Information for Lecturers of Bonn Mathematics

When you are a teacher you can edit your courses in BASIS and, for example, add links, comments or literature references. For this you need the account of the University Computer Center (Hochschulrechenzentrum - HRZ) which you get as an employee of Uni Bonn. The username of this account is your “Uni-ID”.

A prerequisite for editing your course is that you provide the Bachelor-Master Office Mathematics with your Uni-ID for storing in BASIS. The short instructions for announcing and editing your course can be found in our information sheet Courses.

For all lecturers of Mathematics who offer exams at the University of Bonn for several semesters, the Bachelor-Master Office Mathematics requests an examiner's login. This examiner ID has the format "matxxx" and is needed to post exam results in BASIS yourself. The lecturers concerned then receive a so-called "blue folder" with the examiner's access data (user ID, initial password) and a printout of the most important information. The short instructions for posting your grades (and success in the problem sessions) can be found in our information sheet Examination Administration.

For lecturers without an examiner's login the Bachelor-Master Office will put the examination results into the data base after the minutes have been handed in.

All courses in Mathematics are entered in the electronic course catalog BASIS of Uni Bonn by the Bachelor-Master Office Mathematics. This is activated in mid-January (for the coming summer semester) and at the end of June (for the coming winter semester) and can then be viewed by the public. In order for your course to be listed there, it must be reported to the Bachelor-Master Office in due time (see next section).

For many courses, transfer to the electronic learning platform eCampus is recommended. Students can join or be added to the course there with their Uni-ID. The lecturers can write mails to the course participants, define groups and provide material. For details on how to link your course with eCampus, please refer to the information sheet Courses.

Announcement by Lecturers

Lecturers should announce all lectures for the electronic course overview (eVv) of the following semester until November resp. May (following the request of the Bachelor-Master Office) by filling in an online course announcement form. You can see which courses have already been planned and announced in the course offerings of the upcoming (or already current) semester.

Lecture Schedule

For many modules there is already a fixed schedule, please see the overview on all courses and their cycles. Any changes to the established time schedule can only be permitted in exceptional cases after consulting the Bachelor-Master office. You can express your wishes for the time schedule of special lectures in the Master study program (module code V5..). Please check availability to avoid an overlapping with other relevant modules.

Module Code and Module Title

The Bachelor and Master modules have fixed module codes and titles. All seminars (module code S1G1, S2.., S4.., S5..) and special lectures in the Master study programme (module code V5..) should include an additional subtitle that specifies the content of the lecture (e.g. L-Functions, Steiner Trees,...).

Visiting Professors and Lecturers

Please inform the Bachelor-Master office of any planned lectures by substitutes or lecturers in your research area. The institutes have to apply for lectureships at the Faculty Council well before the beginning of the semester!

Late Announcements

Late announcements can be directed by e-mail to the Bachelor-Master Office as long as they are received in good time before the beginning of the course. Please give the exact title of the module, its category within the course overview, and the preferred days, time slots, and room(s).

Content

In order to choose the material for your lecture course, please follow the instructions of the module handbooks (Bachelor study program, Master study program, Teacher Education study programs). The content of the basic lectures up to V4.. is defined fairly precisely. Special lectures of the Master study program V5.. can be filled with some flexibility. Com­ments on the content, links to further information and selected literature references should be entered in BASIS before the beginning of the semester (see information sheet Courses).

Problem Sessions / Exercises

All lectures up to the 4th study year (module code V1.. to V4..) have obligatory prob­lem sessions/exercises. The places in the tutorial groups of the basic lecture courses of the 1st study year can be distributed with an alloca­tion procedure organized by the Bachelor-Master Office, see next section. Sometimes the introductory (V2) lectures can be included into the procedure. For the advanced lectures the tutorials are organized by the lecturer or the lecturer's assistant within the first week of the lecture period.

Rooms can be reserved via e-mail to raumplan@math.uni-bonn.de at any time – please mention the expected number of participants!

Examination Form

For each lecture there is a default examination form, written or oral. It is possible to deviate from this default, in this case you need to consult the Bachelor-Master Office well before the start of the semester. 

