BEHAVIORAL

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Master's thesis supervision Summer term 2025

Before you consider to apply for thesis supervision at the BIM chair, please carefully read the following:

1) Do not write your thesis under our supervision if at the same time you plan to work full time, do an internship , travel the world, or still need to do a large number of other courses! The thesis is an integral part of your study program and, thus, should be in the focus of your attention. You will need all the time to be able to deliver the best package (we fully understand that most of you have a student job and this is perfectly doable). All students that despite our warnings still started a full-time job or internship etc. struggled with finishing their thesis in time and delivering the desired quality. YOUR thesis should be YOUR first priority!

2) Only write your thesis under our supervision if you are commited, motivated, and responsible as well as willing to accept new challenges! If you consider to write your thesis at the BIM chair you should be well-organized, be able to motivate yourself to achieve your goals, and be willing to independently learn new skills (e.g., learn new statistical approaches largely on your own). Writing your thesis with us inlcudes to go beyond what you have learned in your scientific project, your seminars, and lectures. We expect that you are proavtive and motivated as well as able to largely do this on your own. Our job is to reduce uncertainty. Be prepared for all meetings and show us that you invest effort and time to solve issues yourself. This is YOUR thesis, work for it!

3) We are not your personal assistant. Our job is to supervise your thesis with respect to the topic and method as well as the general content and process (e.g., literature search, writting, etc.). It is not our job to remind you of deadlines, to fill out your documents, or to replace your own efforts to understand the submission procedure. All this information is provided below or publicly available on the website of our faculty, specifically the examination office. We are not your internet search engine substitude. This is YOUR thesis, YOU need to organize it!
Registration form Master's thesis: Click here
Submission procedure of your Master's thesis: Click here
General information for your study program (including all information in case of illness): Click here

4) Time problems on your side do not create time pressure on our side! It is part of the mission of the BIM chair to provide students with timely answers to their questions as well as a timely feedback and grading after submission. Time constraints on your side do NOT create time issues on our side. Our aim is to answer questions and request via email within two working days. We are usually much faster than that but if you send your question Friday late in the afternoon you cannot expect an answer on the same day. Organize yourself and try walking in the shoes of the members of the BIM chair. The same applies to the situation once you have submitted your final thesis. If you want to start a job or internship, have visa requirements or travel plans, if you want to/need to move out of your apartment, or if you want to get back your semester fee etc. this is all your business and your responsibility. We have eight weeks to finish the grading of your thesis (see the study regulations) and while we aim for a much shorter time, it will not always be possible to finalize within two weeks. Each member of the BIM chair at any given point in time during the year is supervising at least five Master thesis students, five Bachelor thesis students, and several supervised internships etc. We simply cannot take into account all particularities for each and every supervised student as this otherwise would fill our schedule completly. All submitted theses are graded on a first come, first served basis. If you need your grade as soon as possible make sure to submit early. YOUR issues, YOUR business!

Please read the following text carefully.

Master's thesis supervision at the BIM chair during Summer term 2025 is organized in the following way:

Application: Apply for Master's thesis supervision no later than March 15th 2025 before midnight (deadline) and send it via email to Ida-Anna Thiele (ida-anna.thiele@ovgu.de). Prepare a max. two page motivation letter (including a priority list of three topics from the BIM chair list or your own topic proposition - see below), a CV, and the transcript of all Master's and Bachelor's grades in a single pdf document - use free of charge online tools to transfer and merge your documents. Please send us the most recent transcript of your current Master's degree to ensure that all grades from the Winter term 2023 are already included (if possible). Name the file with your last name and '_Thesis_App', e.g. 'Schlaegel_Thesis_App.pdf'.

Selection criteria: Preference in the selection of Master's thesis students will be given to excellent students that participated in the scientific projects of the BIM chair.

Notification: Applicants are going to receive information about the result of the selection no later than tba.

Topic: You are welcome to (a) propose your own topic (but make sure that you have access to data so you can test your hypotheses) or (b) make a priority list of three topics from the BIM chair list of potential topics. Topic issues will NOT be discussed before April. Please indicate the number of the topic (e.g., Topic 1) in your priority list. The topic preferences you send us should not be changed after the end of the application period, as we will try to assign you to a supervisor considering your first priority.

Timeframe: A total of 22 weeks are available for the thesis - a four week "reading" period and a 18 week "writing" period (to be graded in the Summer term 2025, the thesis needs to be finished by the end of September including the thesis submission and defense).

Reading period: Start of the four-week reading period no later than tba.

Registration: The thesis registration and start of the 18-week writing period is no later than tba (the registration document is available on the website of the examination office - registration form Master's thesis: Click here).

For the thesis registration, please check (a) again whether you fulfill all the requirements to register for the Master's thesis before sending us the registration form and (b) then send us your current transcript of records together with the registration form via e-mail. If it becomes apparent after the reading period has begun that you do not meet the requirements (for example, because you have failed a course for which you had not yet received a grade), please let us know IMMEDIATELY. 

For IMME students starting their studies before WT24/25, the main requirements for the Master's thesis registration are: the successful completion of (1) at least 75 credit points including all compulsory modules, (2) at least one specialization section, and (3) at least one seminar worth 10 credit points (click here for the official examination regulations).

For IMME students starting their studies from WT24/25 onwards, the main requirements for the Master's thesis registration are: the successful completion of (1) at least 75 credit points including all compulsory modules, (2) 5 CP in the area of “scientific work”, and (3) at least one seminar worth 10 credit points (click here for the official examination regulations).

For BWL/Business Economics students starting their studies before WT24/25, the main requirements for the master thesis registration are: the successful completion of (1) at least 75 credit points, (2) at least two specialization sections (please consider the particularities for the specializations "Marketing and E-Business" and "Economics"), and (3) at least one seminar worth 10 credit points (click here for the official examination regulations).

For BWL/Business Economics students starting their studies from WT24/25 onwards, the main requirements for the Master's thesis registration are: the successful completion of (1) at least 75 credit points, (2) 5 CP in the area of “scientific work”, (3) at least two specialization sections (please consider the particularities for the specializations "Marketing and E-Business" and "Economics"), and (4) at least one seminar worth 10 credit points (click here for the official examination regulations).

Supervision approach: An important aspect of the Master's thesis is to work independently on the topic - individual supervision meetings should not exceed four to five appointments of 30 minutes each (not including a meeting to specify the topic). In the meetings your supervisor is not a substitute for your own efforts to solve problems. Thesis supervision does not include prior review of parts of the thesis or a "first draft". All thesis supervision meetings take place face-to-face on campus.

Defenses (mid-term): All theses defenses take place on tba (15 minutes presentation of your current state and 10 minutes questions - the ppt slides do not need to be submitted earlier) - about 45 to 60 minutes in total to have time for feedback. 

Submission: Submission of the thesis is no later than tba (see the website of the examination office for further details on the submission requirements and process - submission procedure of your Master's thesis: Click here).

Questions: Please read the above carefully. If you have any questions not answered by the above information, contact Ida-Anna Thiele (ida-anna.thiele@ovgu.de).

Important dates summary:

Application: Until midnight on March 15th 2025 via e-mail (ida-anna.thiele@ovgu.de)
Notification: tba
Mandatory kick-off meeting on campus: tba
First meeting with supervisor: tba
Reading period: tba
Writing period: tba
Thesis registration: tba
Mid-term presentations/thesis defenses: tba
Thesis submission: tba

Potential Master's thesis topics

A list of topics will be provided until 1st of March, 2025