Laissez-faire or guidance? Effective supervision of bachelor theses

Bachelor thesis supervision involves a supporting goal and an assessment goal, requiring more guidance versus more autonomy and freedom for students, respectively. This paper tests the hypotheses that the final grade of undergraduate bachelor thesis is positively related to a supervisor’s (a) guidance given to and (b) affiliation with the bachelor thesis student/project. To assess these hypotheses, undergraduate students at the FHNW School of Business have been surveyed for three years about their perception and satisfaction with bachelor thesis supervision. This data (n = 189) was combined with student grades before the thesis and their final thesis grades. Our results show supervision to have a measurable impact on the bachelor thesis outcome and most effective when focused on guidance related to goal definition and methodological support. In other areas supervision can, to a certain degree, follow a more laissez-faire supervision style.