Master's Thesis

The master's degree programme concludes with a master's thesis of 35 weeks duration that includes a written report and oral presentation. The topic of the thesis can be chosen according to the student's interests in the field of biotechnology.

Important: the master's thesis needs to completed in a different group or company department - and supervised by a different professor - than the research project or industry internship!

Students completing the master's thesis at D-BSSE: in addition to registering the thesis via myStudies, you are required to inform the at least 2 weeks before the scheduled start of the thesis about the following

The name of the BSSE group you will be working in (for the group server access)
The start and end date of your master's thesis

Remuneration

In general, students are not allowed to be paid for their master's thesis. Please refer to the respective DownloadETH Directive (PDF, 23 KB)

Though, students are allowed to accept payment if they have an internship contract for up to 80%. A full-time position remains forbidden.

The master's thesis is conducted in a research group at D-BSSE. Students are expected to contact the research group they are interested in directly. Usually, the contact person for research project/master thesis is a senior assistant or post-doc in the group.

The master's thesis is a graded semester performance. A failed master's thesis can only be repeated once. If the master's thesis is repeated, a new research topic needs to be found. Students can choose the same supervisor again or a different supervisor. A passed master's thesis cannot be repeated.

Students need to fulfil the following prerequisites prior to starting their master's thesis:

The BSc programme has been completed successfully
Assigned additional requirements for the admission to the master's programme have been passed
A minimum of 64 ECTS must have been acquired for the master's degree programme, including all credits in the core course category (22 ECTS)
The research project or industry internship must have been completed and the credits acquired (16 ECTS)

The Director of Studies may allow exceptions with regard to the required 64 ECTS if cogent grounds are submitted at the proper time. Note that no exception can be made with regard to the completion of BSc programme and additional requirements.

Students need to register the master's thesis including all required information prior to the start.

The master's thesis needs to be registered in myStudies. After the initial registration, the request is forwarded to the supervising professor for confirmation - students are asked to inform their supervisor when they have registered the thesis.

Note:

The title of the thesis can still be changed afterwards in myStudies.
The submission deadline is automatically calculated and cannot be changed.

The registration must be done in the semester in which the thesis is started. Students starting in between semesters should register the thesis in the semester in which most of the work is completed.

In a subsequent semester, the thesis does not have to be registered for again, and students may request a leave of absence.

Students wishing to complete an external master's thesis must start the organisation process early to ensure that registration is completed prior to the start.

Completing the master's thesis outside D-BSSE requires approval of the Director of Studies.

Students who wish to complete the master's thesis outside D-BSSE need to submit the respective request form together with a one-page project description to the Student Administration.

The request must be submitted in a timely manner to ensure the assessment and approval as well as the subsequent registration can be completed before the start of the thesis.

All forms can be found under Documents & Templates

NDA / Agreement

A confidentiality agreement may be requested by the external institution. Any agreement is subject to negotiations between the student, the host institution and the supervising professor. Students must clarify NDA/agreement questions in advance and be aware that ETH professors may refuse to sign any agreement other than the standard ETH templates:

Non-Disclosure Agreement: Download (login required)
Thesis Project Agreement Template: protected pageDownload (login required)

The master's thesis duration is 35 weeks full-time. Thereof, 3 weeks are reserved for writing the report and 2 weeks for compensation of public holidays, sick leave and other unplanned short term absences. In case of late submission, the master's thesis is failed.

For reasons of fairness and comparability it is not allowed to change the allotted duration. Students may voluntarily extend their stay in the research group or company after submission of the master's thesis. However, the master’s thesis work and report, and consequently the assessment must only refer to the official duration.

The Director of Studies may extend the deadline if cogent grounds are submitted at the proper time.

The master's thesis is supervised by a D-BSSE professor.

The supervising professor defines the task, start date and grading criteria and evaluates the thesis. The master's thesis must show a clear innovative character with regard to the technical and scientific approach.

Mind that the master's thesis needs to completed in a different group or company department - and supervised by a different professor - than the research project or industry internship!

The master's thesis is concluded with an oral presentation and a written report.

The master's thesis needs to adhere to common scientific and academic standards.

Details are to be discussed and agreed upon with the supervising professor. There are no department specific rules, criteria with regard to the written report. It is suggested to ask the supervising professor for a good sample report beforehand and afterwards for feedback to improve own writing skills for future reports/theses.

The oral presentation may be held within a reasonable timeframe after submission of the written report. The supervising professor and the student jointly agree on a date for the oral presentation. Note that feedback from the oral presentation may not be used or integrated in the written report.

Students submit the master's thesis to the supervising professor.

The D-BSSE does not receive copies of the master's thesis.

Note:

A signed "DownloadDeclaration of Originality (PDF, 183 KB)" is a component of every research project/master's thesis, semester paper, or other qualifying paper written during the course of studies (including the electronic versions) and must be submitted with the thesis.
The master's thesis can be published in the Research Collection of ETH Zürich.