Preliminary Talk

A preliminary talk will usually take place at the end of the lecture period of the preceding semester. Please note the date of the preliminary talk in BASIS and also, if you have already fixed it, in the 'Meldeformular'. For editing your course in BASIS you will need your Uni-ID, see information sheet Courses.

Registration

The first step of the registration takes place at the preliminary talk. The lecturer uses the form with the list for all seminar participants where all participants have to sign their registration. A copy of this form is given to the Bachelor-Master Office Mathematics. The registration is binding, deregistration is not possible.

However, the registration needs to be completed by the second step where the students register actively via BASIS. The time periods for this online registration are between 01 and 30 October (winter semester), or between 01 and 30 April (summer semester). After the registration period the lecturer should check if the list of registrations is correct and complete.

Trial Presentation

Every seminar participant should give a trial presentation to the lecturer, or should ex­tens­ively discuss the presentation with the lecturer at least one week before the official presentation.

Procedure

Seminar talks (introductory seminar, seminar, graduate seminar, Bachelor or Master's thesis seminar) will take between 30 and 90 minutes. A written elaboration may be required.

If only few participants have registered for a seminar, the lecturers must ensure that at least five sessions take place, so that scientific discourse can take place.

The grades should only be given at the end of the lecture period as regular attendance in a seminar is a precondition for the seminar examination (see also section Examinations of Seminar Modules).

Registration

• Practical Teaching Course and Practical Lab: The students need to register between 01 and 30 October (winter semester) or between 01 and 30 April (summer semester) online in BASIS.
• External Internship: The students need to register on a form before the internship begins, usually with Mr. Carsten Rezny. Other Mathematics lecturers can also be the ex­amin­ers. Registration is possible anytime, there is no fixed period.

Admission

• Practical Teaching Course: Naturally, a practical teaching course can only be carried out by students who are in charge of a tutorial group for the respective lecture and who are sufficiently qualified. There is no entitlement to a practical teaching course (alternatively, there are practical labs and external internships).
• Practical Lab: The practical labs have their own preconditions for admission. Please check the relevant module handbook.
• External Internship: The examiner checks if the project fulfills the necessary requirements.

Procedure

• Practical Teaching Course: The lecturer of the tutored lecture is the examiner of the teaching course. They should visit the tutorial group at least once and should evaluate this visit together with the tutor. A written reflection on the tutorial work (portfolio) by the tutor is obligatory, the precise form of this portfolio is at the discretion of the supervising lecturer. The portfolio needs to be handed in until 31 March or until 30 September, respectively.
• Practical Lab: The students work on their projects during the semester, and finally they present their results. The examinations have to be completed until 31 March or until 30 September, respectively.
• External Internship: An external internship consists of at least six weeks of full-time employment or an ade­quate­ly longer part-time employment. A supervisor in the company/institution gives a written feedback on the internship. After completion, the student needs to write a report and give a final presentation which is open to an interested audience.

Please report technical faults in the lecture halls and seminar rooms immediately to Dr. Welter: welter@math.uni-bonn.de. 

Please make sure to switch off the projectors after use if no-one else uses them direct­ly after you!

The following rooms of Mathematics are administered by the Bachelor-Master Office:

• Lecture Halls Wegelerstraße 10

The basic operation of the media technology in the lecture halls at Wegelerstr. 10 can be seen here in a video.

1. Großer Hörsaal - Big lecture hall
   The microphone and the equipment for the data projector are locked in the desk. If you wish to use them for the first time, please contact Dr. Richard Schubert (schubert@iam.uni-bonn.de) or Dr. Michael Welter (welter@math.uni-bonn.de) so that they can program your transponder to open the desk lock. You will also find a manual for the projector in the desk.
2. Kleiner Hörsaal - Small lecture hall and Zeichensaal - Drawing room
   You do not need a transponder to use the projector in these rooms. If you connect a computer or laptop to one of the two cables, the system should recognize the source and automatically switch the projector on, and later switch it off again.
3. Seminar rooms at the Mathematikzentrum Endenicher Allee 60
   All seminar rooms in the department of mathematics ('Mathe­ma­tik­zentrum') have inte­grat­ed data projectors, so laptops can be connected directly with a VGA cable. If you do not have your own VGA cable, you can borrow one from the steel cabinet in the mail room.

