Modul

The Master's thesis is a written piece of work that demonstrates that the student is able to work on a problem from their subject in an academic manner. It is regulated in detail in § 14 SPO 2015.

At least two KIT examiners supervise and assess the work. At least one of the examiners must be a professor and usually an examiner at the Department of Economics and Management. 

The regular completion period is six months. Upon justified request by the student, the Examination Board may extend the completion period by a maximum of three months. If the Master's thesis is not completed and submitted to the examiner by the deadline, it will be assessed as "insufficient", unless the candidate is not responsible for this failure (e.g. maternity leave). In addition to the written work on the topic, a presentation can be agreed as an obligatory and grade-relevant part of the thesis. Depending on the agreement, this can take place before submission or after submission on an agreed date. The preparation time for the presentation does not count towards the processing time for the written part, unless it has been included in the overall workload of the final project.

The thesis may be written in English with the consent of the examiner. Other languages require the consent of the examiner and the approval of the examination board.

The candidate may only return the topic of the Master's thesis once and only within the first month of registration.

If the thesis is not passed, it may be repeated once. A new topic must be issued. The same topic may not be repeated. This also applies to comparable topics. In case of doubt, the examination board will decide. The new topic may again be supervised by the examiners of the first thesis.

This regulation also applies analogously after an official withdrawal from a registered topic.

The module grade is the grade for the Master's thesis.

The student can independently handle a complex and unfamiliar subject based on scientific criteria and on the current state of research.

He/she is in a position to critically analyze and structure the researched information as well as derive principles and regularities. He/she knows how to apply the thereby achieved results to solve the task at hand. Taking into account this knowledge and his/her interdisciplinary knowledge, he/she can draw own conclusions, derive improvement potentials, propose and implement science-based decisions.

This is basically also done under consideration of social and/or ethical aspects.

He/she can interpret, evaluate and if required, graphically present the obtained results.

He/she is in a position to sensibly structure a research paper, document them and clearly communicate the results in scientific form.

Prerequisite for admission to the Master thesis is that 50 percent of the credit points has to be completed.

A written confirmation of the examinor about supervising the Master Thesis is required.

Please pay regard to the institute specific rules for supervising a Master Thesis.

The Master Thesis has to contain the following declaration in German:

„Ich versichere wahrheitsgemäß, die Arbeit selbstständig verfasst, alle benutzten Hilfsmittel vollständig und genau angegeben und alles kenntlich gemacht zu haben, was aus Arbeiten anderer unverändert oder mit Abänderungen entnommen wurde sowie die Satzung des KIT zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis in der jeweils gültigen Fassung beachtet zu haben“.  

If this declaration is not given, the Master Thesis will not be accepted.

The Master Thesis is a major scientific work. The topic of the Master Thesis will be chosen by the student themselves and adjusted with the examinor. The topic has to be related to Industrial Engineering and Management and has to refer to subject-specific or interdisciplinary problems.

A total of approx. 900 hours is expected for the preparation and presentation of the Master's thesis. In addition to writing the thesis, this figure includes all necessary activities such as literature research, familiarization with the topic, familiarization with any necessary tools, conducting studies/experiments, supervision meetings, etc.