Teaching
Our chair offers a wide range of courses for students at Bachelor's and Master's level. Most of our courses are offered in English enabling exchange students to also take part. In addition to detailed descriptions of the individual courses, you will also find guidelines for writing scientific papers on the following pages.
Furthermore, we would like to draw your attention to the requirements for a letter of recommendation.
Additional information (current course dates, lecture materials, etc.) is available via the student portal Portal2 and the e-learning platform Ilias.
![[Englisch] Master](/media/_processed_/1/f/csm_Am_Laptop_Lernsituation_cebae0b54d.jpg)
General Information for Scientific Papers
You can write your bachelor, seminar and master thesis at our chair. For the duration of the process, you will be supervised by one member of our team. The formal requirements for scientific papers can be found in our guidelines. You can find a LaTeX template incorporating the guidelines there as well. The handbook for scientific writing is designed to assist you in structuring the content of your work and is intended to help you getting started. We strongly recommend to read both documents carefully beforehand.
In addition, we would like to inform you on our plagiarism policy.
Guidelines and Manual for Scientific Research
Formal requirements for scientific work
- Richtlinien für die Abfassung wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten (deutsche Version)
- Guidelines for Seminar Papers, Bachelor Theses and Master Theses in English (english Version)
- LaTeX Template (english Version)
Handbook for scientific writing
Plagiarism Policy
The following information on the handling of plagiarism applies to all scientific writings, but in particular to the processing of our case studies in the Master's courses 530, 630 and 670. To be able to also offer the case studies in the future, it is strictly forbidden to disseminate the materials or solutions in any form.
Our teaching approach is based on mutual trust. You commit yourself to perform the work independently and on your own. This also includes marking transferred sentences and texts as quotations. Without the origin of such material, in particular sources accessible on the Internet, these are considered as plagiarism.
In the case of plagiarism, the chair reserves the right not to evaluate the work performance in whole or in part. By submitting your writings to our chair, you accept these rules and agree that the work may be analyzed using plagiarism detection software (Turnitin).
Digital Teaching Concepts
Not only since the pandemic has the chair made a significant contribution to digital teaching at the University of Mannheim.
Already since autumn 2016, digital teaching methods have supplemented the classic face-to-face courses in the Bachelor class “Tax 303: Business Taxation”. Thanks to the recorded videos, students can prepare and follow up the learning content according to their individual learning preferences. Interactive quizzes also allow students to regularly assess their own learning progress. The positive feedback from students and the increasing quality of education confirm the use of e-learning methods in teaching.
As part of the virtual lecture series “Value-Based Management”, one module is dedicated to the topic “Corporate Taxation”. Since spring 2020, the TAX 470 module of the IBEA cohort is complemented by a MOOC introducing the Case Study. You can watch some videos below.
In spring 2018, Prof. Christoph Spengel was awarded the Teaching Prize of the University of Mannheim for his efforts to digitize teaching.
Further milestones in the digitalization of teaching are the Tax Video Library, which has been available since spring 2023, and the Chair's Tax Knowledge Library, which was launched in spring 2025. These contain self-created short videos and quizzes, which are used across all modules in Bachelor's and Master's courses and supplement traditional classroom teaching with digital modules on the basic concepts of national and international (corporate) taxation. The teaching of basic, cross-module knowledge of (corporate) taxation through digital elements enables classroom teaching to focus on in-depth aspects and problems based on these.
Value-Based Management: Company Taxation
If you do not have access to the e-learning group, you can also view the course introduction video on our website.
Mini-MOOC Business Taxation (German)
If you do not have access to the e-learning group, you can also view the course introduction video on our website.
Award Ceremony: Teaching Prize of the University of Mannheim
The award ceremony took place during the University Day of the University of Mannheim. On behalf of Professor Spengel, Marcel Olbert received the prize and explained the teaching concept to the audience. Professor Spengel expressed his thanks for the award via a video message.
Credit: Privat
Credit: Privat
Letter of recommendation for stays abroad, master programmes and scholarships
Letters of recommendation for students of business administration are assigned by the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Business Administration. On the Homepage of the Dean's Office you will find all relevant information for requesting a letter of recommendation. If you have any questions, please contact the Dean's office directly (gutachten(at)bwl.uni-mannheim.de).
IMPORTANT: We ask you to refrain from direct requests for letters of recommendation to the chair.