In order to book one of these halls or rooms please write a mail to raumplan@math.uni-bonn.de.

You can find the latest update ot the room schedule ('Raumplan') at http://www.math.uni-bonn.de/ag/srvb/raumplan/.

• Semester schedule
• Overview of all courses and their rotation
• Course offerings of the upcoming/current semester
• Course announcement form for the upcoming/current semester
• Information sheet for Courses
  (Editing your courses for adding comments, links, etc. to lectures, seminars and practical training courses)
• Course overview: https://basis.uni-bonn.de/
• Seating maps of lecture halls (for written exams):
  
  1. Großer Hörsaal Wegelerstraße 10
  2. Kleiner Hörsaal Wegelerstraße 10
  3. Hörsaal Anatomie A
  4. Hörsaal Anatomie B
  5. Hörsaal Geographie
  6. Wolfgang-Paul-Hörsaal der Physik

The following information can also be found in our Information sheets Examinations and Examination Administration.

Examination Database

All module examinations (of lecture courses, seminars, practical trainings,...) are ad­ministr­ated via the examination database of Bonn University. The stu­de­nts register for every examination in the database, and after the examination the grade and the date of the exam (except previously fixed dates of written exams) need to be put in the database.

• Examiners with examiner's login can access the lists of their registered exam­inees, and they can put the grade and the date of an exam in the database themselves. You need to log into the online platform BASIS (basis.uni-bonn.de) with your examiner's user name and password. You can find instructions on that in the information sheet Examination Administration.
• Examiners without examiner's login receive the information about their registered examinees from the Bachelor-Master Office. We will also enter the grades and exam dates in the database after the exams have taken place, based on the minutes of the exams that you handed in.

Lists of Participants and E-mails to Examinees

• Lecturers with examiner's login should click on the button “Noten­verbuchung” (posting of grades) in BASIS for a list of registered examinees. By using “E-Mail an alle Teilnehmer” you can send an e-mail to all examinees or to a selected part of them.
• Lecturers without examiner's login will receive a list of registered examinees and a list of the mail addresses of the registered examinees (if necessary) from the Bachelor-Master Office.

Grades/Marks

We use the following grades for the evaluation:
1 (Very Good),  2 (Good), 3 (Satisfactory), 4 (Sufficient), 5 (Not Sufficient).
The grades can be graded up/down by 0.3 with exception of the grades 0.7 and 4.3 as well as 4.7 and 5.3 which are not accepted.

Examiner and Observer

All oral module examinations require an examiner and an observer. Oral examinations and seminars need to be minuted. The examiner needs to be appointed by the board of examiners. For written exams usually one examiner is sufficient.

Important: According to the examination regulations, final exams and exams which might lead to failing the whole studies must be evaluated by two examiners!

Examination Results

The result of an examination should be immediately put into the examination database (by the examiner or by the Bachelor-Master office):

• for written exams after the correction but before the inspection of the exam;
• for oral exams on the day of the exam (grade and individual examination date);
• for seminars at the end of the lecture period (grade and date of the individual talk);
• for practical training courses at latest in the last month of the semester (grade and date of the submission of the final report):
  latest possible date 31 March / 30 September!

Important: Even if the examinee does not show up for an examination, the entry “NE” must be made in the grade field, and a date must be given!

Examiners with examiner's login can change the grades as long as an exam has not been completed ("abgeschlossen") in the database. If an exam is already completed in BASIS, grades can only be corrected by the Bachelor-Master Office. In order to avoid mistakes we kindly ask you to complete the grading after you have put all grades into the database.

Important: If the grades for the 1st examination date/period have already been put in BASIS, and afterwards a failed exam is changed to be passed after all (e.g. if the grade is raised from 5.0 to 4.0), then it is imperative that you inform the Bachelor-Master office about this. The reason why is that after entering the grade 5.0 there will be an auto­ma­ti­c regis­tra­tion for the 2nd examination date/period, which needs to be manually deleted if the exam has been changed to passed.

