Guideline for Bachelor Theses at the FH BFI Vienna bachelor seminars attendance is mandatory: only...

Bezeichn. Bezeichn. Guidline Bachelor Theses erstellt: Breinbauer freigeg.: Breinbauer ausgeschieden am:

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Guideline for

Bachelor Theses at the FH BFI

Vienna

1. In an FH bachelor’s degree programme at least two bachelor theses have to be

drafted related to specific courses the students attend (pursuant to 3 para 2 Z 6 FHStG/Universities of Applied Sciences Act; also compare BMBWK-32.000/02434-VII/12/2006). In contrast to diploma theses, these bachelor theses are no final degree-completing papers.

2. This guideline for drafting bachelor theses summarises the (minimum) standards valid for all degree programmes. In addition to those, there may be more specific guidelines which are relevant to one degree programme only. These are, however, in accordance with these general guidelines. Any programme-specific details must be enclosed in the appendix of the general guidelines.

3. It is the aim of a bachelor’s thesis to have students independently draft and submit a written paper of professional and academic relevance by relying on the knowledge the students have accumulated during their studies. The bachelor thesis needs to answer one or several novel research questions. The academic requirements (research question, hypothesis building, depth and width of material etc.) and the requirements regarding the length of the paper are high but definitely less complex than a diploma paper. A textbook-like treatment of a topic, i.e. a wide range of topics with concomitant lack of depth, is to be avoided.

4. Bachelor theses need to be written in German (in degree programmes with

German as their main medium of instruction), and in English (in those degree programmes with German as their medium of instruction). It is possible, however, after consultation with the supervisor of the seminar paper and the programme director, to write one of the two papers in another language (German/English).

5. Bachelor theses are drafted in seminars or project seminars.

6. As a rule, bachelor theses are scheduled to be completed in 12 (VZ= full-time) or 17 (BB= part-time, work-and-study) weeks respectively. The compatibility of mandatory internships, drafting bachelor theses, and any other student workload is taken care of by the organisers of the degree programmes.

7. Seminar supervisors and students agree on the research questions to be dealt with in the thesis, in accordance with the programme directors at the beginning of the seminar at the latest. If students offer their own topics, these can be taken



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into consideration if they fall within the scope of the overall seminar topic (in accordance with the research clusters of the FH BFI Vienna and the particular degree programme) and if the seminar supervisor accepts the topic suggested. The research questions in the course type seminar are meant to be related to either programme-specific or cross-programme research clusters of the FH BFI Vienna. In project seminars students can, upon approval by the programme director, either deal with real-business-life or close-to-real-business-life projects in cooperation with enterprises, or carry out research projects. Research topics are distributed at the beginning of the specific semester at the latest.

8. If students can choose from among seminar groups, this happens on the basis of a brief description of seminar contents by the seminar supervisors or based on students’ major subjects. Students register for these groups by signing up on a list, which is provided the course coordinators, on a first-come-first-served basis. An even distribution of students across all seminar groups of a seminar is desirable, though.

9. Grading student performance in a bachelor seminar consists of four components:

a. The completed bachelor thesis is of particular importance (70% of the final grade)

b. All steps of the procedure, ranging from the research question to submission, in particular the disposition (e.g. formulating a research question, range and depth of literature covered, methodological questions) will be considered and graded (10%)

c. The presentation and defensio (discussion) of the bachelor thesis will considered according to criteria relevant to business practice (e.g. time management, presentation technique, media support, handouts) (10%)

d. What is also taken into account is continuous assessment of contributions in class, in particular the active participation in discussion of other presentations. (10%)

10. With FH-specific research projects, digressions from these criteria may be tolerated. Then the bachelor thesis as the final product will be decisive for grading.

11. Joint papers of several students (up to three maximum) are acceptable if the individual performance of each student can be graded separately. (§ 19 para 1 FHStG).

