Public defense

If the Master thesis has been assessed positively and all of the required performance in the curriculum has been successfully completed, the student can register for the public defense at the responsible study service center. The Defensio is an examination before a committee that includes the presentation and defense of the Master thesis and examination of the student's knowledge of the related research and study field(s). The examination committee must consist of at least three persons competent in the subject area (pursuant to §14 and §15 of the Section Study Law of the University of Vienna Statutes), qualified as a professor and / or group leader at the VBC. The composition of the examination committee should be proposed by the student and approved by the study program director (SPL), whereby at least one person should be from the VBC and / or the University of Vienna. The SPL can either chair the Defensio her/himself or appoint one of the three examiners as chairperson (the chairperson keeps the examination protocol).

The examination must be public and carried out orally. If the student has established legal or business interests related to the academic thesis (e.g. with regard to patent or data protection), they must be taken into account in the examination.

Following the examination, the members of the examination committee confer about the assessment in a closed-door meeting. The examination committee awards a grade for the public defence of the academic thesis including the discussion of the research subject. If the final examination includes further subjects, the examination committee awards further grades for each subject. The grades are awarded based on a majority decision (i.e. if two examiners award the grade “good” and one examiner awards the grade “excellent”, the grade given will be “good”.) If there is no majority (i.e. every examiner has awarded a different degree), the mean average of the individual grades awarded is calculated and rounded up for results in which the first figure after the comma is 6 or above and rounded down when the first figure is 5 or below.