Please notice:
If you are interested in having your thesis supervised by members of the Chair of Political Science, Public Administration and Organization, please fill out this form.
The topic of the thesis is to be developed by the students independently (brief thesis proposal, ca. 1-2 pages) and should be reviewed by the supervisor. The research question should be clearly defined and feasible and is to be embedded in the independently researched literature. The literature used should go far beyond the readings provided in seminars with similar topics. The thesis proposal should therefore contain suggestions on the topic, the research question, and literature.
New procedure for the registration of Bachelor's theses
For Bachelor's and Master's theses, the departments have agreed on a new registration procedure with the examination board for the social sciences.
The schedule for registration of Bachelor's theses in the social sciences can be found here.
Please also note the form for topic assignment, which you can access here.
For Bachelor’s theses written at the Chair for Political Science, Public Administration and Organization, the provisions of the respective Study and Examination Regulations apply. The Study and Examinations Regulations are available here on the pages of the University of Potsdam.
Please also note the guidelines of the General Regulations for Study and Examinations for Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees (not for teachers in training) at the University of Potsdam (BAMA-O), which you can access here.
The Study and Examination Regulations that apply to you will also tell you which requirements must be met in order for you to register for the Bachelor's thesis and how many credit points you will receive for your thesis. The question about the required number of pages also depends on your Examination Regulations and you will find the answer there.
We would like to point out that the number of pages specified in the applicable Study and Examination Regulations must not be exceeded. The number of pages refers to the pure text (without title page, table of contents, possibly list of abbreviations, bibliography, figures, tables and appendix). The formatting should use a conventional font (e.g. Arial or Times New Roman) and font size (11, 12pt.), a line spacing of 1.5 as well as margins in accordance with the standard (approx. 2-2.5cm). The paper must otherwise meet the formal criteria of a scientific paper (citations, uniform bibliography, etc.). You will find more detailed information on this in relevant textbooks.
A Bachelor's thesis is a first, independent scientific qualification work which has to meet the scientific standards in terms of content and form. These requirements can be summarized as follows:
New procedure for the registration of Master's theses
For Bachelor's and Master's theses, the departments have agreed on a new registration procedure with the examination board for the social sciences.
The schedule for registration of Master's theses can be found here.
Please also note the form for topic assignment, which you can access here.
For Master’s theses written at the Chair for Political Science, Public Administration and Organization, the provisions of the respective Study and Examination Regulations apply. The Study and Examinations Regulations are available here on the pages of the University of Potsdam.
Please also note the guidelines of the General Regulations for Study and Examinations for Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees (not for teachers in training) at the University of Potsdam (BAMA-O), which you can access here.
The Study and Examination Regulations that apply to you will also tell you which requirements must be met in order for you to register for the Master's thesis and how many credit points you will receive for your thesis. The question about the required number of pages also depends on your Examination Regulations and you will find the answer there.
We would like to point out that the number of pages specified in the applicable Study and Examination Regulations must not be exceeded. The number of pages refers to the pure text (without title page, table of contents, possibly list of abbreviations, bibliography, figures, tables and appendix). The formatting should use a conventional font (e.g. Arial or Times New Roman) and font size (11, 12pt.), a line spacing of 1.5 as well as margins in accordance with the standard (approx. 2-2.5cm). The paper must otherwise meet the formal criteria of a scientific paper (citations, uniform bibliography, etc.). You will find more detailed information on this in relevant textbooks.
For master theses, basically the same criteria apply as for Bachelor's theses. Furthermore, the following aspects should be considered: