• You passed a seminar with seminar paper at one of the chairs for marketing, other seminars are verified individually
• You are enrolled in the master's degree program "Business Administration" (M.Sc. BA) or "International Cultural and Business Studie" (M.A. ICBS)
• M.Sc. BA: You have evidence of at least 35 points ECTS according §17 SPO M.Sc. BA (German only)
• M.A. ICBS: You have gained at least 60 points ECTS according §19 SPO M.A. ICBS (German only)

In addition to that it is recommended to successfully participate in at least two of the Marketing lectures, whereof one should be at the Chair for Marketing and Services.

An application process will be necessary due to restricted supervisory capacity. For this purpose, the following documents are required (in one pdf-file):

Your application should contain the following information:

•  Application form (German only)
• Short letter of motivation
• Short CV (one page) including Abitur (A-levels) and Bachelor's grade
• Current HISQIS printout of the transcript of records
• Proof of enrollment
• If necessary, one page-exposé with sources of your own topic proposal

Please send your complete application documents via email to marketing-services@uni-passau.de.

Topics of the Master theses are oriented towards the research focuses of the Chair of Marketing and Services (Price Management, Service Management, Customer Relationship Management, Business-to-Business-Marketing). For the Master thesis, the Chair of Marketing and Services puts strong emphasis on scientific foundation and quality. Basis of each thesis should be a research question, which is answered by means of scientific methods and a literature review. The Master thesis should contain an empirical part and reflect current scientific discussions in renowned, international scientific journals.

If you prefer to work on your own topic, please outline your research question in an exposé with a maximum length of one page plus references. Please justify why the chosen topic fits with the research of the Chair for Marketing and Services, which fundamental research works, references, you will base your topic on and which methods you will use to answer your research question.

Suggestions for practical (business) projects are generally welcome, however they need to provide both, a practical as well as a research benefit in order to be accepted as Master thesis. It is not the aim of the Chair of Marketing and Services to offer consultancy services to businesses by means of a Master thesis. Furthermore, the Chair reserves the right to modify the topic of the Master thesis. The grading of the thesis will always be the responsibility of the Chair of Marketing and Services.

If you plan to work on your own topic suggestions or theses in cooperation with businesses, please approach the Chair early enough before the actual start of your work.

The list of topics is located at the German version of this page.

Applications are continuously possible. After having received an approval you will have four to six weeks (depending on your topic) to research and to create a structure of your thesis. The final structure has to be presented to Prof. Dr. Totzek. If there is no need for changes with regard to your topic and/or structure, the Chair of Marketing and Services will forward your registration form to the Examination Office. After the receipt of the Examination Office's approval, your working time on the Master thesis will begin.

For the formal guidelines for academic work at the Chair for Marketing and Services please got to Theses. If these are not adhered to, deductions in the assessment of the thesis are inevitable.

Students writing their Master thesis at the Chair of Marketing and Services are required to actively participate in the Master colloquium and to present their progress during two presentation appointments (interim and final presentation). The Master colloquium will take place in an irregular manner. Dates for the Master colloquia will be communicated promptly by the Chair of Marketing and Services.

You can find useful information about the Master colloquium here soon.

Writing Master theses at our Chair is based upon mutual trust. You commit yourself to write them independently and without external help. This implies marking sentences and texts of other authors as quotations. Without the origin of such material, especially sources available on the internet, they are considered as plagiarism.

The Chair of Marketing and Services reserves the right to not assess all or part of the thesis in case of plagiarism. By handing in your thesis at our Chair, you accept these rules and agree that the thesis might be analysed by a plagiarism-detection software.

• High-performance principle, that is best performing applicants are considered with priority.

• Cases of hardship, that is students who only have to write their Master thesis in order to finish their degree should mention this in their application. They will receive a bonus during the assessment of their performance.