Thesis

No specific thesis topics are currently available, but we guide thesis on the domain of topic areas closely related to Chair's research. Students with a strong interest in the topics of the Chair, who have already successfully completed courses in International Management or Strategy, are welcome to send an application by email to Professor Keil.

Issues to consider before applying

When applying for a thesis at the Chair in International Management, students must consider the following requirements:

• Bachelor Thesis: the student must be in the final year of own studies and expect to graduate within 6-9 months since the application time. In addition, it is required that the student has passed at least one course at the Chair in International Management;
• Master Thesis: the student must be in the final year of own studies and expect to graduate within 6-9 months since the application time. In addition, it is required that the student has passed at least one course at the Chair in International Management.
• By default the language of the thesis is English.
• All Master Thesis topics will require some empirical work (qualitative or quantitative research) or simulations/mathematical modelling. Student should have prior experience on related method. For instance, knowledge of statistical software such as Stata or R maybe required for some topics.

Application

All applicants for a Bachelor or Master Thesis must send an email application to Professor Keil. The application must include:

• a declaration of interest in topics that a student is interested in
• the full transcript of bachelor studies for Bachelor Thesis applicants and both Bachelor and Master transcripts for master thesis applicants.

Process after the application has been sent

The Chair will decide if to accept the application based on the following criteria:

• the applicant must have passed at least one course at the Chair in International management.
• the student's interest must be in a focus area of the Chair in International Management or be willing to accept a topic relevant for the Chair

An applicant who gets preliminarily accepted will receive a preliminary topic domain and a short list of articles to become familiar with the topic. After familiarizing himself/herself with the topic domain the applicant needs to reconfirm his/her interest before the topic will be registered with the Dean’s office.

Process after acceptance

If an applicant is accepted and a topic confirmed, each student will be responsible to handle the official registration.

The Chair will send the topic definition to the Dean’s office from where the student can collect it. Please note that this part of the process can take several weeks especially during the summer time and a precise starting date cannot be guaranteed. The Chair will take into account the student's preferred starting date, but does not guarantee any.

Submitting the thesis

Follow the requirements set by the Dean's Office. In addition to the official copies of the thesis you submit to the Dean's Office, we require you to submit a pdf-version of your thesis by email to Professor Keil and the instructor the same day you return the official copies.

Grading of the thesis

The submitted version of each thesis is read by Professor Keil and the instructor and only the final content shall be graded. The instructor and Professor Keil will read the thesis independently, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your work and give the final, non-negotiable grade. No student will be offered a possibility to submit an additional version or otherwise extend the thesis time under any circumstances.

Each thesis is assessed according to the Chair's international standards (which are kept quite high) on what should be expected from Bachelor or Master thesis.

Please take into account that the grading of each thesis can take up to eight weeks. If a student has a real need to receive the grade sooner (e.g., to be able to apply to an exchange program and need to have the thesis in the record before the deadline, or if the graduation becomes at risk) the student must inform us well in advance, with the clear reasons for the urgency and we will do our best to accommodate the schedule.

Grading policy and practices (PDF, 154 KB)