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Application procedure for master theses

Starting in the winter semester 2021/22, the research groups of Prof. Dr. Dietmar Frommberger and Junior Prof. Dr. Silke Lange are testing a central application procedure for initial supervision of master's theses in vocational and business education.

What is new?

In the future, the initial supervision process of a Master's thesis in the two aforementioned working groups can be divided into four phases:

1.) the application phase
2.) the commitment phase
3.) the support, registration and work phase, and
4.) the correction phase

An overview of the procedure and further information, such as the application requirements, can be found hier.

Application periods
From the winter semester 2021/22 onwards, the staff of the two working groups will only grant initial supervision at four points in the year. Twice in the winter semester and twice in the summer semester. The concrete periods, deadlines and supervising persons can be found hier.

Six-liner
To participate in the application process, a six-liner must be prepared. It provides an overview of the planned work and serves as a content-related assignment and selection criterion for the application. Information on the structure of the six-liner and examples of good practice can be found hier.

Application form
Registration for the application process takes place via a central Anmeldeformular.

Why is a centralized procedure being tested?

The new process is being tested in pursuit of two main goals.

On the one hand, the upcoming theses in a semester can be distributed evenly among the individual supervisors of vocational and business education in terms of supervisory capacity thanks to the new procedure.

On the other hand, the new procedure is intended to standardize the process of awarding master's theses and thus make it more student-friendly:

• The requirements for acceptance of initial supervision of a master's thesis are transparent to all students.
• By introducing four central allocation points, the procedure also ensures greater equality of opportunity among students. It was not uncommon in the past for staff in vocational and business education to have to turn down requests for supervision of equal quality due to already exhausted capacities.
• By distributing the supervision capacities as well as the students' content preferences and focal points among the participating supervisors, a high-quality and binding supervision process is ensured.