Winners Best MSc Thesis Award and Best Practice in Teaching and Learning Award 2023-2024

Melissa Timmerman has won the Faculty of Economics and Business’ (FEB) Best MSc Thesis Award and Stefan Berger and Jacoba Oedzes have won the Best Practice in Teaching and Learning Award. The Thesis Award recognizes FEB students' most innovative and insightful master's theses, and the Best Practices Award honors the year's most innovative educational practices.

Melissa Timmerman recently obtained her Master’s degree in Accountancy at FEB and is currently continuing her studies at the University of Groningen Business School, with the Executive Master of Accountancy. Her award-winning thesis, titled 'Auditors' Workload and Multiple Team Memberships: Insights in the Implications of Differences in Auditors' Personality' was supervised by Associate Professor Dennis Veltrop. In her thesis, Timmerman delves into the impact of working in multiple teams on accountants' workload and the role personality plays in this.

The runner up for the best MSc Thesis Award was Philip Schneider (MSc International Business and Management), who‘s thesis explored how emerging market multinationals adapt to more stringent sustainability standards and overcome biases associated with their origins when expanding into developed countries. The third prize was for Caroline Touzin (MSc Business Administration – Strategic Innovation Management), who’s thesis explored whether Blockchain Governance matters for performance.

Best Practices in Teaching and Learning Award

Associate Professor Stefan Berger and Assistant Professor Jacoba Oedzes received the Best Practice in Teaching and Learning Award for the innovative design of their course in HR analytics. In this course, they focus on data-based storytelling in the boardroom. Each block, they also organize an inspiring symposium for their students. As winners of the Jury Prize in FEB’s Best Practice Awards, Berger and Oedzes are now automatically nominated for the university-wide Best Practice Awards, with nominees from each of the university’s faculties, which will be presented during next year’s Education Festival.

The runners-up in FEB’s Best Practice Awards were Assistant Professor Daniël Vullings and a teaching team consisting of Professor Christos Emmanouilidis (course coordinator), Assistant Professor Sabine Waschull & Assistant Professor Jos Bokhorst. Vullings developed a simulation game for the Econometrics and Operational Research (EOR) undergraduate program in which students manage a company. Vullings received the audience award for his innovative teaching methods. Emmanoulidis, Waschull and Bokhorst were nominated for the research-based teaching innovations they implemented in the MSc Technology and Operations Management.