End of Studies and Degree Certificate

In order to take examinations (written or oral exams as well as course work) you must be enrolled at TUM. This means that especially at the day you hand in your final thesis and at the day of your final colloquium, you need to be enrolled. Keep thus in mind to pay the fees for the next semester if you cannot exclude that the date you hand in your thesis or the colloquium will be accounted for the next semester. According to APSO exam dates (except for theses) including the first lecturing week of the next semester are accounted in the last semester (see dates and deadlines during studies for the respective date as end date of the second examination period). The thesis needs to be handed in latest at 31st of March for the winter semester and 30th of September for the summer semester.

After you fulfilled all exams and course work necessary to complete your degree program, your enrollment is still valid until the semester ends – unless you explicitly withdraw from the student register (for which there is usually no necessity). As a rule, voluntary disenrollment takes place at the end of a semester unless you apply for immediate disenrollment. In this case, disenrollment occurs on the day the application is filed. Disenrollment to the end of the semester after passing the degree is triggered by the completion of the final documents (you receive notice in writing and the documents can be obtained from the examinations office) if you are still enrolled.

You will receive the following documents at the examination office:

• A diploma indicating the awarded academic degree, Bachelor of Science or Master of Science (German and English translation)
• A degree certificate with the name of the degree program, overall grade and title of the thesis (German and English translation)
• A transcript of records listing all the modules you have passed, including an attached list of all exams passed in addition to the curriculum (without module reference) and, if applicable, a list of passed required additional fundamental subjects (both languages in one document)
• A diploma supplement with general information on the degree program, university and German educational system (English)
  • TUM Global and Alumni adds records of participations in study exchange programs on the DS in section 6.1
• A grading table where the overall grade is set in relation to all graduates from the last two years (both languages in one document).

The grading table and the attachments to the transcript of records can be detached from the other documents (new header, separate pagination). The other documents do not refer to these attachments.

All documents have an issued date equal to the date of the last examination belonging to the degree program. In most cases, this will be the date of the Bachelor's or Master's colloquium. A semester counter is not indicated.

The preparation of the final documents usually takes four to six weeks and you will receive a notice in writing as soon as the documents can be collected from the examination office. As soon as your documents can in principle be issued (see below for the remarks on the degree programs) you can obtain a preliminary certificate giving date of graduation, academic degree program, date of certificate, and overall grade.

The general timeline is as follows:

1. You deliver your last exam (e.g. handing in your thesis and doing your colloquium).
2. The examiners of this last exam hand in the grade reports to the student office.
3. As soon as all exams required for the degree program are positive in TUMonline, you will receive an email asking you to check your grade report. This email contains a deadline after which we will clear the issuing of your documents without any further request from you as soon as you have no more open exams in TUMonline.
4. As soon as you contact us asking for immediate clearance of your degree, as you need your documents or a preliminary certificate as soon as possible, or if the deadline from 3. is passed and you no longer have open exams in TUMonline, we give clearance of your degree to TUM CST/Graduation Office and Academic Records. You will receive an email on this as well.
5. TUM CST/Graduation Office and Academic Records (Map in room finder) will issue your documents. This usually takes four to six weeks. You will receive written notice as soon as the documents are completed. In addition immediately after clearance of your degree by us you may request a preliminary document at TUM CST/Graduation Office and Academic Records. Request forms to receive the final or preliminary documents via mail are available on the page of TUM CST.

All degree documents carry the date of the last exam, included in the degree (in many cases the colloquium). The completion of the degree documents by TUM CST/GOAR triggers the withdrawal from the student register due to passing the final exam at the end of the semester – in some cases, his might thus be a semester after the semester in which the date of the degree documents was.

How can you speed up the process?

From experience points 1. and 2. are the most common cause of delay. Hence you should take care to hand in your thesis completely and in time. You should early on (probably before handing in) check with your supervisor for the date of your colloquium.

To avoid that you forget to request the early clearance of your degree (4.) or the delivery by post of your documents (5.) you may – even before all exams are positive in TUMonline – explicitely declare that any additional exams you may take after the last exams shall not be included into your degree program and the final documents. To do so and request your documents, please contact the Student Office of your program via E-Mail – please give your name, your student-ID number, and your degree program. If you include the request(s) for postal delivery of your preliminary or degree documents (see Informationen zu den Abschlussdokumenten beim TUM CST) we will refer these to the officer at CST/GOAR.

Exchange students at TUM receive results for each successfully completed module in our university. Provided that the students registered for the examinations in TUMonline, these results are added into their accounts in the system. As soon as all examinations are completed and the grades validated in TUMonline, exchange students can print their own grade reports from their TUMonline account.

Please consider that no documents are sent by default to any partner university. Signed and stamped grade reports can upon request of the exchange student be sent by CST/Graduation Office and Academic Records.