Writing a master’s thesis is a life-changing experience

Writing a master’s thesis proves to be a real bottleneck for many students. What is it exactly that’s so challenging? And how can supervisors get a better grip on the number of master’s theses that need to be completed? To Bo van der Rhee, Professor of Operations Management, Joost van Buuren, Professor of Auditing and Assurance, and Niels van Nieuw Amerongen, Professor of SME Accountancy, all at Nyenrode Business Universiteit, the answer seems easy. They conducted research on this topic. 

Students often want to graduate as soon as possible, but they find that writing a thesis gets in the way. When it comes to writing a master’s thesis, students are left on their own after months of study. “Students must manage a variety of deadlines, classroom supervision, and exam preparation while pursuing their studies. When they begin writing the thesis, all of that vanishes. The thesis defense date, which is in four months, is the only one they have.”

This allows students to engage in a wide range of activities that are completely unrelated to producing a thesis. Students are engaged in data collection by virtue of the course’s inclusion of the “research skills” component. Students appear more motivated, finishing their master’s thesis with several articles in national and international journals in just four months, Van der Rhee adds. It also offers a sizable dataset that can be used for a variety of applications.