Final Thesis

Requirements for registering your master’s thesis

Every degree program has different requirements for registering a master’s thesis:

• Master of Arts in Human Resource Management:
  • Students who started their studies before the WiSe 2023/2024: You must have submitted the final assessment component for the project on Research in Human Resource Management and Organization.
  • Students who started their studies in the WiSe 2023/2024 or later: You must have earned 60 ECTS credits
• Master of Science in Health Economics and Health Care Management: You must have earned 60 ECTS credits.
• Master of Arts in Labor, Economics and Society (Economic and Sociological Studies): You must have submitted the final assessment component in the Research module.
• Master of Science in Innovation, Business and Sustainability (M.Sc.): You must have earned 60 ECTS credits.
• Master of Arts in International Business and Sustainability (M.A.): You must have earned 60 ECTS credits.
• Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Public and Nonprofit Studies:
  • Students who started their studies before the WiSe 2023/2024: You can apply for approval to start work on your master’s thesis independent of the number of ECTS credits you have earned.
  • Students who started their studies in the WiSe 2023/2024 or later: Compulsory module 3 “Methods” must be successfully completed.

Registration

You may register at any time. There are no deadlines for the registration. You must be enrolled in order to register your master’s thesis and at the time you submit it.

You must register your thesis using the final thesis registration form. This must be submitted to the academic office immediately after announcing the topic and getting the signature of your 2 examiners:

• Please get in contact with your supervisor (primary reviewer) first and afterwards with the secondary reviewer in order to discuss the registration of the final thesis.
• Please email the completed form to your primary reviewer first who will sign and send it back to you (as a scan).
• After that please email the signed form to your secondary reviewer who will also sign and send it back to you (as a scan).
• Please also sign and scan the form and forward it to the Socioeconomics Academic Office via this online form without delay.
• Please only use your personalized University of Hamburg email address (firstname.lastname@uni-hamburg,de)

Please Note:

Registrations without electronic signature are not legally effective and will not be processed. Also e-mails from private e-mail adresses will not be taken into account. Registrations for final theses have to be submitted from your personalized University of Hamburg e-mail adress (firstname.lastname@studium.uni-hamburg.de). Therefor you have to personalize the e-mail adress (including first name and last name). Instructions can be found on the website of the Rechenzentrum. This is necessary due to data protection reasons.

Examiners

You are responsible for finding your own first and second examiners from the teaching staff in your degree program. Authorized final thesis examiners in the degree programs:

