General information

The bachelor thesis module consists of a written exam (thesis) and an oral exam (colloquium).The module is usually taken at the end of the Bachelor program due to its examination requirements. In this module, students should demonstrate that they are able to independently work on an economic problem within a limited time and with scientific methods and to present their approach as well as their findings. You can find the examination requirements for a bachelor thesis on the website of the examination office under "examination regulations".

At our Chair, you have the opportunity to study current issues in the field of management accounting and "Controlling" in your thesis. To optimally prepare for a bachelor thesis at our Chair, we recommend the completion of the module “Concepts and Tools of Management Accounting” . Basic knowledge of scientific work is expected and can be attained through the seminar offered by our Chair.

 

Registration and guaranteed acceptance

The registration and allocation of all bachelor theses are carried out centrally via WiWi-BOS (bachelor thesis organization system). There, you will also find an overview of the respective valid date for the examination. The Chair of Management Accounting assigns a part of its supervising capacities via guaranteed acceptance ("feste Vorabzusagen"); further spots will be allocated by casting lots, which also take into account the students' individual preferences. Current thesis topics are made available on the Chair’s homepage at “Aktuelles”. In order to apply for a guaranteed acceptance, please send a motivation letter (150 – 200 words, no special formatting required), a current transcript of records and a list of the preferred thesis topics per mail in one pdf file to controlling@rub.de. The application deadline is about two weeks prior to the end of the registration period in WiWi- BOS. The exact time can be found on the Chair’s homepage at “Aktuelles”. Within one week after the application deadline, we will inform students whether we can offer a guaranteed acceptance. If no guaranteed acceptance (decline) can be given, the student is allowed to choose his/her Chair preferences in WiWi-BOS regardless of this outcome.

 

Topic assignment

A selection of thesis topics is published in a timely manner under the heading Aktuelles on our homepage. Those topics are based on the research areas of our Chair and are structured by the supervising employees.

It is possible for the students to communicate their topic preferences. Furthermore, there is also an opportunity to submit your own project ideas or bachelor topic. If you want to work on your own research idea, please contact an employee with similar research focus beforehand. Please note that there is no guarantee that your preferences wil be realized.

Students who have been accepted in advance by our Chair will receive a topic based on their specified preferences. Students who have been assigned a place by lot via WiWi-BOS, will receive a list of the remaining topics.

A bachelor thesis in cooperation with a company is also possible in exceptional cases. A prerequisite is that the issue must be related to a current research topic in the field of management accounting. Students who are offered such type of cooperation work should contact the Chair of Management Accounting as soon as possible, since finding an appropriate topic requires usually more time in the case of a cooperation. Therefore, a bachelor thesis in cooperation with a company is only possible when a guaranteed acceptance has been issued.

 

Selected examples of previous thesis topics

 

 

• • The usability of life cycle costing for the illustration of the factor quality in the machinery and plant sector

 

• • The integration of target costing in a lifecycle oriented cost analysis

 

• • An analysis of investment control instruments in an international group: A case study of Carl Zeiss AG

 

• • The possibilities and limitations of relative performance information as an instrument of sales controlling for banks

 

• • CEO overconfidence in M & A transactions – An analysis of the manifestations, consequences and counter measures

 

• • A study on the influence of DRS 20 on value reporting of German firms

 

• • An analysis of the impact of cost accounting on the use of value-based management systems – Conceptual comparison between Germany and the USA

 

• • An analysis of cognitive biases during Goodwill impairment tests

 

• • Business valuation of young IT startups

 

Formalities of the bachelor thesis

When preparing the seminar paper, rules of good scientific work should be followed. The specific standards for paper preparation can be found in the current version of our guide for scientific papers (available only in German).The guide especially contains information on the layout of the thesis, which will also be considered in the evaluation of the bachelor thesis alongside the fulfillment of the thematic requirements.

Please note that the bachelor thesis must be submitted in time in duplicate with a hot glue binding (no spiral binding) as well as in electronic form to the examination office of the Faculty of Management and Economics. If the bachelor thesis is sent by post, the date of the postmark will be considered as submission date. The risk of loss remains with the student.


 

Oral exam (Colloquium)

The oral examination usually takes place within six weeks after submitting the bachelor thesis. The exact date will be announced in time. The colloquium lasts approximately 25 minutes and starts with a 10-minute presentation about the most important aspects of the bachelor thesis. After the presentation, a discussion and a question and answer session on the bachelor thesis topic as well as related research areas will be hold. The presentation can be held with or without any accompanying presentation tools. The Chair provides a video projector, a laptop as well as a wireless presenter.

The colloquium will be evaluated based on the following criteria: time management, quality of the presentation (content and possibly slide design), didactic preparation and presentation style. The evaluation of the discussion is based on the quality of the discussion (with special regard to the answers of the questions).