At the suggestion of Paderborn University, the Paderborn University Society honours students who have received their degree certificate in the period from 1 October to 30 September of each year and have completed an outstanding master's thesis in their faculty and passed all examinations.

The award is aimed at students from all faculties who have written an outstanding master's thesis.

The deadline for nominations is 15 September each year.

Application requirements

The standard of the work must be clearly above the level of comparable theses and have a grade of 1.0. Good explainability and communicability of the content of the master's thesis to non-scientists and/or scientists from other disciplines will be used as a further assessment criterion.

Participation in the competition is only possible by nomination. The reviewers of the eligible theses are authorised to submit proposals. The following proposal documents must be submitted digitally (2 PDF files: 1. thesis, 2. remaining documents):

  • Copy of the submitted and assessed master's thesis
  • Abstract of a maximum of 3,000 characters (including spaces) stating a concise, generally understandable title of the master's thesis
  • Letter of recommendation for the award of the prize from the supervising junior professor and professors
  • Two reviews of the master's thesis from the supervising or examining junior professors and professors, which enable a judgement to be made on the prize-worthiness of the thesis
  • Copy of the degree certificate, degree certificate (incl. transcript of records)
  • Copy of the university entrance certificate
  • Curriculum vitae in tabular form with references to special circumstances during the Master's programme (e.g. family, financial or personal) and details of first publications, if available. For the subsequent processing of the award, a private address and a valid e-mail address are also required in the CV.

  • Declaration of consent for data processing (originally signed by the participant)

     

Information on the abstract

The abstract should be written in German and present the contents of the master's thesis in a generally understandable and well-explained way for non-scientists and/or scientists from other disciplines. An interesting and above all concise title should be chosen, which does not have to be the same as the title of the master's thesis if it is not suitable for this purpose. If AI was used to create the abstract, this must be indicated.

The prize money amounts to 1,000 euros each.

One prize can be awarded per faculty for an outstanding master's thesis. By accepting the prize money associated with the award, the recipients do not enter into any obligations.

The deadline for nominations is 15 September each year. There is no entitlement to consideration. Proposals must be submitted to the Dean's office of the respective faculty by 15 September each year. Proposals received late and documents that do not fulfil the formal requirements cannot be considered.

Degree certificates/certificates issued by 30 September each year can be submitted later. Proposals from female academics are particularly welcome, as women have been significantly underrepresented in recent years.

The selection procedure is a two-stage process. After a selection in the faculties with a concrete proposal for the award, a quality assurance of the selection procedure is carried out in a second step by the Commission for Research and Early-Career Researchers (FK). The Executive Board then decides on the awarding of the prizes for outstanding Master's theses in a free evaluation of the proposals submitted by the faculties based on the recommendation of the FK and with the involvement of the Equal Opportunities Officer.

Link to the current call for proposals guidelines