• Master of Arts in Labor, Economics and Society (Economic and Sociological Studies) (AWG), last update January 2024:
  Prof. Dr. Frank Adloff, Prof. Dr. Stefan Aykut, Prof. Dr. Miriam Beblo, Prof. Dr. Petra Böhnke, Dr. habil Tobias Brändle, PD. Dr. Elisabeth Bublitz,  Dr. Philipp Degens, Dr. Frederike Esche, Prof. Dr. Heiner Flassbeck, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Fritsche, Prof. Dr. Dirk Gilbert, Prof. Dr. Arne Heise, Dr. Florian Hertel, Dr. Stefan Kerber-Clasen, Prof. Dr. Mathias Kifmann, Prof. Dr. Johanna Kokot, Prof. Dr. Andreas Lange, Prof. Dr. Henning Lohmann, Prof. Dr. Sabine Maasen, Prof. Dr. Katharina Manderscheid, Dr. Eva Markowsky, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Menz, Dr. Christine Neubert, Prof. Dr. Grischa Perino, Dr. Sascha Peter, Prof. Dr. Almut Peukert, Dr. Leo Roepert, Prof. Dr. Marianne Saam, Dr. Martin Sauber, Prof. Dr. Thomas Straubhaar, Dr. Artur Tarassow, Dr. Jan Weyand, Dr. Maximilian Willner, Dr. Gabriele Winker, Prof. Dr. Katharina Zimmermann
• Master of Arts in Human Resource Management (HRM), last update March 2024:
  Prof. Dr. Miriam Beblo, Prof. Dr. Silke Boenigk, Prof. Dr. Daniel Geiger, Prof. Dr. Dirk Gilbert, Dr. Dennis Heinrich, Dr. Niklas Korff, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Menz, Prof. Dr. Claus Nowak, Prof. Dr. Daniela Rastetter, Dr. Stephan Schmucker, Prof. Dr. Florian Schramm, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Späth, Prof. Dr. Rick Vogel
• Master of Science in Health Economics and Health Care Management (HEHCM), last update March 2024:
  - Fakultät für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften:
  Prof. Dr. Iris Kesternich, Prof. Dr. Mathias Kifmann, Prof. Dr. Johanna Kokot, Prof. Dr. Grischa Perino
  - Fakultät für Betriebswirtschaft:
  Dr. Tobias Effertz (PD), Dr. Kathleen Gali (PD), Dr. Johannes Jahn (PD), Dr. Ricarda Milstein, Prof. Dr. Jonas Schreyögg, Prof. Dr. Martin Spindler, Prof. Dr. Tom Stargardt, Prof. Dr. Petra Steinorth, Prof. Dr. Eva-Maria Wild
  - Medizinische Fakultät (UKE):
  Dr. Christine Blome (PD), Dr. Christian Brettschneider (PD), Prof. Dr. André Hajek, Prof. Dr. Hans-Helmut König, Dr. Claudia Konnopka
• Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Public and Nonprofit Studies (PUNO), last update December 2020:
  - University teachers of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences: Professors, Assistant Professors (‘Juniorprofessor’), including Visiting Professors
  - Members of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences who have completed a Habilitation. Examiners are not allowed to be the superior of the other examiner.
• Master of Science in Innovation, Business and Sustainability (M.Sc.), last update November 2023:
  - University teachers of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences: Professors, Assistant Professors (‘Juniorprofessor’), including Visiting Professors
  - Members of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences who have completed a Habilitation. Examiners are not allowed to be the superior of the other examiner.
• Master of Arts in International Business and Sustainability (M.A.), last update November 2023:
  1. University teachers of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences: Professors, Assistant Professors (‘Juniorprofessor’), including Visiting Professors, and members of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences who have completed a Habilitation.
  2. Members of the university holding a PhD and external lectures ("Leherbeauftragte") who teach in MIBAS. In this case, the other examiner has to be a person fulfilling the criteria under no. 1.  
  
  

Others than those can be appointed as examiners upon written request to the Examinations Board. Please submit the written request to the Socioeconomics Academic Office. If you have any questions, contact your program coordinator.

Period for completion

Your examiners will indicate the beginning of the period for completing your final thesis on the thesis registration form. You will have 6 months to complete the final thesis.

Public holidays, etc. are not considered in the calculation of this period. If the submission deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or public holiday, the deadline will be extended to the next working day. Please read the information about the deadline and submission regulations.

Formal requirements

Every degree program has different requirements for the length of a master’s thesis:

• Master of Arts in Human Resource Management: 
  • If the thesis is submitted before 01.10.2023: approx. 80 text pages (approx. 160,000 characters)
  • For a processing time beyond 01.10.2023: approx. 50-80 text pages
  • If the thesis is registered after 01.10.2023: approx. 50-70 pages of text
    Deviations can be discussed with the first reviewer.
• Master of Science in Health Economics and Health Care Management: Length is set by the supervising professorship
• Master of Arts in Labor, Economics and Society (Economic and Sociological Studies): 50–70 pages (100,000–140,000 characters)
• Master of Science in Innovation, Business and Sustainability (M.Sc.): 50-70 pages
• Master of Arts in International Business and Sustainability (M.A.): 60–80 pages (120,000–160,000 characters)
• Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Public and Nonprofit Studies: approx. 50 pages (100,000 characters)

Changing the title of your final thesis

Once the final thesis registration form has been submitted, the title of your thesis can only be changed by the first examiner. This requires the first examiner to send, in writing, an informal and signed notice to the Academic Office.

