Keywords
: Delay in completing thesis, Plan B (thesis
option), advising faculty members, educational
management solution.
1
.
Introduction
As a faculty member of the Tourism
Management MBA Program at a well
-
known
university in Bangkok, Thailand, it is
noticeable to both this writer and colleagues
that students who choose Plan B (thesis
option) often delay completing their thesis. A
discussion
over lunch with friends at another
large and prestigious government university in
Bangkok recently indicated that they too face
this same difficulty within both their General
and Tourism MBA programs. So it seems
appropriate to investigate this problem in
greater detail.
This paper is of an academic rather than
research paper. Its purpose is to identify the
nature of the problem and the impacts of the
several parties involved and to propose an
educational management solution. A
subsequent paper will inves
tigate this problem
more deeply from a research perspective.
The delay in students completing their MBA
theses often causes difficulties for the students,
their advisers, and for the Graduate Schools of
Business. To better understand the scope and
nature
of student’s late completion of the
thesis, it will be useful if this writer firstly
explains those difficulties and then explores
the causes and implications of the delay and to
finally suggest managerial approaches for
each
party to minimize if not mitig
ate the
problem
caused by late completion of the
thesis.
The causes of delay are likely to be both
External (Extrinsic) and Internal (Intrinsic) to
the student, so let us review the various causes
on those bases first.