At the Chair of European and Global Governance, you can write your Bachelor's or Master's thesis. Please be aware of the following information:
Timeline
It takes time from the first idea to the finished thesis. Therefore, it is important that you start early with the conception of your thesis - at the latest one semester before your planned graduation.
Choosing a Topic
Theses in the context of European and Global Governance should be thematically oriented to the teaching and research areas of the chair. It is possible to propose your own topic from across the entire European and Global Governance spectrum.
Supervisor
To be considered for supervision of your thesis, you should have taken at least one course with the person who will be supervising you. Please contact the member of the chair you would like to have as supervisors for your topic by e-mail as early as possible. You only need one supervisor for your thesis.
Specification of the Topic
As soon as you have thought about the topic and structure of your work in more detail, you can make this more precise together with your supervisor during office hours. Please make an appointment by e-mail.
Registration of the Thesis
If your supervisor agrees with the topic, you can register your thesis with your responsible academic advisor.
Exposé
In the next step, please draft an exposé of your planned thesis for discussion during office hours. Please send the exposé at least two weeks in advance by e-mail to your supervisor. Please read the instructions for how to write an exposé.
Chair Colloquium
Work supervised by the chair must be presented in the colloquium. This gives you the opportunity to receive feedback from an extended group of people. Please make an appointment with your supervisor.
Submission and Evaluation
Please submit your work as a PDF file by e-mail via the HfP-Grade and Examination Administration. Please remember the Declaration of Authorship, including consent to the plagiarism check. Evaluations will be completed within two - three months of submission.
Requirements
Bachelor’s Thesis | Master's Thesis | |
Number of Pages | 25-30 pages written text - without references and title page | 45-50 pages written text - without references and title page |
Max. Editing Time from Registration | 3 months (full-time students) 4.5 months (part-time students) | 6 months (full-time students) 12 months (part-time students) |
Language | German or English | English |
Font | Standard (Times New Roman, Font size 12) | Standard (Times New Roman, Font size 12) |
Line Spacing | 1.5 lines spacing | 1.5 lines spacing |
Submission | By e-mail (one PDF file) via HfP-Grade and Examination Administration | By e-mail (one PDF file) via HfP-Grade and Examination Administration |
Citation Style | Every common social science citation is accepted. The crucial factor is the consistent use of one citation rule. Advice: Use a reference management software, e.g. EndNote | Every common social science citation is accepted. The crucial factor is the consistent use of one citation rule. Advice: Use a reference management software, e.g. EndNote |
If you have any further questions, please contact
The exposé should outline the following points on 3-5 pages (Bachelor) or 5-8 pages (Master):
Research Problem
Which topic do you deal with in your thesis? In the first section of the exposé, you first explain the relevance of the overarching topic of your thesis and develop a specific research problem that you will tackle in your thesis. The research problem can arise either from scientific debates and controversies, or from empirical "puzzles" for which no satisfactory theoretical explanations have yet been found in the literature.
Reserach Question
An appropriate research question should neither be trivial, i.e. it should not be possible to answer it from an everyday understanding without a scientific investigation, nor should it have already been conclusively answered. In other words: In your thesis, you should work independently on a particular research problem. The clearer and more precise you formulate the research question, the easier it will be for you to work on the topic. In this case, it is useful to concentrate on a single research question instead of raising several questions at the same time, which can at best be touched upon and ultimately not be answered.
Also pay attention to what you can really work on in the time-limited framework of a thesis. It is therefore advisable to postpone all too ambitious and excessive research projects in favour of "workable" and limited questions. Avoid anything that does not directly serve to answer your question.
State of Research
Which studies relate to your topic? Which studies have already analysed the same or a similar research question? On the basis of which cases and for which periods of time? This section presents relevant research papers and explanatory approaches as objectively and balanced as possible. An important task, however, is also to point out the limits and weaknesses of previous work. Here you can, for example, refer to the theoretical argumentation, the research design or the empirical data. The justification for your own work results from the deficits of the state of research.
Working Hypotheses
What correlations of effects do you expect for your object of research? Even if you often cannot formulate differentiated theoretical expectations at the time of the exposé, it is helpful to form preliminary working hypotheses on the basis of the state of research. What correlation is expected for the relationship between independent and dependent variables? Are there intervening variables? Which combinations of conditions are necessary and/or sufficient for the occurrence of the outcome to be investigated?
Research Design
How will you methodically address your research question? Do you intend to carry out a statistical analysis, a comparative study of several cases, or an individual case study? Will you use analysis programs such as SPSS, STATA, fsQCA, MAXQDA or other software for your work?
Regardless of whether you want to investigate one, several or many cases, you will need to justify your case selection in the Research Design section. What is the selected individual case exemplary for? To what extent are your cases suitable for systematic comparison or statistical analysis?
Finally, you will discuss the data on which the empirical part of your work is based. Which primary and secondary sources would you like to use? Which additional data would you like to collect yourself in the form of interviews or questionnaires?
Outline
In this section, you outline a draft of your structure in descriptive or table form. This facilitates further work and gives you a basic framework for the further procedure, which you can refine and modify step by step. When planning your work, it may be useful to specify the expected scope of the individual sections in page numbers.
List of References
In the bibliography, you list the primary and secondary literature that you have already reviewed or which you wish to use for further work. As a rule, quality before quantity also applies here - an intensive examination of some relevant and influential studies on your question will be more fruitful for your thesis than an attempt to consider a large number of sources of different relevance.
The official registration of your thesis (= the start of the working period) is done through the Grades and Examinations Administration Office of the HfP. Please fill out this form and submit it to your supervisor.
With the declaration of authorship, you confirm that you have written your academic work independently. The declaration of authorship is at the end of your thesis. You are welcome to use the TUM template.