Frequency Asked Questions
"What do I have to do in order to ..."
First, look at the website to see if you can find something. Then, and only then, contact your friendly adivsor or student ombudsmann. Please don't bother the Faculty secretaries or the Studies Dean office with otherwise easily answerable questions.How many credits do I get for tutoring a class, exercise session, or lab?
Look at the generic list of classes, labs, and tutoring jobs for a description of how many credits one earns towards the total of 8 needed for graduation. For many, the exact amount you earn for the same class can easily differ by a factor of two, depending upon exactly what you do (e.g. number of students, number of lab sessions in a semester, amount of independent work, etc.). Make sure you get your signature as quickly as possible at the end of the semester!How does one submit a cumulative thesis?
A cumulative thesis is one in which published papers to a refereed journal are used as chapters of the thesis. You cannot simply re-use the text and figures, especially if there are more than one authors, so you need a clear statement of what part of the work is your own, in order to demonstrate that the article used is sufficent.What about (self-)plagerism?
"Plagerism" is defined as the incorrect use of text/figures which are not formally and legal your own to use.Trivial (dangerous) examples are cutting-and-pasting text from some other author without formally quoting it and giving the source or using a figure without permission.
A non-trivial (but equally dangerous) example is filling your dissertation with text or figures from your own publications ("self-plagerism"): if you are the only author, then you still have to ask the publisher for permission to use figures and still have to quote the text; if you are not the only author, you are formally using somebody else's text/figures even if you are the 100% creator of this content.