Internally, theses and research internships are if they are carried out in a working group of the Department of Chemistry at RWTH Aachen University. If professors of the Department of Chemistry have another working group in another institution, e.g.Forschungszentrum Jülich or Max-Planck-Institute, theses and research internships at these external institutions are also considered internal if they are supervised by the internal professors.

External theses and research internships are theses that are carried out in another department or faculty of RWTH Aachen University, e.g. biology or process engineering, at another university, in industry or abroad. External theses and research internships must be approved by the Examination board of Chemistry. The corresponding form can be found in the Download-Center.

External thesis and research internships carried out abroad require a significantly greater organizational effort than internal and external thesis and research internships carried out at RWTH Aachen University. You should start with the organisation about one year before the planned start. As a rule, you not only have to take care of the job and the subject, but also have to clarify matters such as visas, insurances, confidentiality declarations (for companies), etc. In addition, you must clarify with your internal and external supervisors that this is an academic work that can be recognised as a thesis or research internship. The Service Center Chemistry is happy to support you with all questions concerning external theses and research internships.

The process described below applies only to the registration of theses of the Bachelor’s Program in Chemistry and the Master’s Program in Chemistry.

The registration process for bachelor’s and master’s theses of the Teacher Education Programs with the subject of chemistry is completely handled by the Central Examination Office. Please contact your staff,

If the subject as well as the first and second examiners have been determined and you fulfill the requirements for starting the thesis, then theses of the Bachelor's Program in Chemistry and the Master's Program in Chemistry must be registered BEFORE starting the thesis.

The new process entirely by e-mail from December 1st, 2022 if you agree:

1. You download the appropriate thesis registration form for your degree program from the Download Center Chemistry. Please select the correct file for bachelor theses: Examination Regulations 2010 without Bachelor's Degree Colloquium or Examination Regulations 2021 with Bachelor's Degree Colloquium.
2. Under point 1 you enter your personal data, first examiner, second examiner as well as the subject (title) of the thesis. Under point 2, you submit an application for an external thesis, if you would like to conduct your thesis outside of the Department of Chemistry. Then send the completed and signed form to the Central Examination Office (ZPA). The title of the thesis can be changed at the end of the thesis (see under "How do I submit my thesis?").
3. The ZPA confirms under point 3 that you fulfill the requirements for registering the work and sends the form to the first examiners. Now you may begin your thesis.
4. The first examiners enter the date of issue, i.e. the start of the thesis, in item 4 and send the form to the Service Center Chemisty.
5. If an application to conduct an external thesis has been submitted, then the chairpersons of the Examination board Chemistry under item 5 approve the application and appoint external second examiners. The Service Center Chemistry forwards the form to the ZPA.
6. The ZPA transmits the data from the registration form to RWTHonline. After that, the registration process is completed and you will find the data of your thesis in RWTHonline.

The data on theses can be found in the application “My achievements” where you can find your completed exams. In the wiki-internal (available on the RWTH network or via VPN), you will find in the “FAQs for Students” the question “Where can I find information about my thesis?”

The ZPA transmits the data from the registration form to RWTHonline. After that, the registration process is completed and you will find the data of your thesis in RWTHonline.

The data on theses can be found in the application “My achievements” where you can find your completed exams. In the wiki-internal (available on the RWTH network or via VPN), you will find in the “FAQs for Students” the question “Where can I find information about my thesis?”

You must submit two printed and bound copies of your thesis to the Central Examination Office on time. You will find your submission deadline after registering your thesis in RWTHonline (see “Where can I find my registered thesis in RWTHonline?”).

After consultation with your first examiners, it is possible to change the assignment (title) of your thesis. The title of the final thesis will be changed by the Central Examination Office without an application to the Chemistry Examination Board if the title on the sbmitted copies handed in differs from the title on the registration form.

In addition to the two bound copies, you must submit further documents. Information on this can be found on the website of the Central Examination Office under Registering and Submitting Your Thesis.

The clerks at the Central Examination Office stamp the date of submission on the two submitted copies. This date is the examination date of the thesis regardlessofhowlongittakestogradethe thesis.

. They then send the stamped copies to the examiners for grading your thesis.

For important reasons, e.g. if the measuring instruments necessary for the work have failed, the processing time of theses may be extended upon application to the Examination board of Chemistry. Please contact your contact persons at the Service Center Chemistry, who will send you the appropriate form.

The German Education and Training Assistance Act (BAföG) regulates the financial support of students by the state. The support is dependent on the parents', and potentially a spouse's, income, as well as the available private assets. General information can be found at the  Office of Educational Support of the Studierendenwerk.

The maximum duration of support corresponds to the standard period of study for the degree program. After the 4th semester, a proof for the study goals being achieved is required each semester. For this purpose, form 5, which is filled out by the Central Examination Office , must be submitted to the BAföG Office as proof of suitability.

The chemistry examination board has determined that 80 credit points must be achieved by the end of the 4th semester in order to obtain the proof of suitability.
In the bachelor's program in chemistry, 80 CP can be achieved if the modules ALG1, ALG2, MAT, PHYS, WAHL, CBP, MMS and ASP have been successfully completed. In the bachelor of education program in chemistry, a total of 80 CP from the subject chemistry, the second subject and the educational sciences must have been achieved in total.

During your studies in the Master's Program in Chemistry or the Master's Teacher Education Programs in Chemistry, you must complete several research internships or one research internship. If you choose examiners for your research internships, you have to consider some regulations. Which examiners you can choose is explained below.

Since the Master's Program in Chemistry includes several research internships, two additional rules apply to this program:

• Two research internships may not be completed with the same examiners.
• Two external research internships may not be completed at the same unit, e.g. university research group or division of company.