12. For bachelor seminars attendance is mandatory: only students abroad (e.g. on exchange semester; see no. 29) and those carrying out field studies are exempt. Further exemptions require informing the seminar supervisor of this intention, and approval by the programme director, or the head of the FH supervisory council.

13. The body of each bachelor thesis (consisting of introduction, main part, and summary) needs to comprise 6,000 to 8,000 words. Formal requirements: 1 ½ -spacing, font: Arial, font size: 12.

14. The formal and quotation requirements of the FH BFI Vienna are to be strictly observed, as well as the guidelines on gender-sensitive language and images (see appendix). Students are referred to the appendix for further literature on academic



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research, on the use of questionnaires, guided interviews, and qualitative content analysis.

Students who want to use a questionnaire to generate data for their theses are referred to the software which needs to be ordered from research coordination.

If FH BFI Vienna students or graduates are supposed to be the respondents to the questionnaires, the FH Supervisory Council and the quality manager of the FH have to approve this questionnaire.

15. The disposition (= research proposal) students have to submit has to consist of at least the following parts:

a. Cover page for a disposition for bachelor theses at the FH BFI Vienna

b. Research topic and relevance of this topic

c. Research questions

d. Methodology used (literature review, questionnaire, qualitative interviews, case studies etc.)

e. Preliminary structure (including estimated number of pages per chapter)

f. Preliminary literature references (at least 10 sources)

The formal requirements of the degree programme have to be observed in the disposition already.

16. The bachelor thesis needs to contain the following parts:

a. Cover page for bachelor thesis at the FH BFI Vienna

b. Declaration of honour

c. Exclusion of the bachelor thesis (if applicable; not required if such a petition for exclusion has not been filed)

d. Declaration of consent regarding rights of use

e. Table of contents

f. Table of appendices (rare in bachelor theses)

g. List of figures (if applicable)

h. List of abbreviations (if several abbreviations are used)

i. Introductory section:

i. Introduction: Topic description and relevance of the topic

ii. Research question(s)

iii. Literature review and critical evaluation of literature (theories, empirical results)

iv. Methodology

v. Structure of the paper

vi. Definitions and assumptions;

j. Main part: Dealing with the topic in several sections



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k. Conclusion: Providing an answer to research questions, critical reflection and outlook

l. Literature references (and a list of legal sources if applicable)

m. Appendix (not very common in bachelor theses)

17. The contents of the thesis have to be presented by the student in the seminar. The presentation is to last 15 to 20 minutes, and is followed by a question-and-answer session, in which the supervisor and other seminar participants raise questions (defensio or discussion of the bachelor thesis).

18. For presentation a debater can be nominated, who also needs to receive the paper before the presentation in order to critically review the paper in a brief statement. This statement is supposed to take 3 to 5 minutes. The quality of the statement will be considered in the debater’s continuous assessment.

19. The time schedule of the seminar should be structured as follows:

a. Introduction of the seminar topic by the supervisor

b. Presentation of the topics suggested by students and presented by the supervisor, and allocation of these topics. Literature recommendations, and a brief introduction to formal requirements

c. Submission of dispositions and feedback by the seminar supervisor, or in a plenary discussion.

d. Brief presentation and discussion of dispositions. Fixing dates for presentations.

e. Individual questions to the seminar supervisor

f. Submission of the first draft of the bachelor thesis (approximately three weeks before its presentation)

g. Marking the bachelor theses by the seminar supervisor (up to 1 week before the presentation)

h. Carrying out necessary adaptations and amendments by students before the presentation. Submission of the final draft immediately before the presentation

i. Presentation and discussion of those seminar papers that have been graded a "pass" (preferably at the end of term, and all in one go). The presentation and the discussion serve as an opportunity to find out whether the students have drafted the papers themselves (to avoid “ghost-writing“).

j. Communcating the points scored to the course coordinator (within two weeks after the last seminar meeting)

k. In case of a research project that results in extraordinary delays (e.g. if empirical research needs to be carried out) this procedure can be modified after consultation of the programme director.

