Supervision of Bachelor and Master Theses

We are happy to supervise BA and MA theses at the Chair of Comparative Politics.

Students are invited to write their BA and MA theses on a topic that falls within our research and teaching interests and expertise. The overview of the work already supervised at our chair is intended to provide additional orientation.

In particular, we are happy to support work on one of the following topics:

Telecommunications:
- Determinants and effects of digitization in Africa
- Internet censorship and use of circumvention tools in authoritarian contexts
- Tax evasion in the telecommunications sector.

Climate and energy policy:
- Acceptance of climate and energy policy
- Market mechanisms and international compensation for emission reductions
- (International) climate finance governance and instruments.

At the BA level, we expect either an empirical work or, in exceptional cases, a comprehensive literature search, which demonstrates that you can critically deal with academic work and think conceptually and systematically.
At the MA level, we expect empirical work that demonstrates that you can critically deal with academic work and thoroughly implement various methodological steps of a research design.

Specific research questions where we currently look for interested students for a MA thesis:

Energy policy:
- differences in renewable energy feed-in subsidies among Swiss cantons
- policy changes in response to the actual energy crisis in Europe and comparison to countries’ climate ambitions

Net zero targets:
- comparison of net zero targets of large companies with availability of compensation projects and capacities worldwide
- carbon market mechanisms (e.g. compensation) and respective project rejection rates (CDM market)

Adaptation:
- global analysis of climate change adaptation projects that mobilised private capital

Finance:
- climate mitigation and adaption in countries with high debt burden

Students must independently ensure that they meet all formal requirements for qualification work at the HSG. Please note that an author's declaration must be signed and added to the work for all academic work at the HSG. Please also note the additional links on the right-hand side. We look forward to getting to know your ideas and working with you!

Application procedure

If you are interested in writing your Bachelor or Master thesis at the Chair of Comparative Politics, please read the following carefully:

Read some of our work to find out if it falls into the area of research you are interested in and if you like our approach to research. It is recommended that you have attended at least one of the courses we teach at the HSG.
Prepare a one-pager in which you present your research question (what do you want to find out?), your motivation (what makes this question relevant?), and your ideas for a research design (how are you going to answer this question?). In your cover letter, briefly explain your motivation to investigate this question under our supervision.
Enclose an up-to-date transcript of your grades. We are particularly interested in which method courses and thematically relevant compulsory elective courses you have attended in the course of your studies.

Please send the application documents as a single .pdf file with the application form as cover sheet to ipw@unisg.ch. As a rule, we supervise up to 5 theses per submission date at the HSG.

Supervision procedure

The supervision process for each work is divided into five successive steps, with the completion of each step being marked by a milestone. Of course, you can always contact us if you have any questions. We basically expect you to be largely autonomous in your work - and to contact us as soon as you have reached the next milestone, as shown in the figure.

milestones

Milestone 0: The first step begins with a successful application and ends with the kick-off meeting. In the meeting we determine the specific topic, especially with a view to the primary literature and empirical sources, as well as the planned submission date. You then suggest a descriptive working title and, with our approval, submit the registration form to the student administration - and time is running. Please note the deadlines and plan in advance.

Milestone 1: Following the kick-off meeting, you will delve deeper into the literature and write a first draft of the literature review, with the aim of concretizing the scientific puzzle of your work and specifying your research question.

Milestone 2: Send an extended table of contents within a few weeks. This document contains all sections of the work as well as the bibliography. For each section, the intended content of that section is briefly summarized (just a few lines). We will then give you a short feedback.

Milestone 3: Submit a first draft of the work after less than two-thirds of the working time. All sections and main results of the work should already be worked out, albeit in a preliminary form. We then provide you with comprehensive feedback.

Milestone 4: You submit the final version of the work.

@ MIA students:

Please note the information sheet 'MIA Thesis: Journey & Colloquium', i.e. enclose the MIA Thesis Proposal described there with your application. Ideally, you attend the MIA Thesis Colloquium in the phase between Milestone 2 and Milestone 3. Please let us know the date of your presentation so that we can sit down before and / or afterwards, should you wish so.