There are two calls for the defense of the Master's Thesis: June-July and September, though there is only one opportunity per year to pass the Master's Thesis, i.e. students have to pass the Master's Thesis in the call that they choose/are eligible to present. The exact dates will be set by the Academic Committee with enough anticipation. Although the defense of the thesis in the first call (June-July) is highly recommended, students that are eligible to defend it in the first call may choose any of the two calls. 2. WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO DEFEND THE THESIS? Not all students are eligible to defend the Master's Thesis. To be eligible, a student must have passed all the courses of both the 1st term and the 2nd term (including the internships, if it is the case) by the defense date. According to the Graduate School's rules, students are allowed to defend their Master's Thesis only after having passed the rest of the courses of the study program. 3. WHAT HAPPENS IF I CHOOSE THE 2nd CALL AND I DO NOT SUBMIT THE THESIS? According to the rules of the University, if a student chooses to defend or must defend (because of not being eligible to defend the thesis in the 1st call) the Master's Thesis in the 2nd call and fails to submit it before the set deadline (usually around August 31), he/she will not be allowed to defend the Master's Thesis until the next academic year and, hence, he/she will not graduate until the following year. In addition, the student will have to register again to the Master's Thesis (6 ECTS) in order to be entitled to defend it during the following academic year.

Upon completion of the master's thesis, you will be able to demonstrate: - Conduct relevant research. - Capability to apply the knowledge gained through the master's courses to the design and planning of a research project. - Capability to use of research methods, either quantitative or qualitative, for studying business situations. - Capability to conduct research that requires the collection of primary data or, alternatively, the ability to conduct secondary analyzes of data and information already available. - Capability to critically examine the research topics addressed in the literature. - Capability to elaborate and write a good report. - Capability to defend your own arguments. - Capability to learn from the existing literature that the very same phenomenon may be addressed from alternative approaches. - Capability to summarize the key points of a research and identify possible limitations and areas for improvement. - Capability to innovative when analyzing a business phenomenon. - Capability to organize and plan the solution to complex problems. - Capability to identify which is/are the contribution/s of the thesis at the academic, business and political level.

In the second term, students enrolled in the Master in Management are required to complete the Master's Thesis (6 ECTS). Writing the Master's Thesis is probably one of the greatest challenges you will confront during your studies. For this reason, the purpose of the Thesis Guide (supplied in Aula Global) is to give you some practical advice on how to structure your thesis. The work that the Master's Thesis entails is a great learning experience, especially when you overcome the obstacles that are likely to emerge during its development. You will benefit from this learning for many years ahead. The Master's Thesis must be the result of an individual work. Three different kinds of Master's Thesis are possible: applied-research work, a business plan, and a firm-based analysis. The details of both options are described in the Thesis Guide. After deciding the type of thesis, you must choose the topic. The topic of the Master's Thesis is free, though it has to be related to any of the courses you have taken during the Master in Management. Both students and supervisors may suggest possible topics. Once the topic has been chosen, the Director of the program must give the definitive approval to the proposal. TOPICS: 1. Research-oriented work - Develop an academic research paper: choose a research question and try to answer it. - It may be a quantitative or a qualitative study. - Example: What is the relationship between firm internationalization strategies and financial performance? 2. Business plan - Develop a business plan around a business opportunity you would like to exploit. - Example: A consulting company specialized in US College Placement for Athletes. 3. Firm-based analysis - Case study analyzing a particular problem/situation in a real company and potential avenues for solutions /changes / recommendations. - Example: Alternative monetization strategies for Facebook's business model

TIMELINE: 1. Choose a type of thesis, a topic, your expected call and a professor as your supervisor (see the MASTER'S THESIS GUIDELINES for knowing the deadlines). IMPORTANT: Ask professors with enough time in advance whether they would like to be your supervisor. 2. Submit the Master's Thesis - 1st Call: Around June 15th - 2nd Call: Around August 31st - There is only one opportunity to pass it 3. Defense - 1st Call: Last week of June / First week of July - 2nd Call: Around third week of September TUTORIALS: Along the academic year, we will organize several tutorial sessions. At the beginning of the year, there will be a presentation by the Direction of the Master in which the emphasis will be put on the general aspects of the Thesis: types of thesis, the role of the supervisor, deadlines, forms to be filled in, templates, etc. At the beginning of the second term, we will organize more specific sessions for each type of thesis concening: - Content of each type of thesis - Analysis of examples - Revision of main points to take into account SUPERVISOR: You will be supervised by an academic supervisor, who will maintain regular meetings with you to define the content of your work. The supervisor is a member of the academic staff of the program or a member of the departments involved in the Master in Management (Business Administation or Statistics). You can suggest to any professor of the mentioned departments to be your supervisor. However, please do it with enough time in advance so that professors can evaluate and discuss with you your initial proposals. You can also ask any other professor of the Universidad Carlos III to act as your supervisor, with the approval of the Director of the program. The topic and the working plan are jointly defined by the student and the supervisor. Progress is regularly monitored according to a timetable jointly agreed.