Once you have have registered your thesis to the academic office (using the final thesis registration form), the title of the thesis can only be changed with your supervisor's (prime reviewer's) consent. This requires an informal written notification (by e-mail) from the supervisor to the academic office (studienbuero-sozoek.wiso"AT"uni-hamburg.de).

Extension of thesis completion period

In cases of illness (requires a doctor’s certificate) or for another important reason, the chair of the examinations board can extend the period for completion if a written request is submitted before the submission deadline. In degree programs leading to a Master of Arts, the maximum extension is half of the envisaged period for completion. In degree programs leading to a Master of Science, one extension of a maximum of 3 weeks is possible. In individual cases of extraordinary hardship, the examinations board may grant longer extensions. Please use the Application to extend the completion for written work (web form) for this purpose. This form is also available at the Service Point of the Academic Office.

Due to data protection reasons, please submit your thesis exclusively from your personalized *University of Hamburg e-mail address as PDF files only to: studienbuero-sozoek.wiso@uni-hamburg.de. Submissions from private e-mail accounts cannot be considered. Submission by e-mail meets the deadline. Please use the following text template (see below) for the subject header and the cover letter of the e-mail.
By submitting your thesis, you confirm the final submission. The submitted version of your thesis will be forwarded to your examiners for evaluation. No further versions can be submitted after this point.

In addition, please use the template text of the “Declaration of Academic Integrity” (see below), which states that you have completed the thesis independently without unauthorized aids. The text from the template should be inserted in your e-mail text according to the example shown below.
 
Template to submit final thesis
In the Subject: Final thesis (no subject), degree program, student ID number, last name, first name

 Dear Sir or Madam,

herewith I submit my final thesis.
The examiners are:
             First examiner: last name, first name
             Second examiner: last name, first name

Template Declaration of Academic Integrity
Declaration of Academic Integrity
I hereby declare under penalty of perjury that I have written this thesis independently. Furthermore, I attest that I have not used any other resources than those specified - in particular Internet sources not named in the list of sources. I further attest that I have not previously submitted this work as part of another examination and that the submitted digital version is the same as the printed version and the version on the accompanying electronic storage medium.

* Instructions can be found on the website of the Rechenzentrum.

In addition to the submission by e-mail, you are required to submit 1* printed copy (double-sided print, black and white (color printing not necessary) and stitching (tape or binding; no loose collection of sheets in foil, etc.) of your thesis including a suitable electronic storage medium, such as a USB stick, only for archiving purposes. All submitted versions must be identical in text. Please note that the Declaration of Academic Integrity must be signed handwritten in original in the printed copy. The printed copy can also be handed in after the deadline (by post, in the mailbox in front of the Academic Office VMP9, or in person during the Academic Office opening hours). The final degree certificates will only be handed out to students once all needed documents have been received completely and correctly by the Academic Office.

* Since March 20th 2020 and until further notice, the submission of three printed copies and three electronic versions, which is required by the examination regulations, has been waived.

You will find your thesis at STINE in the section „Exams”.

If your thesis was submitted on time and according to the specifications, you will see the status “Submitted on (due date)” there. This means your thesis was forwarded to your examiners for evaluation.

The status will be adjusted within 3 days of your submission. You will be contacted by the Academic Office Socioeconomics, if you do not submit your application on time and according to the specifications. No automatic inbound replies or extra confirmation emails will be sent.

Evaluation period and assessment

Your master’s thesis should be assessed by the examiners immediately or at the latest within 6 weeks after submission. In the Master of Science in Health Economics and Health Care Management, Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Public and Nonprofit Studies and Master of Science in Innovation, Business and Sustainability (M.Sc.) degree programs, your thesis should be assessed at the latest 3 months after submission. The final thesis is assessed by the first and second examiners. If the awarded grades differ, the grade for your final thesis is calculated as the mathematical average of the two grades.

Redoing your master’s thesis

You may be granted one opportunity to redo your master’s thesis if it was graded with a 5.0 on your first attempt. You must submit the request to redo your thesis within 6 weeks after notification of the insufficient grade.