Research Seminar and Master Thesis

General information on research seminars (MA-WW-FS / D-WW-FS):

Master theses handed in at the chair of finance and financial services are usually linked to a preceding research seminar. During the seminar the topic is discussed with the supervisor as well as other seminar participants working in the same or a similar field of research. Additionally and as required, methodical lectures are offered by supervisors, seminar participants or external professionals.

Aim of the research seminar is to independently find a question of research for the intended Master thesis. Professional expertise concering the question of research and a good command of English are required. The research seminar (WW-MA-FS) is mandatory for achieve the Master's degree and yields 10 credit points. The amount of work involved sums up to approx. 300 hours (8 weeks full-time equivalent). The research seminar can be started at any given time and is not fixed to certain points of time.

Topics of the research seminar:

Please find topics for research seminars here.

Meetings concerning the elaborated field of research (G1 – G6) are mandatory for participants of the research seminar and authors of Master theses.

Application for research seminars and master theses:

Please send your application documents (completed form and current extract of grades) via mail to Arite Schrehardt. Necessary documents can be found in  OPAL.

Procedure of research seminar and master theses:

The application for the research seminar is official with handing in the completed form (including a current extract of grades) "Bewerbung Forschungsseminar/Masterarbeit“ at the office of the chair of finance and financial services (HÜL N 221 – regard opening hours).

In case contact information is recorded on the application form, the candidate will be contacted by the respective supervisor. Otherwise, the candidate has to get in touch with the respective supervisor.

Working on the research seminar:

Aim of the research seminar is to write a seminar paper, including:

• State of the art in a certain field of research and overview of previously published work concerning the intended master thesis with summary of respective results (literature review),
• Identification of open research questions on the field of research,
• Reasoned choice of one or more research questions,
• Possible outline of the master thesis with proportional scope for each section.

After handing in the research seminar paper, the results will be presented in a colloquium.

The seminar paper needs to satisfy the guidelines for layout of research papers of the chair of finance and financial services.

Master thesis

Applying for the master thesis is possible only after the research seminar is completed. Therefore, the form "Protokoll über die Masterarbeit" (available at the examination office of the faculty) needs to be completed. The time period to finish the master thesis is four month (§ 27 PO) and yields 20 credit points. It is recommended to start the thesis directly after finishing the research seminar. Regard that topics will only be accepted, if the research seminar is passed.

Bullet points 1 & 2 are only mentioned briefly, since they are already concerned in course of the research seminar. The question of research is displayed at the beginning of the master thesis. Since research is open-ended, the outline of the thesis might be subject to change after consulting the supervisor. However, this is not supposed to happen on a regular basis.

If basing on a research seminar, the scope of the master thesis should not extend 40 pages of text (excluding registers and appendix). Depiction of empirical work can require to extend the scope, if it can not be implemented in the appendix. This needs to be agreed upon with the supervisor and be put down in writing.

External candidates that did not complete their research seminar at the chair of finance and financial services are granted a lead time of four weeks at the maximum. This time is provided to prepare the topic and the outline. If the outline is accepted, the student needs to register via the examination office immediately. In this case, the scope of the seminar paper is limited to 60 text pages.