To make it easier for you to choose the examiners, all examiners for the research internships of the Chemistry programs are listed in RWTHonline. You can find the examiners in the application "Courses". There you filter for "research internship". You will be shown, among other courses, the courses for the chemistry research internships:

• Chemical research internship for teacher training students
• Chosen Research Internship
• Research Internship Bioactive Compounds and Synthetic Methods
• Research Internship Catalysis
• Research Internship Computational Chemistry and Spectroscopy
• Research Internship Materials and Mesoscopic Systems

Only the persons indicated under "Lecturer" are allowed to examine the corresponding research internships. This applies to internal and external research internships.

The examiners are selected according to the following rules:

• Master's Teacher Education Programs in Chemistry
  • All professors (Univ.-Prof., Jun.-Prof., apl-Prof.) and associate professors (Priv.-Doz.) of the Department of Chemistry are allowed to examine the "Chemical research internship for teacher training students".
• Master's Program in Chemistry
  • All professors (Univ.-Prof., Jun.-Prof., apl-Prof.) and associate professors (Priv.-Doz.) of the Department of Chemistry as well as all lecturers of the Department of Chemistry who offer lectures in the Master's Program in Chemistry are allowed to examine the "Chosen Research Internship".
  • Only lecturers including professors and associate professors of the Department of Chemistry who offer lectures in the specializations of the Master's Program in Chemistry may examine research internships in the corresponding specializations.
• Supervisors from external institutions should also come from the group of professors and associate professors. Only at institutions where no employees from this group are employed (e.g. companies), employees with a doctorate may be chosen as supervisors. For questions regarding such exceptions, please contact the Service Center Chemistry.

The process described applies only to the registration of internal research internships of the the Master’s Program in Chemistry and the Master's Teacher Education Programs in Chemistry.

The description for the registration of external research internships, the choice of examiners, and the difference of internal and external thesis and research internships can be found in separate "Important Terms" entries.

If the topics, internal examiners and start dates of the internal research internships are fixed, you will be registered by the examiners in RWTHonline before the start or at the latest on the day of the start of the internal research internships. As of December 1st, 2022, you will no longer register yourselve for internal research internships in the Central Examination Office!

Internal research internships are not registered as a course, but only as an examination date. You will find the registered research internships in RWTHonline at the same place as exam registrations. The examination dates include all dates relevant for the research internship according to the examination regulations:

• Start of registration period: start of the research internship
• End of registration period: same as start fo registration period
• End of deregistration period: Two weeks after the start of the research internship (deadline for discontinuing a research internship)
• Scheduled date: Deadline for submission of the written work (final report) (four months after the start of the research internship).

The schedulded date will be replaced by the date of submission of the written paper when grading the research internship. This is the examination date of the research internship, even if the grade is entered later.

The process described external research internships of the the Master’s Program in Chemistry and the Master's Teacher Education Programs in Chemistry.

The description for the registration of internal research internships, the choice of examiners as well as the difference of internal and external thesis and research internships can be found in separate "Important Terms" entries.

Basically, external research internships do not differ from internal research internships in the way they are carried out. The regulations described under "Which examiners may I choose for my research internships?" and general regulations in the examination regulations apply to internal and external research internships.

External research internships must be applied to the Examination board Chemistry before they begin. In contrast to internal research internships, external ones are not registered in RWTHonline before they start, but are recognized by the Examination board Chemistry after completion.

There is a new form for the registration in the Download Center Chemistry. The internal supervisors/examiners confirm on the application form the suitability of the external research internship for the Master's programs in Chemistry. Upon completion of the external research internship, students submit the final report to the internal supervisors/examiners. They enter the submission date of the final report and the grade on the application form and forward the application form to the Examination board Chemistry.

During the course of studies, the research of subject-related literature for the preparation of term papers, protocols, internship reports and finally the final theses is an important core competence of the students.

The first stop for specialized literature in chemistry is the chemistry department library with its non-circulation collection. In addition to classic textbooks and reference books, the journal holdings of the chemistry library are also very extensive.

For the preparation for exams, courses and internships, a look into the textbook collection of RWTH University is suggested. There you can borrow a number textbooks for the most important subjects in the field of chemistry.

For all further literature research, the RWTH University library is the right address. In the numerous online catalogs, which are accessible on the website, one can quickly search for current publications. Books can also be ordered for collection via the user account. The offer also includes numerous courses on literature research.

Until the winter semester 2019/2020, the module catalogs formed the legal basis for the modules of a study program. These were replaced by the module manuals in the summer semester 2020, as they are more clearly arranged.

The links for the current and past module manuals are stored under the respective entry.

The module catalogs can be found in the archive of official announcements.

If students have taken a written examination three times without passing it, and there has been no attempt to cheat, they have the opportunity to take a supplementary oral examination. These supplementary examinations are intended for all Bachelor and Master students according to the general examination regulations.

Since this is not a repeat examination but, a supplementary one, students have the opportunity to complete the second failed repeat examination with a grade of 4.0. A better grade cannot be achieved. A supplementary oral exam must be completed within four weeks of the exam script review.

The supplementary oral examination will only be held upon application by the student immediately after the announcement of the examination results, at the latest on the date of the exam script review.

Further information can be found at the Central Examination Office.

The regulations for all chemistry practical courses are listed in a table on the following page. The currently valid version is stored there.

Practical Cource Regulations

The examination regulations of the chemistry study programs, as well as the overarching examination regulations, are listed on the following page.

Examination Regulations

All generally valid dates, such as the beginning and end of the semester or lecture period, lecture-free holidays and deadlines can be found in the RWTH-wide list of semester dates.

Semester Dates