Exams in BA Sociology

First of all, it is important to distinguish between registering for an exam and registering for a course. If you register for a COURSE in ZEuS, you are NOT AUTOMATICALLY registered for an EXAM.
 

REGISTRATION DEADLINES FOR EXAMS (WRITTEN EXAMS, COURSEWORK, EXAMS)

If you wish to obtain credits in a course, it is compulsory to register for the exam during the registration period. The only exception  is the compulsory internship. For the recognition of the compulsory internship you must follow and complete the mandatory reporting procedure.

The exam registration takes place within the following deadlines: 

Summer semester: 01 May - 15 June
Winter semester: 01 December - 15 January 

An exam deregistration via ZEuS is only possible within this period.
 

EXAM REGISTRATION

A late registration via the Examination Office (Heike Reinhuber) is only possible twice during your studies and is documented in ZEuS.

Before you start the registration procedure via the study planner with module plan in your ZEuS account, please check beforehand about the correct "exam number" (SOC-XXXX), which you will find for the respective course in the table with the heading "Prüfungsleistung / Studienleistung", as the same course often offers several possibilities to acquire different amounts of ECTS and each possibility has a different exam number.

The ZEuS team provides several useful videos to help you with the exam registration process. If you have any technical questions, e.g. missing TANs, please contact the Student Service Center (SSZ). If you have any questions (e.g. because you are a student of another subject or cannot register for other reasons), please contact the Examination Office (Heike Reinhuber) directly. Please ALWAYS write your matriculation number and the SOC-exam number in your email, otherwise your request cannot be processed.

...DUE TO ILLNESS

If you are ill on the day of the exam, you do not have to take it.
You must notify the Examination Office (Heike Reinhuber) of your illness BEFORE the exam by e-mail and provide a medical certificate. Only use this form (see PDF "Withdrawal from exams and extension of theses due to illness (medical certificate)") and send it in advance as a scan by e-mail AND then by post to the Examination Office:

University of Konstanz
Department of History and Sociology
PO Box 13
Examination Office, Heike Reinhuber
D-78457 Konstanz.

The certificate must be issued at the latest on the day of the exam (in the case of longer illnesses also before the day of the examination) and must be valid for the day of the exam. Certificates or others forms issued later cannot be accepted.
 

...TO OTHER REASONS

Withdrawal due to certain reasons can be approved in some exceptional cases, especially if students are not directly responsible for their inability to attend the exam. Admissible reasons include studying abroad or a sudden death within the family. If such a case arises, please contact the Examinations Office, Heike Reinhuber, explain your reasons for being unable to attend and enclose the necessary evidence.

UNEXCUSED ABSENCE

Unexcused absences from exams lead to the entry NE=not appeared in ZEuS and thus to failure of the exam. If there is a re-examination, you will be automatically registered for it.
 

RETAKE EXAMS AND FAILING

According to the general examination regulations for humanities degree programmes, an exam can be repeated once. This must happen at the earliest possible date. If you withdraw from an exam due to illness or if you do not pass the exam, you will automatically be registered by the Examination Office for the next available exam date.
Should you also be ill for the retake exam or should you fail it and another attempt be possible, please register on your own for the retake exam at the next available date. Please note: there is no automatic registration for exams across semesters.

If you also fail the retake exam, you must first submit a request for recognition as a hardship case to the StPA before the possibility of taking a further exam can be reactivated. The request for recognition as a hardship case must be submitted no later than two months after the announcement of the exam result. If a request for recognition as a hardship case is not submitted, the exam entitlement expires. The students concerned are usually contacted, but each student is obliged to contact the student advisor in any case.

If the request for recognition as a hardship case is granted, a final retake of the exam is possible. If the retake is not passed again, you are definitively not able to complete the sociology degree programme as a major or minor subject and cannot continue studying sociology in Germany, as you lose your entitlement to the exam.
The option of requesting a request for recognition as a hardship case can be only used twice within a degree programme.

PREPARATION: RESEARCH PROPOSAL 

The research proposal is not graded and serves as the exposé for the Bachelor thesis and is awarded with 4 ECTS. Students engage intensively with their desired topic and prepare for the thesis.

Selecting and narrowing down of an interesting topic, searching for relevant literature, contacting the examiners, choosing the methodology and planning the project take time.

Choice of supervisor: Please consider that you will need between to two and four months for preparation (see list of authorized examiners). Start early to meet the registration deadlines!

Submission deadline: The research proposal must be submitted to your supervisor before 15 April in the summer semester or before 1 October in the winter semester.

Suitable topics may include those:

• of particular interest to the author (!)
• possibly related to a relevant field for a future career,
• building upon a subject previously addressed during the studies, thus having existing academic background knowledge. For empirical works, having data to analyse e.g. from a project seminar, can be helpful.
• methodologically feasible for the thesis

Please contact an appropriate supervisor as early as possible. Professors and lecturers may also provide information about the writing of a thesis on their own homepage. 
More information about the research proposal structure can be found here. 

