Procedures

Organising a thesis project

1.    Student checks whether he/she fulfils the prerequisites for writing a BSc thesis with the Business Economics Group and thinks about his/her interests.

2.    Students who would like to do their BSc thesis at BEC need to make an appointment for an intake with the BSc thesis coordinator, dr Monique Mourits, Monique.Mourits@wur.nl.  

Students are expected to prepare themselves for the intake meeting by making them familiar with the BSc thesis protocol and by exploring their research interests. At the intake meeting, the thesis coordinator will discuss – based on the indicated research interests of the student - the possibilities of a thesis topic and will also assign one of the staff members of the group as thesis supervisor.

Once the student has made contact with the assigned supervisor, he/she will further demarcate the intended research subject.

Getting started

3.    Student and supervisor fill in the thesis contract and deliver it to the secretary (a contract form is listed in the selection menu on the right). The contract ensures that agreements made between supervisor and student are official. It has to be signed by the student and supervisor and delivered to the secretary. Copies will be given to everybody involved, including the director of studies.

Research proposal

4.    Student writes a research proposal (in English or in Dutch: the Dutch written proposals should also include an English title), the supervisor sends the proposal to the secretary for further registration. The secretary adds your picture and other information to the Thesis photo gallery at the Business Economics Group. Information that should be on the proposal includes: full name of the student, registration number, title, course code, start- and ending date, name of supervisors (including supervisors from other groups or organisations).

Writing the report

5.    The research will be executed as described in the research proposal. The student writes a report in either Dutch or English. The final version can be printed on costs of the Business Economics Group. BEC uses its own pre-printed covers, which should be used. Three copies of the final version should be provided to the Business Economics Group: one for the supervisor, one for our own archive and one for the WUR library.

Students who have doubts about their writing skills or who think their writing could still be improved are encouraged to contact the Wageningen Writing Lab (WWL). For information about what they can do and how to contact them see http://www.wageningenur.nl/writinglab.

Colloquium about the results

6.    Thesis students (BSc and MSc) present their final results to their peers during a colloquium. The colloquia are scheduled on the first and third Thursday of every month. Not later than three days before the presentation the student should inform the secretary about the title. The secretary will send an announcement to all tutors of Business Economics, all current thesis students and all students who followed the relevant courses in the academic year (before). The colloquium takes 20 minutes presentation and 10 minutes discussion and should be in English. BSc thesis students also need to attend at least 6 colloquia presentations of other thesis students (see Attendance list colloquia in selection menu).

Oral examination

7.    The supervisor decides whether the quality of the report is sufficient to finalise the thesis by means of an oral examination. Upon finalisation, the supervisor organises a date for an oral examination with prof. Hogeveen or prof. Meuwissen. During this examination (approx. 30-40 minutes) the student will have the opportunity to defend the thesis research.

Final grade

8.    To assess the final grade for the thesis work, the examiner and supervisor evaluate several indicators as defined by the WU evaluation form. For the BSc the weights of the research indicators are set at, respectively, Research competence (35%), Thesis report (50%), Final Colloquium (5%), Examination (10%). More details can be found in the official evaluation form as listed in the selection menu.