Documentation/Archiving

In order to document the examination results in the student files, examination protocols must be created for all examinations that are not taken as written exams, and sent to the Bachelor-Master Office. Also, all written exams are collected after inspection and given to the Bachelor-Master Office for archiving.

Note: For all oral examinations, a file named "Protokollblatt für mündlche Prüfungen" can be called up in advance in BASIS under "Posting of Grades". This file contains a protocol form for each examinee where the data of the examinee as well as the examination and examiner are already preset. The file must be generated as long as the status is "registered", i.e. before the grades are entered!

Registration for Module Examinations

Students register for the examination in a lecture module in BASIS within the set deadlines. The exam registration period begins in the summer semester on June 1 and in the winter semester on December 1. It ends

• for written examinations, two weeks before the date set for the examination,
• for oral examinations, two weeks before the end of the lecture period.

After these deadlines, late registrations will only be accepted by the Bachelor-Master Office in exceptional cases and in consultation with the lecturers concerned.

The registration always applies to the first examination date or period (February/July). Only those who failed or did not show up at the first exam will automatically be registered for the second exam date or period (March/September). A separate registration for the second exam date/period is not possible! There is only one exception: Students in defined study semesters at the beginning of the Bachelor or the Teacher Education programmes are allowed a "free try".

If the lecture course has exercises then the registration for the exercise is generated auto­mat­i­cally.

Some students cannot be registered via the examination administration database BASIS (FFF-early students and some cross-registered students). The Bachelor-Master office collects these registrations and forwards a list with the names of the additionally registered students to the lecturers in the middle of Janua­ry and in the beginning of June, respectively.

Admission to Module Examinations

For lecture courses with problem sessions/exercises admission to the module exam requires successful work on the exercises. It is up to the lecturer to judge under which conditions the student achieves success in the problem sessions. For lecture courses without problem sessions there is no precondition for admission, all registered students are admitted to the exam.

• Lecturers with examiner's login individually put the examination results (“+” for passed, “-” for not passed) into the grade field of the examination database BASIS (see information sheet Examination Administration).

Students who have passed the problem sessions in a previous semester are already ad­mitted to the exam, their names will therefore not appear on the list of the problem sessions.

For those students who do not appear on the electronic list (FFF-early students and some cross-registered students), the same criteria as for all others should be applied, and their success in the problem sessions should be reported to the Bachelor-Master Office via e-mail.

Important: The registrations of those students who are not admitted to the exam will be deleted by the Bache­lor-Master office. Therefore it is imperative that you tell us if the problem sessions had been marked as not passed but afterwards changed to passed. In this case we need to manually restore the registration for the exam!

Examination Form

The Bachelor-Master office needs to be informed about the examination form (written or oral) at the beginning of the semester. Different forms can be chosen for the examina­tion and the re-examination.

• Written exams

  Written exams can take 30 to 180 minutes. The results will be entered into the examin­ation database as soon as possible (not later than four weeks), and thus made available to the examinees. Students can immediately view the results after they have been put into BASIS, even if the exam has not yet been completed.

• Oral exams

  Oral exams can take 15 to 45 minutes per examinee. Group examinations are possible if the time for every examinee is at least 15 minutes.
  In BASIS you will find the PDF “Protokollblatt für mündliche Prüfungen” for minutes of an oral examination which produces a data sheet for each examinee (in German only). Alternatively you can use the protocol forms of Mathematics.
  Please make sure that the forms are filled in completely, and that they are signed by examiner and observer before forwarding them to the Bachelor-Master office.
  Lecturers with examiner's login need to put the grades and the dates of the exam into BASIS right after the examination.

• Bachelor Mathematik
  
  • Winter semester - examination dates
  • Summer semester - examination dates
• Master Mathematics
  • Winter semester - examination dates
  • Summer semester - examination dates

Regular attendance in a seminar is defined as a course achievement (“Stu­dienleistung”). Therefore the seminar exam can only be valid if this achievement is given.

Seminar talks are exams, therefore they must be minuted. Forms for minutes of seminar talks can be found on BASIS (“Protokollblatt für mündliche Prüfungen”, in German only), or you can use our own form for the minutes of seminar talks.