20. Students need to be made aware that literature search and literature review should have reached a fairly advanced stage by the presentation and discussion phase. There should be at least 10 recent academic sources for a topic of



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average complexity in the disposition, in particular articles from scientific journals. In the final paper version there should be at least 20 recent academic sources. They are supposed to be high-quality and recent sources which should have been reviewed critically and comprehensively. This is particular relevant with internet sources – incidentally, it should be noted that Wikipedia is not considered a reliable and quotable academic source.

21. The bachelor theses have to be submitted both in printed form and electronically (as a word file, on ELVIS). By submission of a bachelor thesis we mean the submission of the final draft fit for approval (no preliminary versions!). On the presentation day, the student has to present a bound version of the final draft (adhesive binding, with a plastic film front, and a cardboard back) to the course coordinator. Additionally, a pdf-file (not locked) is forwarded to the seminar supervisor, who then sends all seminar paper files to the programme director or the course coordinator.

22. The submitted paper needs to be subjected to a routine electronic plagiarism check, which is carried out by the seminar supervisor. Once the supervisors have officially agreed to supervise, their FH-mail addresses are communicated to the plagiarism software coordinator. This person will create an account in good time, through which the lecturer can carry out the plagiarism check. In addition to this electronic check, the supervisor also needs to do a manual (content) plagiarism check. The result of this check is communicated to the programme director or the person in charge of bachelor theses who will record this in the assessment form (see below). In case of plagiarism the bachelor thesis will be declared invalid, and the rules for fails apply. This incident is communicated to the rector; should the same student be caught plagiarising again, he/she will be automatically expelled from the degree programme.

23. The bachelor theses will be graded by the supervisor within 2 weeks after submission of the final draft. This final draft serves as the only basis for grading. Observance of the formal criteria (see part 1 of the form, Assessment of the formal criteria) is an indispensable requirement. This means that if not all listed formal criteria are observed (completeness, declaration in lieu of an oath, required number of characters, formatting, academic style, spelling, grammar and punctuation, quoting academic sources, literature references etc.), the thesis cannot be assessed and approved (“nicht approbationsfähig”), and has to be rejected. In this case, contents of the thesis are not assessed, and the lecturer only needs to complete the first part of the assessment form, and label it as “cannot be approved/nicht approbierfähig”. Formal shortcomings, e.g. insufficiently adequate spelling will result in points deducted in the respective category. If all formal criteria are met, and met fully, no points will be deducted. Subsequently, the lecturer can assess the contents of the thesis (part two of the assessment form). In the writing space provided for comments, the supervisor’s reasons need to be documented in order to make the reasons why points have been deducted clear to the student, and allow him/her to improve the thesis in this respect.

24. If a student is unable to meet the deadline without citing any vital reason (e.g. protracted serious illness, a serious accident, or birth of a child) or if the final draft still shows considerable flaws in content, the paper will be assessed as a fail. The supervisor will then communicate per e-mail the changes that need to be made in order to secure a pass grade. These suggestions need to be integrated



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into another version of the paper (= resit) within two weeks from the written communication. Should this deadline also not be met, or should the paper still be of insufficient quality, the paper will be still a fail.

There will be a final written communication of the improvements that are necessary for a pass. These changes need to be made within 2 weeks after this communication, and this final version is then assessed by a board of three examiners (= resit before a board). This board is nominated by the programme director, and usually consists of the supervisor of the thesis, the subject coordinator in charge (or any of the full-time or part-time lecturers of this field), and the programme director. The supervisor and the subject coordinator have to draft one independent statement each (for the form see below). If the panel does not reach a unanimous decision, the programme director will take the final decision. All contents and formal criteria of the thesis need to be met for a pass grade.

If this decision or the one by the panel are negative, the student cannot pursue his/her studies any further. He/she may, however, petition for leave of absence (up to 1 year).

