Theses

All Bachelor's and Master's degree programs (including the Mathematics teaching degree program) include the preparation of a thesis as an important component.

Bachelor's thesis

In all Bachelor's degree programs in Mathematics, the Bachelor's thesis can be tackled as soon as at least 100 credit points have been earned in examinations. The Bachelor's thesis itself counts for 12 credit points, i.e. it contributes approximately one fifteenth of the overall Bachelor's grade (there are also ungraded achievements, so it is not exactly one fifteenth). A Bachelor's thesis will often develop from a seminar presentation, but this does not have to be the case. Students are also welcome to make their own suggestions. The formal process for writing a Bachelor's thesis is as follows:

1. on the part of the supervisors, the specific thesis is created in the campus system using the tool for registering theses with a (provisional) topic and start date and a student is assigned to it.

2. the student is automatically requested to register for this thesis. As soon as this has happened, the thesis changes to the next status (usually "approved"). In all our degree programs (exception: BSc with old examination regulations), the maximum processing time for a thesis is six months (see §14 of the respective SPO). However, the number of credit points - and therefore the amount of work required - varies!

3 The completed thesis is submitted in duplicate to the supervisor. The supervisor documents the submission in the system, prepares a review within the time period specified by the respective examination regulations and also ensures that a second review is prepared on time. If a successfully passed mark (4.0 certificate) is to be documented before the completion of the full assessment, this can be recorded in the system without any problems.

Any member of the department who is authorized to conduct examinations can act as a supervisor. If the thesis is to be written externally, this requires the approval of the examination board. The corresponding application must be submitted via the respective academic advisor.

The thesis can also be written in English in consultation with the supervisor.

These regulations are specified in § 14 of the study and examination regulations, see https://www.sle.kit.edu/vorstudium/bachelor-bereich5.php.

Latex template for Bachelor's thesis

To make work easier, we provide students with a latex template for the Bachelor's thesis. Only the declaration at the end of the text is mandatory, see § 11 (5) of the examination regulations. (The KIT rules for ensuring good scientific practice mentioned there can be found on the KIT pages).

Zip archive of the template: Contains the file of the actual template (bachelorarbeit-vorlage.tex) and the files of the logos (kit-logo.jpg, math-logo.jpg). The latter must be saved in the same directory as the latex file.
An example that illustrates working with LaTeX.

Master's thesis

The above rules also apply analogously to the Master's thesis in the Master's degree programs in Mathematics, Business Mathematics and Technomathematics. This thesis corresponds to 30 credit points. At the time of registration, 70 credit points must already have been earned. The processing time is 6 months. Further details can be found in the respective examination regulations (especially in § 11) of the corresponding Master's degree program.