THESIS

The degree thesis

The preparation of the degree thesis is a fundamental moment for the completion of university studies. Through the drafting and discussion of the thesis, the student acquires skills that complete his university preparation. For this reason, the choice of the thesis topic to be developed and, consequently, of the supervisor who will follow him along the way cannot be done superficially but deserves careful reflection by the student.

At the end of the course of study, the student must be able to design and implement, albeit with the support of the supervisor, a project (the thesis) independently.

The capacity for initiative and self-organization is therefore essential to develop a good thesis work.

The graduate student is required to:

Identify a thesis topic (ask yourself the so-called "research question");

Independently conduct the search for sources useful for developing the thesis work;

Circumscribe and focus on their investigation objective using the studies already developed on the subject (so-called "literature review");

Develop the topic, responding to the research question through theoretical arguments and empirical methodologies learned during university studies;

Use a critical approach to the thesis topic.

The choice of the supervisor is therefore a consequence of the identification of the thesis topic and not vice versa.

Discuss a thesis in Programming and Control

Discussing a degree thesis in Programming and Control requires an excellent knowledge of the topics covered during the course and in the exams of Business Administration and General and Applied Accounting. It is therefore essential to have taken all three exams to be able to try your hand at thesis work. Specifically, the P&C exam must have been taken with the undersigned. It is also useful that the grade reported on the P&C exam is not lower than the weighted average of all the exams taken.

The subject of the thesis cannot be one of those addressed during the course, but it can constitute a new interpretation or an empirical implementation that presents traits of novelty or otherwise interest for the purposes of academic research.

The themes

The number of thesis projects supervised by the supervisor is limited by number (max 3 per graduation session) and by topic. This is to ensure proper assistance to the student by the supervisor.

The research topic chosen by the graduate student, in particular, must be among those of interest to the supervisor.

Here are some topics within which it is possible to identify specific topics, both of an exclusively theoretical and empirical nature that are of interest to the teacher.

Programming and control tools in SMEs;

Creation and distribution of value in cooperative enterprises;

Integrated reporting;

Causes and consequences of the evolution of management control systems;

Business performance analysis to support the business economy;

Performance management models.

When to ask for the thesis

The quality of a thesis, the ease / difficulty with which it develops, the time required for its preparation are aspects that depend on various factors, some attributable to the undergraduate, others to the supervisor, others still to the infrastructures on which one relies for develop it (library, laboratories, etc.).

For this reason, in order to be able to keep under control all the variables that can affect the success of their thesis work, compatible with the availability of the teacher for the desired graduation session, we recommend that students interested in requesting the thesis from the undersigned take into account some fixed points:

If all the exams have been completed or only one is missing, the thesis supervision request must be presented to the teacher no less than 2-3 months before the session in which you intend to graduate (e.g. if the session is July, it will be it is desirable to request the thesis in early March). This is because it is often difficult to combine the preparation of a large number of exams and the study necessary to develop the thesis.

Without prejudice to the above, as the number of missing exams increases, the advance with which to request the thesis also increases.

How to ask for the thesis

The thesis request must be submitted through the following form

Thesis Supervision Request

to be delivered to the teacher, duly completed.

The teacher will assess your interest in the project presented and will notify the student whether or not the application has been accepted, also in light of the supervision constraints illustrated above.

Supervision times and methods.

The student can send their work in word to the speaker via email. The text is supervised in review mode. 

Compatibly with the workload, the supervisor usually returns the text to the graduate student through the same sending method within 2 weeks. If necessary, he can summon it to discuss its contents during reception hours or by appointment.

Usually, for each chapter the supervisor makes a correction of the first 5 pages, in order to offer the student clear indications on how to proceed independently with the revision. At the second reading attention is also paid to the formal aspects of the thesis (bibliography, citations, notes, etc.). The thesis is fully read by the supervisor when it is finished, before the final printing. For this reason, the finished thesis must be delivered to the supervisor, without exception, 20 days before the deadline for uploading the paper on ESSE3.

It is advisable to keep in touch with the speaker. The purpose of supervision by the supervisor is not to give directives that the student must perform, much less can be summarized in the correction of the paper or project. At the base of the thesis work there is the student's spirit of initiative and the improvement, during the course, of an autonomous ability to manage and develop the work. For this reason, the purpose of supervision is to allow the student to acquire tools and information useful for developing and improving the thesis.

Before sending the text to the supervisor, it is essential to reread the manuscript carefully. It is advisable to resume the text at least a couple of days after finishing it: this break helps to identify the critical points more easily.

A careful check of the spelling, syntax and overall structure of the text is required (trivial errors and long and convoluted sentences unnecessarily distract and annoy the speaker), but, taking the reader's perspective, it is necessary to evaluate the comprehensibility of what is written and the adherence to what you want to support.

The speaker is neither a co-author, nor an editor, nor a proofreader. He does not correct every detail but tries to identify together with the graduate the problems of a content type, and the general problems of organization of the text, focusing on some examples. It is up to the student to draw conclusions and adapt the text accordingly, even in the parts that present similar problems, which will not necessarily have been indicated.