On this page, students of all degree programs at the IfKW can find information on exams, formalities for seminar papers and theses, topics for bachelor's and master's theses, examination boards, and other helpful links. [!] Important: The rules for your exam are set out in the examination regulations and are determined by the examiners. [!]
Please note that the departments may have additional and/or individual requirements for theses; please discuss this with the respective examiner and also read the information under "Exams and formalities" on the page of the respective department. If you are unsure, please contact the examiner.
You will receive different numbers of ECTS credits for your seminars and lectures. The following applies uniformly to all courses: One ECTS credit corresponds to 30 hours of work (including participation in the course, time for preparation and follow-up work, and possible meetings in working groups). Appendix 2 of the examination and study regulations for your degree program provides guidance on how many ECTS credits must be completed per semester.
For lectures in particular, module examinations are usually in the form of written exams. These take place on a common date. The exam dates are announced on the service page for students
Register for exams within the deadlines; deadlines are published on the service page.
You can find all the information you need about exam recognition after a stay abroad here on the International Office website.
Registration and exam procedures differ from the regulations for students who complete their entire degree program at the IfKW. Detailed information can be found in the Exams section under International Students.
Below you will find information and content on the most frequently asked questions about exams. If you cannot find the answer to your question, please contact the program coordinator for your degree program (click here).
The work and performance assessments you must complete in order to receive ECTS credits for your chosen courses are specified in the examination and study regulations for your degree program. These can be found on your degree program's website. Please note: Each module you complete in your degree program ends with an examination. This can take various forms—not only written exams, but also term papers and presentations are exams and require exam registration.
Lecturers have various freedoms within the framework of the examination and study regulations, so lectures can be given in different forms or term papers can be written at the end of a seminar or alongside it (for formalities, see here). Preparation and follow-up work for seminars, as well as regular attendance, are a given and are a prerequisite for you to be able to take exams. The rules and requirements given in the seminar are binding.
You have four attempts for most module examinations in the bachelor's program (major and minor). This does not apply to the basic and orientation examination (Fundamentals of Communication Studies) – this must be taken in the first semester and, if failed, can only be repeated once in the following winter semester. In the Bachelor's program with Communication Studies as your major, you also only have one retake attempt for the internship and final module (two attempts in total).
In the master's programs (PStO 2025), you also have four attempts for most module examinations. Exceptions are the internship and final modules as well as the accompanying module for the master's thesis, each of which can be retaken once.
There is a first and second examination date each semester. Only those who took the first exam date and failed the exam or were ill on the first exam date can take the second exam date.
The exact dates will be announced in good time.
Please refer to the respective examination and study regulations for all information on the module exams in your degree program—please make sure to select the correct examination and study regulations for your start date.
Your performance will be assessed by your lecturer at the end of the semester. You can view your grades in the campus management system (currently still LSF). If you have any questions about your assessment, please contact your lecturer directly.
The examination board monitors the correct conduct of examinations and regulates the recognition of examination and study achievements. For students who are still studying under the examination regulations prior to 2025, there is a program-specific examination board (see below). Students who began their studies in the winter semester 2025/26 or later should contact the joint examination board.
Prof. Dr. Constanze Rossmann, Prof. Dr. Diana Rieger, Prof. Dr. Ruth Wendt, Prof. Dr. Benjamin Krämer, PD Dr. Claudia Riesmeyer, and PD Dr. Manuel Wendelin.
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Institute for Communication Studies and Media Research
Examination Board for the Bachelor's Degree in Communication Studies
PD Dr. Claudia Riesmeyer (for BA), PD Dr. Manuel Wendelin (for Master's in Journalism, KMF, and StratKom)
67 Oettingen Street
80538 Munich
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Examination Office for Humanities and Social Sciences
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
80539 Munich
Room C026
Tel. +49 89 2180-3523
In the Examination Office, responsibilities continue to be specific to each degree program (see administrators on the subpage).
Did you begin your studies before the winter semester 2024/2025? Please contact the examination board for your specific degree program:
Prof. Dr. Carsten Reinemann (Chair), Prof. Dr. Lars Guenther, Prof. Dr. Diana Rieger, Prof. Dr. Ruth Wendt, and PD Dr. Claudia Riesmeyer.
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Institute for Communication Studies and Media Research
Examination Board for the Bachelor's Degree in Communication Studies
Claudia Riesmeyer, PhD
67 Oettingen Street
80538 Munich
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Examination Office for Humanities and Social Sciences
Jovita Pérez-Morales
1 Geschwister-Scholl-Square
80539 Munich
Room C026
Tel. +49 89 2180-3523
During the bachelor's program, students must complete at least 400 hours of internships in two practical fields. The duration of an internship in a practical field may not be less than 160 working hours (PStO 2015) or 200 working hours (PStO 2025). We recommend that the two internships be completed in two different companies; otherwise, it is essential to make arrangements in good time before the start of the internship. The compulsory internship must be verified by a confirmation from the internship provider and an internship report.
For the master's programs in Communication and Media Research and Strategic Communication (PStO 2025), the internship must comprise 11 weeks of full-time work. For the master's program in Computational Social Science, it is 8 weeks of full-time work, and for the master's program in Journalism (PStO 2025), it is 170 hours. For further information, please refer to the respective internship regulations (Appendix 3 of the PStOs).