The grades for the talks should immediately be noted on the form, together with the date of the talk.

Attendance during the whole semester should be checked (see above) before the results are put into the database at the end of the lecture period. Please hand in the fully completed and signed minutes forms at the Bachelor-Master Office after the seminar is finished.

• Lectures with examiner's login please put the grade as well as the date of the seminar talk (as exam date) into BASIS.
• For lecturers without examiner's login the Bachelor-Master Office will enter the grades into BASIS, based on the minutes forms.

• Tutorenpraktikum/Practical Teaching Course/Mathematisches Praktikum:
  The examination of the Practical Teachings includes a portfolio and the presentation in the tutorial (weighted 1:1). In the portfolio the students should reflect upon their didactic work in the tutorial. Prof. Kaenders comprised some explanations on the portfolio for lecturers.
  The students can find templates for a portfolio (for tutorials with and without the correction of homework).
• Industriepraktikum/External Internship:
  The evaluation is based on the feedback of the contact person in the company as well as the final report and presentation.
• Programmierpraktikum/Practical Lab:
  The programming project and the presentation are evaluated.

Important: The projects, reports/portfolios, and presentations must be completed and handed in until the last day of the semester for which the module is registered, i.e. 31 March / 30 September at the latest!

For each practical training course you need to fill out a minutes form.

Contact persons:

• Tutorenpraktikum/Practical Teaching Course: Dr. Welter (Bachelor) and Dr. Doerffel (Master)
• Industriepraktikum/External Internship: Mr. Rezny

The following information can in parts also be found in our information sheet Theses.

Examiners/Advisors

• If you wish to issue a topic for a thesis and to act as a student's first advisor/examiner then you need to be an appointed examiner for theses. Only professors are appointed examiners ex officio. If you are a postdoctoral staff member and wish to advise a thesis for the first time you need to first apply for the respective appointment to the examinations board (by e-mail to the Bachelor-Master Office (bama@math.uni-bonn.de)). Before doing so you should have taught or be teaching a lecture course in Bonn.
• If you are a staff member of Bonn Mathematics with a Ph.D. then you are appointed to be the second advisor/examiner for Bachelor's theses. In order to act as second advisor/examiner of Master's theses you need to be proposed by the first advisor/examiner (by e-mail to the Bachelor-Master Office (bama@math.uni-bonn.de)).
• In either case one of the two advisors of a thesis must be a professor of Bonn Mathematics.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Thesis:
  The duration is 5 months. Together with the mandatory Bachelor Thesis Seminar this cor­respon­ds to a workload of 360+180 hours (for 12+6 ECTS-credits). The thesis should comprise at least 5 and at most 50 DIN-A4 pages. It should be written in German. If it is submitted in English then a summary in German is required.
• Master's Thesis:
  The duration is 12 months. Together with the mandatory Master Thesis Seminar this cor­respon­ds to a workload of 900+180 hours (for 30+6 ECTS-credits). The thesis should comprise at least 10 and at most 100 DIN-A4 pages. It should be written in English. If it is submitted in German, then a summary in English is required.

Topic Assignment

The topics should usually be assigned in January and in July. Thus students can start with the literature work immediately after having passed the last relevant exams and can complete their thesis in good time before the end of the current or the following term. This is important for avoiding unnecessary delays if the students wish to register for the Master's program right after completing their Bachelor degree.

The lecturer might offer a preliminary discussion during which several possible topics can be presented.

When assigning topics for a Bachelor thesis please take into account that the stu­dents at that time normally have completed no more than one introductory and one advanced lecture course and a seminar in the respective area.

Registration

It is recommended to register the theses before 01 February resp. 01  August. Please use our registration form, which needs to be signed by the supervising lecturer. The official start of the working period is the date of the lecturer's signature, it defines the submission date (5 resp. 12 months later).

The Bachelor-Master Office must receive the registration form within two weeks after the topic was assigned.

