During the third or fourth (and Final) Semester, and if students select the Thesis implementation, in collaboration with their supervisor they need to select their topic of research. More specifically:

1^st Step: Topic selection

Students have two options: a) to propose a topic related to their current employment or related to the students’ research interest or b) to choose one of the topics suggested by the teaching staff.

In their first step, students need to select the topic of their thesis. Certain sources can be explored, such as teaching courses, discussion with teaching staff and high-ranking people coming from the private sector, the literature associated with the topic, topics that are considered as hot current issues or related to the students’ research interest. It is a plus if the selected topic is characterized by certain novelties, which is a major plus for the thesis. Selected topics are closely related to the capacities and skills of the students which is a contusive factor for the in time completion of the thesis. Accordingly, the selected topic should not have been explored by another student or (if possible) by the literature itself. Useful sources for this are the National Archive of Doctoral Theses (https://www.didaktorika.gr/eadd/), which offers doctoral thesis from all Greek universities, the «Online Sources» through the Digital Library of the University of Piraeus (https://lib.unipi.gr/), such as the Depository of «Dione» (https://lib.unipi.gr/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=dione), various Search Machinesη  of published papers offered by Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.gr/), as well as the International Database of Theses Proquest (http://proquest.umi.com/).

2nd Step: Contact with the Teaching Staff

In the next step, students need to communicate with the teaching staff of the department who have declared their interest of supervising a thesis. This kind of communication targets the discussion on a topic close to the interest of both parties, with the potential supervisor offering specific information on the topic (and particularly on the literature associated with the topic).

3^rd Step: The exact Definition of the Topic

In this stage, students need to go deep into the literature associated with the selected topic. In particular, students should determine the advancement of the literature, the data they need, the selection of the appropriate methodology, as well as the resources and the time students need to complete their thesis. Theses must have both a theoretical and an empirical part, or only a theoretical part.

4th Step: Submission of the Topic to the Secretariat Office of the Department of Banking and Financial Management.

Once the proposal is approved by the supervisor, students submit it to the Secretariat Office of the Department of Banking and Financial Management.

5^th Step: Writing the Thesis

When the 3^rd  or 4^th semester begins, students are required to start working on their thesis, while they communicate with their supervisor regularly, at least once a month. The thesis includes five specific parts:

1. Introduction, in which students explain their goal, the background of their research, the novelties, as well as the importance of the research for certain stakeholders, the required methodology, as well as any potential expected findings.
2. The theoretical part, which also includes any related literature review, as well as the theoretical background and hypotheses associated with the topic of the thesis.
3. The followed methodology associated with the empirical part of the thesis, as well as any justification for the selection of certain methods.
4. The findings of the empirical research which will confirm or not the hypotheses developed, as well as the empirical findings.
5. Any conclusions, as well as policy recommendations. Next, any appendices and the references sections follow.

Students need to present their literature review. To this end, they should visit electronic libraries offered by other academic institutions, the National Center of Research or any other related sources through the platform of «Argo», which offers free access to references available not only in Greece, but also around the globe, or alternatively can get references sources from the electronic library at the University of Piraeus (http://www.lib.unipi.gr/) or other alternative links, such as Heal-Link (https://www.heal-link.gr/), and other research Machines of published research papers (e.g., Google Scholar). The access to those sources can be achieved only through specific terminals available at the University of Piraeus, or alternatively from distant terminals connected with the university’s environment through the VPN system.

Next, once students retrieve their necessary literature/methodology material, and in collaboration with their supervisor, they need to organize and classify it.

6^th Step: Thesis Presentation

Next, students need to present their thesis to a Committee of three Staff members (one is their supervisor). They report the main parts of their work. To this end, they need to prepare a Power Point presentation, while the duration of it is 15 minutes plus a 5-10 minute Q&A section. At the same time, they also need to prepare a 5-page presentation (primarily in Word) in which they report the main parts of their work to all members of their committee.

The grading scale is:

5 – 6,49: Good

6,5-8,49: Very Good

8,5-10 : Perfect

In case, the presentation does not land on success (Grade: 0-4.99), the students are advised to explicitly consider the comments and suggestions made by the committee and then he/she re-enrolls for an extra semester. 

7^th Step: Thesis Submission

Upon the successful presentation of their thesis students are required to explicitly consider any minor suggestions for improvements and next to submit it to the platform of «Dione» (https://dione.lib.unipi.gr/xmlui/) which is related to the writing production of the University of Piraeus. The thesis must be submitted by the end of February, which is the end of the third semester. Any extension can be provided only based on specific reasons.