Graduate Theses

Graduate students must fill out the Thesis Application with their chosen thesis advisor and submit the completed copy, along with the required documents, to the Graduate Programs Office. Following the approval of the application, the student will be formally registered into their thesis by the Registrar’s Office.

All application paperwork must be submitted no later than the end of the Drop/Add period during the semester in which students are registering the project. 

It is the student’s responsibility to submit the thesis, respecting their thesis advisor’s standards, and to inform the involved parties of the final submission using the Ready to Submit Form. It is at this stage that the student will also propose a second reader. The thesis advisor will then confirm acceptability of the submission with the Program Director, and the second reader will be confirmed. Please note that external second readers must be pre-approved and are subject to Provost approval. For students with theses (or extensions) registered in the spring, the deadline for thesis submission is April 15th. For students with theses (or extensions) registered in the summer, the deadline is July 5th, and for the fall, the deadline is December 1st.

Failure to submit the thesis, or necessary extension, by the deadline results in an administrative withdrawal of the thesis registration. Re-registration into the thesis will be required to submit the final draft, at the cost of the current per-credit hour tuition rate.

Thesis/Research Project Registration and Extension Policy

A thesis extension modifies the graduation date of the student. Based on the original registration of any thesis or research project, all MA/MSc students will have one calendar year in which to research, write, submit, defend, and submit a bound final copy of the project to the AUP library in order to be awarded a final grade. Within the administrative envelope of this year, the timeline of final draft submission, corrections, and defense are set by the graduate program directors in consultation with the student’s thesis supervisor. At the time of original registration, MA/MSc students will be required to pay tuition for the registration of the thesis or research project, at the current per credit tuition rate for the number of credits corresponding to the thesis/research project for their MA/MSc program. For the subsequent two semesters, thesis extension A & B, there will be no administrative charges apart from the mandatory health insurance fees; students will, however, have a zero-credit extension registration for these two semesters. To access the thesis extension request form, click here: MA/MSc Thesis Extension Request Webform - Formstack

For outstanding cases in which a student cannot complete their thesis by the end of the second extension, an exceptional thesis extension C can be requested using the form mentioned above. Please note that the thesis extension C has a fee of €1000 to register.

Contact the Graduate Programs Office at graduateprograms@aup.edu for more information about thesis applications, deadlines, and extensions.

Thesis submission to the Library

All Master’s students writing a thesis as part of their program are required to submit a copy of the final, corrected thesis to the AUP library. Diplomas will not be issued to students who have not met the library thesis submission requirements. For more information on thesis submission to the library, see the library website or contact Library Director Jorge Sosa at jsosa@aup.edu or thesis@aup.edu.