BACHELOR THESIS (FINAL WRITTEN EXAMINATION) 

The last exam of your study programme is typically the written final examination, which is accomplished through a written thesis (Bachelor thesis). To be eligible for registration, specific requirements must be fulfilled (§5 Annex B Examination Regulations 2018), and registration and submission deadlines must be observed. 


REQUIREMENTS 

In order to be able to register for the Bachelor thesis, the following courses/modules have to be successfully completed:

• all examination achievements of modules 1-3,
• at least one examination achievement from modules 4 or 5,
• research proposal for the topic of the Bachelor's thesis,
• in the internship track: an internship,
• in the international track: examination achievements from module 6. Proof of key qualifications (SQ) is not required.

Please note: without completing the internship or the international module, the Bachelor thesis cannot be registered! 


START DATES 

The start of the six-week processing period for the Bachelor's thesis and the subsequent approval by the Central Examinations Office for all students after registration is: 

• for the winter semester: either November 15^th or February 1^st
• for the summer semester: either June 1^st or August 1^st

Students can choose between these respective start dates. The start date is determined by the student upon registration for the thesis. After registration with the Central Examinations Office, students will be admitted for the Bachelor's examination.

If the deadline starts on November 15^th, the submission deadline automatically extends due to the university's Christmas/New Year closure, as approved by the Vice-Chancellor (this additional time has been already considered during the admission process at the Central Examinations Office).


REGISTRATION & DEADLINES 

The registration process is as follows:

1. Four months before their intended registration date (see above), students contact the desired supervisor (see list of authorized examiners) and discuss their thesis topic.
2. Before April 15^th in the summer semester or before October 1^st in the winter semester, students submit their research proposal to their supervisor.
3. Students request the registration form (PDF) from Karolin Wurster (ZPA - Central Examinations Office, Room C401), fill it out, and contact their supervisor. The supervisor's approval can also be sent via email to Karolin Wurster. Students present the registration form to the supervisor and to the BA Academic Advisor Sociology.
4. The supervisor confirms on the form that the research proposal was successful and that the thesis topic is approved.
5. The BA Academic Advisor Sociology confirms the fulfilment of prerequisites for the registration of the final thesis. Students send the signed form and their current transcriptas a PDF via email (max. 2.5 MB) to the BA Academic Advisor Sociology. The signature of the BA thesis supervisor is not required for this step.
6. Between May 2^nd and May 15^th in the summer semester or between October 15^th and October 30^th in the winter semester, students submit the registration form to the Central Examinations Office, Karolin Wurster (Room C401).
   Please note: these deadlines are final!

BACHELOR THESIS 

Weight and scope:

• The thesis contributes 25% to the final grade in Sociology and is awarded with 10 ECTS. Since the major subject represent 80% and the minor subject represents 20% of the overall grade, the Bachelor thesis effectively constitutes 20% of the total grade.
• The Bachelor thesis must contain between 12,000 and 15,000 words.
• The processing time is six weeks. Upon request (informally addressed to Karolin Wurster), an extension of up to three weeks can be granted. The request of exstension, signed by the supervisor, is submitted no later than two weeks before the submission deadline.
• In case of illness and inability to work, students must immediately notify the Central Examination Office (by email or phone) and provide a medical certificate. Illness-related absences are balanced with a maximum extension period of three weeks.
• Failure to meet the processing time deadline equals the failure of the Bachelor thesis.

Empirical works: 

Overall, the processing time for empirical research projects should not significantly exceed the mentioned duration. As empirical research projects often require a substantial lead time for instrument creation, data collection, etc., they are generally unsuitable as Bachelor thesis. Possible options include focusing on only one part of the research (e.g., data collection OR analysis), conducting straightforward research projects, or analysing existing data, such as secondary data analysis or data from project seminars.

Exam retake, group projects, language:

• A failed thesis can be repeated once, but a new topic must be chosen. It is not possible to rewrite the thesis for grade improvement.
• Group projects are not allowed.
• The thesis must be written in German. Writing in a foreign language is possible if both examiners agree.
• Please note the correct name of the faculty: "Fachbereich Geschichte, Soziologie, Sportwissenschaft und empirische Bildungsforschung" (Faculty of History, Sociology, Sports Science and Empirical Educational Research).

Please mind the information and forms for final exams provided by the Central Examinations Office.

Current information and forms are provided on the page of the Central Examination Office (ZPA). 

Here you will find information on the following topics, among others: 

- Registration for the final examination
- General regulations for submitting final examinations
- Signets of the University of Konstanz
- Withdrawing from examinations and extending final examinations
- Certification of examination documents
- Financial support for final theses

An overview of the contact persons at the ZPA, their responsibilities and office hours can be found here.

A current list of authorised examiners for BA/MA final examinations in Sociology can be found here.