Theses

For an application for a thesis, every student should have an interest in the subject and research areas of our department and ideally be able to document this in their previous course of study.

The aim of the thesis is for the student to demonstrate that they have independently and autonomously worked through a problem in a subject area by applying scientific methods within a given period of time. Please check your respective examination regulations for the modalities for final theses.

Application for the final thesis

At the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, the assignment of theses - such as Bachelor's or Master's theses - is organised via a central web-based application procedure.

This system does not replace the official examination registration, but initially serves to allocate theses within the four participating departments. The assignment of students to their supervisors takes about 1 - 1 ½ months. You will then be informed by email about acceptance and contact details.

If you have any organisational questions about the central registration procedure, you can contact abschlussarbeiten[at]wiwi.upb.de. Please note that the information regarding your assignment will be sent to your IMT e-mail address. If you have any questions about the individual requirements of the chairs, please refer to their homepages or contact them directly. The requirements of the Chair of Human Resource Management can be found below.

The online application phase for theses for the summer semester 2025 via the central allocation procedure runs from 20 January (09:00) to 31 January 2025 (23:59) via this page.

Specificities

Prerequisites

We assume that you have studied Human Resources Management, i.e. you have successfully completed modules at the Chair of Human Resources Management or have completed corresponding courses abroad.

Start date

The central start date for Bachelor's and Master's theses is four weeks after the introductory event. We will inform you of the date for the introductory event and all other components of our supervision programme as soon as your thesis has been accepted by our department (see Supervision programme & events).

PLEASE NOTE: Our supervision programme usually starts in the first or second week of lectures. Participation in the introductory event and all subsequent events is a prerequisite for you to be able to write your thesis at our department.

Topics for theses

Suggestions for Bachelor's and Master's thesis topics in the summer semester 2025 can be found here.

For both Bachelor's and Master's theses, you can submit your own topic proposal, provided it falls within our subject areas. You can find more detailed information on this in the documents with the topic suggestions.

Documents for the application

Exposé for Master's theses

If you are applying for a Bachelor's thesis, you do not have to prepare an exposé. In the case of Master's theses, we expect an exposé, for which the following guidelines apply. The synopsis comprises one to two pages. You should explain the topic of the thesis, formulate an objective and outline ideas for the approach. Your synopsis should therefore provide initial answers to the following questions: Why is the topic relevant? What question(s) do you want to answer with your work? How would you go about answering these questions? Please also list the literature you have used.

Further documents for Bachelor's and Master's theses

If you are attending HR modules in the current semester that are not yet included in your overview of grades, please add these to a separate overview. In your application, please also let us know your preferred topics listed according to 1st, 2nd and 3rd preference on a separate sheet in the application. You will be able to view the possible topics here in due course.

PLEASE NOTE: If you do not indicate any topic preferences, you will automatically be assigned a topic by the chair.

All information on the other relevant documents for your application can be found on the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics website. This information is relevant for all applicants and is therefore not explicitly mentioned again on this page.

Supervision concept

While you are writing your thesis at our chair, we offer you an intensive supervision concept. This is based on several obligatory curses, which we use to familiarise you with academic work, from developing your research question to improving your academic writing style.

This concept, in combination with individual supervision meetings and, above all, your personal commitment, forms an important basis for writing an excellent thesis.

Examples of events that we usually offer as part of the concept can be found in the table above. The dates in the table are intended as a rough guide. We will inform you of the specific dates of the individual events shortly after you have received confirmation of acceptance of your thesis at our chair.

Notes on design & production

You can find a format template for your thesis here.