Registration for the internship module takes place during exam registration. Please only register for the exam
once you have completed both internships (in the BA) and
wish to have them recognized (i.e., in the last semester at the latest).
After the registration period has ended, all students registered for the exam will receive an information email regarding the submission procedures.
The mandatory internships are verified by a confirmation from the internship provider and an internship report: Internship 1 (internship confirmation & internship report) + Internship 2 (internship confirmation & internship report)
Internship confirmation
The form for the employer's internship confirmation (also serving as an application for recognition as a study-related examination) is available here. The upper part of the form must be completed by the employer, the lower part by the intern.
Internship report
For the bachelor's program, a minimum length of four pages is required, including one page describing the internship provider, one page providing an overview of the internship, one and a half pages providing details about the internship, and half a page providing a conclusion/evaluation.
The internship report for master's programs (PStO 2025) must be at least 20,000 characters long. This corresponds to approximately 8 pages, including 1 page describing the internship provider, 2 pages providing an overview of the internship, 3 pages detailing the internship, and 2 pages providing a conclusion/evaluation.
The thesis can be written at the IfKW every semester, provided that the respective admission requirements according to the examination and study regulations (PStO) are met. Please note the standard deadlines for your study program (e.g., in the BA major in Communication Studies: writing the thesis in the 6th semester, registration no later than in the 7th semester).
All final theses begin on specified dates and are submitted together. The exact examination periods can be found on the service page for students, in the "Current" section of the IfKW website, or at the Examination Office for Humanities and Social Sciences (PAGS).
The following procedure currently applies to students enrolled in the BA Communication Studies (major) and MA Communication Studies, Journalism, and International Public Relations programs:
The topics suggested by the examiners are published in July (for papers in the winter semester) and in January (for papers in the summer semester).
During the last two weeks of lectures in the semester before the planned exam period, online pre-registration takes place via a personalized link that is sent to your campus email address. Here you can specify your desired topic and your preferred examiners.
The distribution of registrations among the examiners takes place at the beginning of the lecture-free period.
During the semester break, you will work with your supervisor to finalize the topic of your thesis.
The registration form must be completed in full, signed by both parties, and submitted to the Examination Office by April 1 (for the summer semester) or October 1 (for the winter semester). Whether an exposé must be written varies between examiners and degree programs. More information is provided below.
Your examiner will accompany you on your way to completing your thesis. You can obtain more detailed information about colloquia or other support structures directly from the examiners.
Submit your work within the specified time frame. If you are ill or experiencing other challenges, please contact your examiners.
For the BA in Communication Studies (major), an information event on the thesis is held each semester, during which the process and frequently asked questions are discussed in detail. The date will be announced in good time on the service page.
Objective: Presentation of the topic, justification of its relevance, theoretical and conceptual embedding, planned methodological approach. Open questions or alternatives may be mentioned in order to obtain feedback.
Two bound copies (adhesive binding) in the Examination Office
Submit a PDF version to the department office at the same time. For master's theses, a sworn statement must be included. For information on plagiarism, citation, form, and language guidelines, please refer to the following notes & language guidelines: see section A.7–8.
After submission, your supervisor will prepare a written assessment based on the individual evaluation. Please allow for a processing time of 20 weeks for MA theses (this may vary depending on the examiner).
Many lecturers have their own requirements and preferences when it comes to writing a thesis or seminar paper. As a general rule, you should ensure that your writing is stylistically and graphically consistent, correct, and clear, and use a consistent citation style. The effort you put into this will pay off in your grade just as much as the content you produce.
Below, we have compiled the most common formalities for you. These guidelines are intended as a guide if your lecturers have not provided any explicit instructions. The only exceptions are a few pieces of information that are regulated centrally (e.g., group sizes).
If you have any further questions that you expect to be answered here, please feel free to contact us.
As a guide, we have compiled some basic standards for academic formalities here in response to numerous requests. Unless your teacher has explicitly stated otherwise, you will be on the safe side if you follow these guidelines. However, be sure to speak with your individual examiner in any case.
Font and layout
Font: Times New Roman or Arial (or a non-fancy alternative)
Font size: 11–12 pt
Line spacing: 1.5
Margins: left 3 cm, top/bottom/right 2.5 cm
Single-sided printing,
justified text with hyphenation
The length of seminar papers and research papers (but not for BA-MA theses!) varies from module to module and degree program to degree program—more detailed information can be found in the respective module and examination regulations, which are linked on the respective degree program website under the heading “Scope of written assessments.” However, you will also receive this information from the examiners in any case.
There are no clear or uniform guidelines at IfKW. However, we encourage our students to consider inclusion, plain language, and accessible formatting. This guide provides a helpful overview:
Benjamin Krämer – Non-discriminatory language (PDF)
The faculty has compiled a detailed overview on the subject of plagiarism, which you should be familiar with when writing your thesis or seminar paper.
We would also like to give you the following tips:
Researchers are reporting more and more breakthroughs in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), most recently in particular in large language models (LLMs), which include OpenAI's GPT. This presents both opportunities and risks for scientific work.
Clear citation is at the heart of scientific knowledge management—readers and other scientists want to know what you base your arguments, findings, and questions on. A common citation style is the Framework of the American Psychological Association (APA).
Other citation styles also provide a good framework. The important thing is to adhere to the examiner's guidelines and use one style consistently.