After the 8th active semester, your student status ends, so it is not possible any more to passivate. You can ask for a delay for submitting the final version of the thesis.

No. At the end of the Research and thesis writing phase, you are only supposed to submit the first draft of the dissertation. You do not have to defend it; you only have to do the research centre disputation (unofficially called “home defence” or “pre-defence”). No one expects a complete version of the thesis at this point, on the contrary: you can receive ideas to complete it from all members of the research centre disputation committee. Nevertheless, even the first draft should show the main points of the thesis. It should be about 75-80% complete.

In a fall semester, the deadline of registering for the research centre disputation is 15 October, in a spring semester it is 15 March. Please notify your supervisor and the programme secretary that you would like to have your research centre disputation until the end of the semester (the beginning of July in a spring semester, and the beginning of February in a fall semester). The research centre disputation must take place until the end of the exam period of your 8th active semester, the latest. Please also consider that both opponents (reviewers) of your first draft will need at least one month to read and evaluate the draft. 

At the beginning of the semester, the administrators give the students in their 8th semester a deadline. If you submit your first draft by that deadline, the administrators can help you organise the research centre disputation. If not, you organise it yourself. 

It is not the student who should organise the committee, but they can help. Most of it is the supervisor’s job. The supervisor and the student can discuss the persons of the opponents (reviewers with a degree, out of which one must not be employed by the University) with each other, and that is usually enough. The Doctoral School can also help if needed, but it is more useful if those who know the thesis appoint the opponents. You will also need a chairperson (with a doctoral degree) and a secretary. The secretary may be even a friend of the student’s, or the supervisor themself. The list of the committee members must be sent to the programme director for approval. After that, you need to fix a date. The administrators then book a room, notify the IT department, prepare the minutes, and assist.

Your deadline for submitting the final version of the thesis is the last day (31 August) of the third academic year after your comprehensive (complex) exam. Having one or two passive semesters does not extend the deadline. In an extreme case, a student may still be in their 8th active semester and have their deadline for the final version at the end of the same semester. Still, there must be at least a month between the research centre disputation and the submission of the final version of the thesis.

The absolutorium is the document certifying that a student has completed the organised part of the doctoral training and is about to submit the final version of their thesis. Obtaining the absolutorium is mandatory for obtaining a doctoral degree.

If you cannot obtain at least 240 credits until the end of your 8th active semester, or the minimum credits from each module, your training terminates without an absolutorium.