Theses

I am pleased that you are interested in a thesis in the field of financial services. On this page you will find information about the application procedure, the thesis process and topics I have supervised in the past. Please read this information carefully before applying. If you have any further questions, please feel free to send me an e-mail.

This guideline contains regulations which are only valid for theses for which Prof. Philipp Schmitz is the first examiner. Independently of this - and in case of doubt preferentially - the general guidelines from the respective examination regulations and from the "Guidelines for Writing Scientific Papers" at the Department of Business and Economics apply. Legally, the information given below is not binding.

Due to the high demand for thesis supervision, I cannot promise such supervision to all students in every semester. The application procedure outlined here serves to allocate places for supervision and is based both on your interest in the subject area and on the previous work you have done in this area (number of majors; exam grades). 

As part of the procedure, personal information as well as information about your studies must be provided. Furthermore, you have to present your motivation for a thesis in the field and two short exposés outlining possible topics for your thesis. In the short exposés, which should only contain 5 - 10 sentences, you should explain the main topics that you find interesting and would like to work on as part of your thesis. These do not have to be elaborated proposals, but rather rough ideas that you would enjoy working on or that you consider useful for your career entry. If necessary, the topic will be narrowed down at a later stage in a consultation meeting. As a suggestion for finding a topic, you can find here an overview of theses I have already supervised. I recommend preparing the requested information before you start the application process in ILIAS.

The application deadline is November 15 if you wish to begin your thesis in the summer semester of the following year and May 15 if you wish to begin your thesis in the winter semester.

To apply, please follow this link to the application procedure in ILIAS.

At the latest two weeks after the application deadline, I will inform you whether I will supervise your thesis and accordingly arrange an appointment with you to narrow down the topic of your thesis.

Registration for the practical project is done via the SAM system (http://sam.wirtschaft.fh-aachen.de). The necessary application must be signed by me as the first examiner. The approval of the second examiner can be given later, but must be received at the latest when the Bachelor thesis is accepted. I recommend you to take care of a second examiner early, in the best case before registration of the practical project.

The goals of the practical project are to research the literature and, if necessary, to collect data or carry out a project at a company. At the end of the practical project, the final question of the thesis should be determined.

The report on the practical project should be approximately 5 pages and must be structured as follows and provided to me via email on the last day of the practical project:

1. Brief description of the thesis question (approx. 3-4 sentences).
2. Proposal for the title of the thesis derived from the course description
3. Preliminary table of contents (up to the second outline level)
4. Description of the preliminary work during the practical project and description of the thesis based on the outline (approx. 3 pages)
5. List of the 10 most important literature sources

I recommend that you contact me at least once during the practical project so that I can give you feedback on the interim status achieved.

One week after submitting the report on the practical project and receiving approval, you can start working on your bachelor thesis. You must have registered this beforehand via the SAM system. When registering, you can leave the title open. This will be added later by the examination office.

The deadline for submitting the thesis runs from registration and can be seen in the SAM system. The processing time is 9 weeks (Bachelor) or 16 weeks (Master). The thesis must be prepared in accordance with the above-mentioned guidelines for scientific work, bound and submitted in triplicate to the Examination Office. In consultation with the supervisors, electronic submission of the thesis can also be arranged.

The thesis should have a length of 50 - 55 pages (Bachelor) or 70 -75 pages (Master) for the text part (not including outline, indexes, appendix, etc.). In exceptional cases, deviations are possible with my prior consent, provided that a comprehensible justification is given in writing.

You will receive an invitation to the colloquium from the examination office. You can find the time and place of the colloquium in the invitation. The colloquium lasts 30 min. You do not need to prepare a presentation. We will ask you about the content of your work. Please bring a printed copy of your work (does not have to be bound) for yourself.

We usually announce the evaluation of both the final paper and the colloquium after a short consultation period (about 5-10 min.) following the colloquium.