Bachelor's/Master's Theses
Part of a Bachelor's or Master's program involves writing a thesis that treats a subject in the student's degree program in a scholarly manner.
Table of contents
- Completion time and scope
- General procedure
- Selection of topic and supervisor – Business and Economics
- Selection of topic and supervisor – Quantitative Finance
- Selection of topic and supervisor – Informatics
- OLAT process: registration, collection of project definition, and submission of thesis
- Alternative process: registration, collection of project definition and submission of thesis
- Registration for graduation
- Note on publication requests
Completion time and scope
The information below applies to all theses.
| Bachelor's thesis | Master's thesis | |
| Scope of thesis | 18 ECTS | 30 ECTS |
| Period for completion* | 6 months | 6 months |
| Evaluation | graded | graded |
*Plan the completion of your degree in advance, taking into consideration the published deadlines.
General procedure
There are different procedures for the thesis process, from the issuance of the binding project definition to the timely and formally correct submission. The exact procedure is determined by the supervisor.
For students of Informatics, the information and documents can be found on the website of the Department of Informatics.
Fact sheet for Bachelor's theses in Informatics
Fact sheet for Master's theses in Informatics
For students of Business and Economics as well as of the Joint Degree Master Program in Quantitative Finance of UZH and ETH, the two possible procedures for the process from registration to submission are presented below.
Selection of topic and supervisor – Business and Economics
Business and Economics students may write their thesis with a professor of their choice from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics at UZH. The individual departments can provide additional assistance when it comes to selecting a topic.
Selection of topic and supervisor – Quantitative Finance
Students of the joint degree Master's program in Quantitative Finance at UZH and ETH may write their thesis with a professor of their choice from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics at UZH or the Department of Mathematics at ETH.
Selection of topic and supervisor – Informatics
Informatics students must write their thesis with a professor from their program of study.
OLAT process: registration, collection of project definition, and submission of thesis
After you have found a supervisor the further steps will be done via OLAT. You will receive an e-mail from your supervisor stating that you have been accepted into an OLAT course and that you can start with your thesis.
As soon as you have selected the link in the e-mail and have thus joined the course, you will have one day (24 hours) to select your thesis topic.
With your selection, your personal workflow in OLAT will start in which the binding deadline will be recorded and which will always be visible for you. You will also receive an e-mail with the binding deadline. Please note that the deadline has to be met.
The following instructions describe the process and the further steps you have to take now.
Instructions OLAT (PDF, 960 KB)
You must submit your final thesis digitally in OLAT no later than the binding deadline (accessible in your personal workflow in OLAT or in the assignment email at the beginning of the workflow).
Theses submitted late are considered to have been failed.
Please be aware that the deadline is defined to the minute precisely and this has to be adhered to
Alternative process: registration, collection of project definition and submission of thesis
Business and Economics or Quantitative Finance students can request their project definition by e-mail to deansoffice@oec.uzh.ch. They will also receive their topic and the exact deadline by e-mail. The submission will also be done by e-mail.
The following documents must be attached to the e-mail:
- Proof of matriculation (e.g., student ID card)
- Students in a Bachelor's program: Proof that the assessment level has been passed (transcript of records, module booking printout or online summary of credits on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop)
- Students in a Master's program: Proof of admission to the Master's program for students who have not obtained a Bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics at the University of Zurich (letter of admission incl. any appendix to the letter of admission).
- The completed registration form.
Form for Business and Economics (PDF, 545 KB)
Form for Quantitative Finance (PDF, 545 KB)
The thesis must be submitted by e-mail no later than the agreed submission deadline (until 23:59) to deansoffice@oec.uzh.ch
The thesis may not be placed in the Dean's Office mailbox.
Theses submitted late are considered to have been failed.
Registration for graduation
In order to register for graduation certain deadlines apply. Please consider the information on the degree conferral dates:
The actual registration for graduation takes place in the app "Study progress & graduation". Please not the procedure on the following website:
Note on publication requests
After completing their final theses, students repeatedly receive requests from (mainly) German publishers for a publication. Such requests should be treated with caution. Clarify any publication with your supervisor in advance. The supervisor can impose conditions for a publication.
Ultimately, however, it is your decision whether you want to publish with a publisher. You should be aware that this is not to be equated with a publication in a scientific journal.