GUIDELINES FOR THE CONCLUSION OF THE MASTER'S DEGREE

                                     (Valid as of 15/09/2025)

Master's thesis defence and final state examination

The Master's State Examination is oral and takes the form of a defence of the Master's thesis with
a discussion of the broader theoretical and methodological context of the defended Master's thesis.
Students register for the state exam on the given date in the IS.

For the defence of the Master's thesis, the Dean appoints a committee of at least three members. A
typical course of defending a master's thesis at the Department of Sociology looks like this:

-          the student submits the thesis in electronic and paper form (see above)

-          typically the next day, the opponent of the thesis is appointed, within a few days the
name appears in the IS

-          no later than five working days before the date of the defence, the reports of the
supervisor and the opponent are uploaded to the IS, which the student must familiarize themselves
with

-          On the day of the defence, the chairperson of the study committee introduces the entire
committee, including the supervisor and the opponent

-          The student is given a short time to familiarize the committee with his/her work in the
format of a standard conference paper. The time is in the range of 8-10 minutes and it is
recommended to use PowerPoint presentations.

-          The supervisor and the opponent will present selected main conclusions of their reports.
The students and the committee are acquainted with the full text of the reports in advance.

-          The student has the space to respond to the main criticisms of the reports. Students are
not expected to respond to the entire report, the ability to detect the most important ones among
the arguments is an essential competence demonstrated in the defense of the final thesis.

-          This is followed by a discussion with the members of the committee, the subject of which
may be, in addition to the topic of the final thesis, its broader methodological and theoretical
background. Knowledge acquired by studying compulsory courses (theoretical and methodological) is
assumed, but the student can of course also use other knowledge acquired during the study.

-          The committee consults in private on the result of the defence, which is announced on
the day of the defence, usually after the last defence.

-          According to the Higher Education Act, the course of the defence (except for the meeting
of the committee) and the announcement of the results are public, i.e. accessible to anyone

-          Attention! The commission determines the final grade mainly on the basis of the course
of the defence, the proposals made in the opinions are only of a recommendatory nature.