Minimal Length Requirement for Undergraduate Theses: A Human Capital Perspective

Abstract

We analyze the impact of minimal length requirements for undergraduate theses on students’ human capital investment. we Distinguishing between research and writing, we consider thesis production as investment in research and writing skills. We model the requirement setting as a principal-agent problem where the dean delegates thesis supervision to faculty. The theory shows that when some faculty members are too lenient toward students, a length requirement that is excessive may be optimal. The optimal requirement decreases with the marginal return to research skill and increases with the proportion of lenient faculty. These results offer insights into thesis evaluation and supervision in higher education.