Preparing for the First Meeting with Your Supervisors

As soon as it’s clear who will supervise your work, you should organize an initial coordination meeting. To help you prepare for this, here are all the points you should clarify with your supervisor during this first meeting.

Deadlines for your thesis

There are deadlines you need to meet for your final thesis. Clarify the following points:

Date of registration at the student office
Latest possible submission date
If applicable, date for your own presentation in the seminar on the final thesis
Possible or necessary preliminary work before the official start
Possibly formalities for extending the processing time, see also: Granting of extensions in the APO (e.g. in case of illness)

If specific equipment or aids are needed for your thesis, they should ideally be available before registration. Materials delivered too late are usually not a valid reason for an extension.

Detailed task description

A detailed task description is practically half of the table of contents. The following points are important:

Expectations and goals that your supervisor and you associate with the thesis project
Content focus of the thesis

Subject and method of the research

Once you have defined the subject of your research, you should also discuss the following with your supervisor:

Methodology (e.g. experiment, observation, measurement, development, construction, simulation, etc.)
Practical implementation approach

Expectations and the further process

For good supervision, it is advisable to know each other’s expectations beforehand:

Preferred communication channels: phone, email etc.
Dates for regular meetings to discuss interim results and next steps
Submitting text samples or a first outline to receive feedback, e.g. on your working style

Creating a project outline

After your first meeting with your supervisor, it may be helpful to create a project outline – also called exposé, requirements specification, or specification sheet. Sometimes your supervisor will request this even before the first meeting.

Such a project outline can be around five pages and contains:

Title page
(Preliminary) outline of the thesis
Topic, research question & objectives
Methodology
Schedule
Key sources for your thesis

Some instructors prefer to see a project outline in advance to get informed about your plan before agreeing to supervise. Then the project outline serves as a basis for further detailing.

You should register your thesis at the student office at the latest after your supervisor has approved the project outline.

Scope and standards

Find out which requirements apply to your thesis:

Text length and tolerance ranges
If applicable, length of individual chapters
Formal standards and formatting
Possibly grading scheme

“Don’t expect your supervisor to give you a statement on the ‘required page count’ – a good thesis is as long as necessary, no shorter and no longer. A typical thesis (without appendices but including all indexes) ranges from 50 to 90 pages, with 70 pages rarely exceeded. An extremely theoretical thesis could be only 20 pages and still be excellent. A short, concise thesis will be read more willingly and graded better than a rambling one. Of course, essential parts shouldn’t be omitted just to shorten the thesis. So: write your thesis without worrying about page numbers; even if the numbers seem daunting at first (‘I’ll never manage that much’), you will quickly realize that your content will easily fill this space.”

– Prof. Dr. Matthias Hopf

Further modalities

Depending on the type of your academic work, additional aspects may need to be clarified, such as:

Work contracts, safety instructions, access authorizations etc.
Internal faculty regulations on confidentiality agreements and embargo notices

“Arrange further meetings. Often, instructors assume it is the student’s responsibility to seek help rather than the instructor’s responsibility to provide it. Actively approach your supervisor to submit reading samples. Two to four pages from the methods or results section are particularly suitable, as these best represent your writing style and scientific work. Your instructor can then provide feedback which you can consider in your further writing.”

– Prof. Dr. Christine Niebler

Frequently asked questions

How many meetings with my supervisor are advisable?

After the initial coordination meeting, it is advisable to actively schedule further appointments, usually 2–3 additional meetings. This way, your supervisor can provide valuable feedback, e.g. on your approach or your analysis.

Which points should I clarify in the first meeting?

In the first meeting, all relevant key data for your work and supervision should be clarified.

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This article was published in August 2025 and last updated in November 2024.

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