreement), write an Exposé setting out the project and the work plan, and present the project publicly at the faculty by the end of the first year of study. Annual progress reports then go to your SSC.
Formatting: what is prescribed and what is not
The statutory order is short and specific about physical form.
| Requirement | Rule |
|---|---|
| Paper format | DIN A4 (210 x 297 mm), portrait only |
| Printing | Double-sided |
| Binding | Hard cover |
| Margins | Wide enough to allow binding and stapling; no figures given |
| Title page | Bilingual German/English, generated during the upload |
| Abstract | German, minimum 500 characters including spaces; English if possible |
| File | One single PDF/A-1 or PDF/A-2 document, machine-readable, max 200 MB |
Vienna does not prescribe a typeface, point size, line spacing or numeric margin centrally. The order asks only that margins allow binding. Check your curriculum, your institute and your supervisor before inventing a layout, then stay consistent throughout.
The title page is generated, not designed
This surprises people. The bilingual title sheet is created as part of the upload process and merged with your document; a template exists for special cases. Do not spend an evening laying out a title page of your own. If a title page turns out to be wrong, it has to be corrected in both the electronic and the printed version, which means reprinting and rebinding.
For a thesis written by more than one author, each author uploads it individually, the authorship declaration refers to the part that author wrote, and all authors must be named on the title page.
Abstracts
A German abstract is compulsory, at least 500 characters including spaces. An English one should be added where possible. If you write the thesis in a language other than German, include an abstract in that language too. Write these properly rather than at midnight before the upload, because the abstract is published online whatever you decide about the full text.
Academic integrity and the similarity check
Vienna's plagiarism page names the forms it treats as misconduct: Vollplagiat (submitting someone else's work as your own), Zitat ohne Beleg (unattributed quotation), Übersetzungsplagiat (translating a foreign-language source and passing it off as your own), Selbstplagiat (resubmitting your own earlier work without disclosing it) and ghostwriting, which counts as misconduct even though the actual author consented.
The consequences are serious and they do not expire quickly. After a positive assessment, a breach of good scientific practice triggers a Nichtigerklärung procedure, annulment of the grade, under § 74 (2) UG 2002, and the degree itself can be revoked under § 89. The award decision can be set aside within ten years of the assessment date.
Practically, the statutory order requires the SSC to run a check for textual similarities before the thesis is forwarded to the reviewers. Two things follow. First, sloppy paraphrasing that you would have fixed in a final pass gets seen. Second, a thesis uploaded by mistake can only be withdrawn after the check has run, and only if there is no suspicion of plagiarism. Upload when the file is genuinely finished. If you want a second pair of eyes on argument and structure before that point, that is the stage our thesis writing support is built around.
Submission: the two-step sequence that trips people up
Since 5 March 2024 the upload for the plagiarism check runs exclusively through u:space, under Study Completion, "Plagiatsprüfung der Abschlussarbeit". The sequence matters more than any single step.
- Upload the PDF/A. One file, not split into parts, with the correct generated title sheet and the abstract inside it. No password protection; printing and copying must not be restricted; embed all fonts. Appendices that substantiate the research can be uploaded separately, and those are archived rather than published by default.
- Keep the Hochladebestätigung. The upload confirmation is displayed on screen and emailed to you. Sign it.
- Print and bind the uploaded file. The printed version must be identical to what you uploaded, so print from that exact PDF.
- Deliver to your SSC within ten working days. Hand in the signed upload confirmation with it, and the embargo application if you want one.
- The assessment period starts here. The printed version is the binding version under study law.
Ask your StudienServiceCenter how many bound copies it wants before you order printing. The statutory order deliberately leaves the number to the SSC, and it differs across faculties.
After the similarity check, and if there are no objections, the SSC forwards the thesis to the reviewers. Once the thesis has been assessed, correcting typing errors and modifying the layout are no longer possible, in either version.
Assessment periods
| Work | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Diplomarbeit / Masterarbeit | Assessed within two months of submission (§ 14 (10) Satzung) |
| Dissertation | Reviewers have a maximum of four months after submission |
If a master's thesis is not assessed in time, the Studienpräses assigns it to another assessor. A negative assessment is not the end: you may revise on the basis of the reviewer's reasoning and submit again, and the number of attempts is not capped. You have six months from notification to inspect the assessment documents.