25. In cases where the student is granted an extension (of two weeks) to complete the bachelor thesis, the presentation and defensio/discussion requirements are waived. The subject coordinator in charge can, however, carry out an oral exam on the contents of the thesis. If there is such an oral exam, this will count 10% towards the final grade. In all other cases, the programme director will decide on the weighting of the seminar parts.

26. The course (or the bachelor thesis) is graded on the basis of an analysis grid (assessment sheet for a bachelor thesis, see appendix). Overall, 100 points can be reached (see appendix). Grading depends on the general grading key for the points the student has reached, with minimum content and formal criteria to be met. Additionally, the electronic and manual plagiarism check must have been negative; finally, “ghost-writing” must also have been ruled out.

27. The grading criteria and their weighting (analysis grid) are communicated to the students at the beginning of the seminar through ELVIS.

28. The bound copies of the bachelor theses together with the assessment forms have to be submitted to the subject coordinator two weeks after the last seminar meeting.

29. Students, who are abroad in the semester in which bachelor theses have to be produced can submit their papers in either of two ways as follows:

The paper needs to be written in an equivalent seminar abroad. This has to be approved by the programme director. The paper and its grading by the supervisor abroad are to be forwarded to the programme director, who will check them. As a rule, this grading serves as a benchmark for the grade of the domestic bachelor seminar. If there is a considerable difference in requirements and levels between the two universities, the programme director can adapt the grade to domestic standards.

If it is not possible to draft a bachelor thesis abroad, the programme director and the outgoing student will agree on a seminar paper topic, and there will be ”distance supervision“.



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In both cases the grade of the written paper will be extrapolated to arrive at a final grade since continuous assessment, presentation, and defensio/discussion will not be possible in this case.



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Appendix Quoting and formatting rules of the FH BFI Vienna:

a. Haslehner/Wala, „Bachelor- und Diplomarbeiten an Fachhochschulen“, current

edition

b. Breinbauer (2009): Academic Writing, Vienna, for theses written in English

c. Quotes and abbreviations for a thesis written about law topics have ito follow

Friedl/Loebenstein, Abkürzungs- und Zitierregeln der österreichischen

Rechtssprache.

A suitable and binding sample format which every student has to use is to be made available by the programme director on ELVIS.

For gender-sensitive language and imaging see: Homepage of the FH BFI Vienna (FH/Gender Mainstreaming/Downloads)

Literature recommendations:

For academic research

d. Karmasin, Matthias / Ribing, Rainer (2006): Die Gestaltung wissenschaftlicher

Arbeiten, Vienna.

e. Rössl, Dietmar (ed.)(2005): Die Diplomarbeit in der Betriebswirtschaftslehre.

Ein Leitfaden, 3rd edition, Vienna.

f. Bänsch, Axel (2008): Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten, 9th edition, Munich.

g. Ebster Claus / Stalzer, Lieselotte (2008): Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten für

Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftler, 3rd edition., Vienna.

h. American Psychological Association (2009): Publication Manual of the

American Psychological Association, 6th ed.

i. Day A.,/Gastel. B. (2006): How to write and publish a scientific paper,

Cambridge University Press.

j. Dees R. (2003): Writing the modern research paper, Longman Inc.

For drafting questionnaires:

Mayer, Horst, O. (2008): Interview und schriftliche Befragung, 4th edition

Munich.



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For expert interviews and/or qualitative content analysis:

Gläser, Jochen / Laudel, Grit (2009): Experteninterviews und qualitative

Inhaltsanalyse, 4. Auflage, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Stuttgart.

