Bachelor state exams and defences
- state exam - oral examination. Students draw a question (or questions) and then have 30 minutes to talk about it. It usually starts at 8 am. Immediately after the exam, it is announced if the student passed; complete results, including the grades, are usually announced afternoon (depending on the number of students) or the next day in person or by mail. A set of questions for the state exams is available online.
- defence - 45 minutes are reserved for one student. You need a presentation for a maximum of 12 minutes. The evaluation by the supervisor and the opponent are read after your presentation. Next, you answer the question(s) of the opponent (the answers can be included at the end of the presentation, after the "Thank you" slide). Lastly, you will answer the questions from the commission and the guests. Next, everybody except the commission members (which includes the supervisor) leaves and the commission will discuss the thesis and vote on the grade. The result is announced immediately after the defence.
Master state exams and defences
- defence is usually the first - 60 minutes reserved for one student. You need a presentation for a maximum of 15 minutes. The evaluation by the supervisor and the opponents are read after your presentation. Next, you answer the opponents' questions (the answers can be included in the presentation after the "Thank you" slide). Lastly, you will answer the questions from the commission and the guests. Next, everybody except the commission members (which includes the supervisor) leaves, and the commission will discuss the thesis and vote on the grade. The result is announced immediately after the defence.
- state exam - usually after the defence - oral, approximately 15 minutes per subject (3 subjects).
Students working on their MSc thesis in Linz - you must submit the assignment of the Master's thesis also at USB (not only at JKU), and you must apply for the state exam and defence also at USB (even though you do it at JKU), and you must submit your thesis before the defence also at USB.
The State Final Examination (SFE) is an oral examination with two parts - a knowledge examination from two compulsory areas and one optional area, and a defence of the master's thesis. A committee usually consisting of at least five members verifies the student's knowledge. A representative of the partner university attends each time. Thus, for students who do their thesis at USB, the JKU representative who examines the General Chemistry subject attends the SFE; for students who do their thesis at JKU, the USB representative who examines the Advanced Biology and Biochemistry subject attends the SFE. The teacher of the subject chosen by the student as an Elective subject, or his/her designated representative, is also a member of the SFE committee.
The SFE consists of two compulsory and one elective areas.
The mandatory areas are:
1. UCH/SN11 Advanced Biology and Biochemistry, which represents the biologically oriented part of SFE, especially the content of the lectures from the courses UCH/020 Gene and Protein Engineering, UCH/013E Principles and Techniques in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UCH/060 Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modelling of Biomolecules and UCH/784 Cellular and Molecular Biology 2, supplemented by one selected biological module (according to the student's specialization):
- Biological Elective: Advances in Biological Systems – lectures UCH/045 Glycobiochemistry, KMB/217 Methods of Functional Genomics, KME/723 Immunology, and UCH/052 Xenobiochemistry and Toxicology;
- Biological Elective: Molecular and Developmental Biology – lectures KMB/614 Cell Regulation and Signaling, KPA/604 Molecular Phylogenetics, KMB/759 Genetics the Molecular Approach, and KMB/618 Epigenetics and regulation of gene expression;
- Biological Elective: Structural Biology Techniques – lectures UCH/027 X-Ray Crystallography, UCH/651 Optical Methods in Biochemistry, UFY/EM1 Electron Microscopy I and UFY/EM2 Electron Microscopy II;
2. UCH/SN36 General Chemistry, which represents the chemically oriented part of the SFE. The student chooses one of the chemistry areas according to his/her specialisation, covering either Fundamentals of Chemistry and Technology or one of the chemically oriented modules chosen in Linz. Chemistry Fundamentals subject:
- Fundamentals of Chemistry and Technology for Biological Chemists
- Fundamentals of Chemistry and Technology for Technical Chemists
The reason for the introduction of these two courses is to allow students to transfer between Biological Chemistry and Technical Chemistry at JKU, which are very similar, if students complete some of the required courses (bridge subjects). From the point of view of knowledge, the content of both of these SFE subjects is the same, the two names are given only for formal reasons and cover mainly knowledge from Organic Chemistry III, Advanced Instrumental Analysis, Spectroscopy and Structural Elucidation II.
The elective part of the SFE consists of the course UCH/SN12 Biological Chemistry Masters Elective, which is chosen by the students from the courses taken during their master's studies at the university where they worked on their thesis, and which is related to their thesis and thus represents a verification of the students' theoretical knowledge.
Furthermore, upon successful completion of the SFE, the student is given credit for the course UCH/786 Master's Examination.