For a dissertation, at least two reviewers are appointed by the Studienpräses, proposed jointly by you and your supervisor, and they must be people other than the supervisor. If one reviewer assesses the work negatively, a third is brought in.
The Defensio
Once both reviews are positive and the rest of the curriculum is complete, you register for the Defensio with your SSC. This is not a UK-style viva behind closed doors.
- It is public. Dates are posted at institutes and student service centres.
- It takes place before a Prüfungssenat of at least three suitably qualified people, usually including your supervisor and at least one reviewer, assembled by the Studienprogrammleitung.
- You present the central findings of the dissertation, then discuss the work and its wider scientific context with the senate and any specialists in the room.
- Each senate member awards a grade from 1 to 5. A majority grade decides; where all differ, the arithmetic mean is used. The deliberation is not public even though the defence is.
The defence page is explicit that presentation length and style differ from discipline to discipline. Ask your SSC, and better still, attend two or three defences in your own subject before yours.
In some programmes the defence forms part of a Rigorosum, a commissional final examination. What your Rigorosum contains is set by your curriculum, so read it rather than assuming the shape of someone else's.
Deposit, u:theses and the embargo
Deposit is not optional. UG 2002 requires the finished work to be placed in the university library, and dissertations also go to the Austrian National Library. u:theses is the University's repository; electronic archiving has been compulsory for all graduates since 2008, and the collection reaches back to approved theses from 1965.
Two separate things are often confused:
- Title, abstract and metadata go online in every case. The statutory order provides for this so the University can meet its obligation to inform the public.
- Full-text online publication is your choice. You can consent, or keep the work offline. The decision is reversible at any time by an informal email to the library.
An embargo (Sperre) is a third thing again. Under § 86 (4) UG 2002 you can apply to exclude the deposited copies from use for one to five years, five being the maximum. You have to show that important legal or economic interests would be endangered: work carried out with a company, third-party datasets, an existing confidentiality agreement. The application uses form SL/W3 from your SSC and must be handed in at the same time as the printed thesis. Late requests are not considered.
A planned future publication is not on its own a reason for an embargo. If your thesis incorporates already published articles, publisher rules may still limit what you can post.
Decide this with your supervisor months in advance, not at the counter.
Pre-submission checklist
- Curriculum and SSC pages checked for programme-specific rules that override the general ones.
- Topic and supervision agreed, with a scope realistically doable in six months.
- German abstract of at least 500 characters including spaces; English abstract added where possible.
- Generated bilingual title sheet merged into the document, with all co-authors named.
- Single PDF/A-1 or PDF/A-2, machine-readable, fonts embedded, no password or printing restriction, under 200 MB.
- Sources cited to your subject's rules, including images, graphics and figures.
- Uploaded through u:space and the Hochladebestätigung signed.
- Number of bound copies confirmed with the SSC before ordering printing.
- Printed A4, portrait, double-sided, hard-bound from the exact uploaded file.
- Delivered to the SSC within ten working days of the upload.
- Embargo form SL/W3 handed in with the printed thesis, if you need one.
- Decision made on full-text publication on u:theses.
What Vienna does not publish centrally
No prescribed citation style. The order says the subject-relevant citation rules shall be observed. Your discipline and supervisor decide.
No page layout rules beyond A4 portrait and binding-friendly margins. No font, no spacing, no numeric margin. Your faculty or institute may publish its own guidance, and that is where to look.
No central word or page limit. Length expectations sit in the curriculum and with your supervisor.
No fixed number of bound copies. This is left to the SSC by design.
The statutory order does not name the similarity-checking software. It refers to a check for textual similarities. If you want to know which tool your faculty uses, ask the SSC rather than relying on hearsay.
The short version
Get three dates into your calendar: the day you upload, the day ten working days later by which the bound copies must be with your SSC, and the two-month or four-month mark when an assessment is due. Get three things into the document itself: the generated bilingual title page, a German abstract of at least 500 characters, and a PDF/A file with nothing locked.
And make the embargo decision before you print, because form SL/W3 goes in with the book or not at all. If you want structured help getting the argument into shape well before any of that, our pricing page sets out how that works.
