Finishing Your Studies
You yourself choose the topic of your bachelor’s thesis in coordination with your supervisor. The topic can arise from a seminar, but also from your reading or attending a performance, or it can focus on an issue you have been mulling over for some time – in any event, you should choose a topic that interests you and that you will enjoy making the subject of your academic work (and that can be meaningfully addressed in approx. 25 pages). During a conversation with your supervisor, you should narrow down the topic, discuss the bibliography, and perhaps develop a first outline. The original topic may change during the conversation or during the work on the paper itself – that is perfectly okay as long as it happens in coordination with your supervisor.
Helpful information on matters related to the bachelor’s thesis can be found on the website of the fsi performativer wissenschaften.
The bachelor’s thesis is supervised by two faculty members (professors, junior professors or Privatdozent*innen) at the Institute for Theater Studies who are authorized to conduct exams. You need to contact them yourself. Ideally, you already know these faculty members from courses you have taken; however, you can also contact other faculty members to serve as supervisors. We recommend you introduce yourself to the person concerned during office hours and send a short exposé outlining your planned topic in advance. While the primary supervisor needs to be from the Institute for Theater Studies, it is possible to have a visiting professor or professor at another institute or department who is authorized to conduct exams serve as assistant supervisor, if this makes thematic sense.
In exceptional cases, faculty members at the Institute who are not authorized to conduct exams can serve as supervisor, provided they have a Ph.D. This too needs to be discussed with the person concerned and that person needs to apply for examination authorization in advance.
You need to register the bachelor’s thesis at the Examinations Office. To do so, you need to fill out the registration form available at the Examinations Office (preferably via email at pruefungsbuero@geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de) and have it signed by both supervisors. Please submit the form to the Examinations Office, which will forward it to the Examination Board (when courses are in session, the Board meets every week; when courses are not in session, it meets approx. every two weeks). The Examination Board will confirm your registration in writing and inform you of the deadline to submit your thesis – this will be 10 weeks (2011 Degree Program and Examination Regulations) or 12 weeks (2022 Degree Program and Examination Regulations) after confirmation through the Board. The thesis then needs to be submitted at the Examinations Office no later than the deadline.
Yes. You do not have to wait until all grades and certificates are entered into Campus Management before registering your bachelor’s thesis. Since the thesis is completed alongside your studies, you can even attend and complete final courses in parallel. You should make sure, however, that you can concentrate on your bachelor’s thesis and that you have fulfilled all other requirements when submitting the thesis. You will only be able to receive a final diploma once all grades and exams have been fully entered into Campus Management.
No. Provided that you have successfully completed all mandatory courses of your degree program and have fulfilled all requirements, you do not have to re-register; you can submit the bachelor’s thesis even if you are no longer registered as a student. But please note: As soon as you are exmatriculated, you can no longer enrol in courses. Therefore please make sure that you have successfully completed all courses before deciding against re-registering