Bezeichn. Bezeichn. RL Bachelorarbeit erstellt: Breinbauer freigeg.: Breinbauer ausgeschieden am:

gültig seit/ab: 01.09.2013 geprüft: FH-Koll.; GF (zuletzt) am: 11.6.2013

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ASSESSMENT FORM BACHELOR SEMINAR

FH BFI VIENNA

Name of the student: Title of the paper:

General Suggestions

The final grading of the bachelor seminar consists of the following parts (100 points overall):

1. Disposition of the bachelor thesis (10 points maximum) 2. Formal criteria of the paper (10 points maximum, with all the minimum criteria to be

met) 3. Contents of the bachelor thesis (60 points maximum) 4. Continuous assessment of contributions in class (10 points maximum) 5. Presentation and defensio/discussionof the paper (10 points maximum)

The bachelor thesis must have been checked electronically and manually (for content) to rule out plagiarism. Ghost-writing must also be ruled out. If this has occurred, however, the paper is to be graded a fail as well.

Assessment: Disposition of the bachelor thesis (10 points maximum)

Assessment: formal criteria of the paper (see below) (10 points maximum)

Assessment: continuous assessment (10 points maximum)

Assessment: contents of the thesis (see below) (60 points maximum)

Presentation and defensio/viva of the thesis (10 points maximum)

Total points (100 points maximum)

Total grade

Point system:

51 points - 62 points Sufficient 63 points - 75 points Satisfactory 76 points - 87 points Good 88 points - 100 points Very good



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The electronic plagiarism check has resulted in matching results of ….% ____(Please note: Approximately 5-10% are the critical threshold) The critical threshold has been reached:

No Yes

The manual plagiarism check has shown there is plagiarism

No Yes, because…

During the defensio/viva, ghost-writing has been diagnosed:

No Yes, because…

1. Assessment of the formal criteria of the bachelor thesis (max. 10) Please note: For the thesis to be approved, all the following criteria have to be judged with “yes”. If all criteria are met, points (10 maximum) are allocated for HOW WELL the criteria are met.

Criterion

Does the paper contain all the necessary parts (cover, declaration of honour, table of contents, any other lists etc.) and do they meet the formal criteria?

Yes No, because…

Is the paper as long as stipulated? Does the format meet the criteria (e.g. pagination, paragraph formatting, illustrations etc.)?

Yes No, because…

Is the style of the paper scientific and fluent? Is gender neutrality maintained?

Yes No, because…

Does the paper meet spelling, grammar and punctuation conventions?

Yes No, because…

Are the quotations rendered adequately (longer parts from single sources, amount of verbatim quotes)? Are the sources treated in keeping with good academic practice (no flawed rendition of quotes, literature contributions clearly identified etc.?)

Yes No, because…

Do short and long literature references, literature references correspond to the norms (see handout by Haslehner/Wala)

Yes No, because…

Assessment: formal criteria of the paper Points (max. 10): ______________________ minimum requirement for the thesis to be approved: all questions answered with “yes”.



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2. Assessment of the contents of the thesis

Criterion Comments (if points are deducted, please state

reasons for this)

Are the topic/ the research problem clearly formulated? Is the problem delineated properly?

Is the student able to show the topicality and scientific and practical relevance of the paper?

Are all concepts related to the topic clear and concise? Are all basic assumptions clearly indicated? Is there an up-to-date review of literature?

Does the student inform the reader about the paper’s general structure? Is the structure useful and significant in view of the topic?

Does the student inform the reader about the research methods applied (questionnaire, interviews, case study)? Does he/she proceed consistently and correctly? In what manner was empirical data generated and analysed?

Do the student’s conclusions evolve logically from the research question? Is a general line of thought discernible?

Do the conclusions contain new or irrelevant passages? Is there redundant and trivial information?

How innovative and original is the paper? Is there a critical approach to the literature used (gaps or contradictions identified), are original thoughts offered?

Are the results clear and without contradictions, and do they match the research questions? Does the student offer evidence for connections and further questions?



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Is the student’s diligence reflected in a high number of literature sources? Are the sources recent and of high quality?

Assessment of the contents of the thesis Points (60 maximum): ____________

I herewith confirm that I have assessed the bachelor thesis according to the content and formal criteria mentioned above (including the plagiarism and ghost-writing checks required), and that I have carried out the bachelor seminar in accordance with the bachelor seminar: Vienna,_____________________ Signed by _________________________________

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