Bachelor and Master's Thesis Seminar

The registration for the thesis seminar is combined with the registration for the thesis. On the registration form a term for the thesis seminar must be indicated, please enter the term in which the thesis will presumably be submitted and the final talk (see below) will be given. Students should give three talks in the thesis seminar of which the first two will not be graded. The third talk (final colloquium) will take 30-90 minutes and the final grade for the thesis seminar will be fixed afterwards. In the final talk the students are expected to present their work and they should be able to discuss the results in an extended mathematical context. The final talk should be given within 4 weeks before to 4 weeks after the submission of the thesis, and it should be comprehensible for non-experts.

Lecturers who advise only few theses should at best offer a thesis seminar together with another lecturer so that all examinees get the opportunity to present their topic more than once, and in front of other students. Especially we recommend for postdoctoral staff members to organize a joint thesis seminar together with their supervising professors.

Extension of the Deadline

In exceptional cases, on the examinee's written substantiated request (and supported by the supervisor, if necessary), the deadline for submitting the thesis can be extended up to six weeks by the head of the examinations board.

Report

• Bachelor thesis: Extent ½ to 1 DIN-A4 page
• Master's thesis: Extent 1 to 2 DIN-A4-pages

Please use the templates (LaTex: Bachelor thesis, Master's thesis; Word: Bachelor thesis, Master's thesis; OpenOffice: Bachelor thesis, Master's thesis) which should be used for the report or at least should be added to the report as a cover sheet.

Evaluation

Each thesis will be evaluated by two appointed advisors (see par. "Examiners/Advisors").

• Bachelor thesis: Reports should be submitted within five weeks as the examinees must be informed of their theses' grades within six weeks at the latest.
• Master's thesis: Reports should be submitted within six weeks as the examinees must be informed of their theses' grades within eight weeks at the latest. Please keep in mind that reports for non German-speaking stu­dents should be written in English in order to facilitate the students' inspection.

The following information can also be found in our information sheet Academic Mentoring.

Each master's student is assigned to a mentor upon admission to the study program. This assignment is made by the selection committee on basis of the scientific interests the student stated in their application.

The mentors will

• hold a joint meeting with all their mentees at the beginning of the lecture period, in order to introduce the area and to explain possible study plans;
• at the end of the first term or at the beginning of the second term, invite each student for an obligatory individual counselling meeting where the student's study progress is evaluated, and each student can talk to their mentor individually and confidentially. This meeting needs to be documented and the minutes need to be sent to the Bachelor-Master office.
• be available during the semester for questions regarding study planning and study related problems.

As a rule, the mentoring ends after the obligatory individual counselling. If the mentor or the mentee wishes to continue the mentoring this will be indicated on the form.

The PDF forms are electronically fillable. Modules can be selected from a list but it is also possible to write own text instead.

• List of Seminar Registrations
• Registration for external internship
• Registration Bachelor Thesis and Bachelor Thesis Seminar

• Minutes of an Oral Lecture Course Examitation
• Minutes of a Seminar Examination
• Protokollblatt für mündliche Prüfungen - to be generated in BASIS at "Posting of Grades"
• Minutes of a Practical Training Course Examination
• Minutes of a Mentoring Counselling

• Information sheet Examination Administration
• Information sheet Examinations
• Information sheet Theses
• Explanations on the Portfolio for Lecturers
• Portfolio Template for Tutorials Including Homework Correction
• Portfolio Template for In-Class Tutorials
• Mentoring System, Rights and Obligations

TeX Templates:  

• Bon University Logo for TeX Templates
• Template for the Report of a Bachelor Thesis (in German)
• Template for the Report of a Master's Thesis

Word Templates:

• Template for the Report of a Bachelor Thesis (in German)
• Template for the Report of a Master's Thesis

OpenOffice Templates:

• Template for the Report of a Bachelor Thesis (in German)
• Template for the Report of a Master's Thesis

Modulhandbücher und Prüfungsordnungen für Bachelor- und Masterstudiengang finden Sie imYou can find the module handbooks and examination regulations in our document archive.

• Examination Board for the Bachelor's Study Program Mathematik  and the Master's Study Program Mathematics
• Evaluation Project Group (EPG) Mathematics
• Data Privacy Statement of the Bachelor-Master Office Mathematics