Leiden University · Faculty of Humanities

Thesis & Research Supervision

BAKS — Korean Studies

BA

The BA thesis in Korean Studies (Koreastudies) is a 10,000-word research paper that completes your degree. It should show your Korean-language ability, your knowledge of Korean history, politics or culture, and your command of theory, methodology and academic writing.

BAKS students take the Thesis Seminar. Seminar materials, assignments, the weekly schedule and the style guide are on the BAKS Thesis Seminar website.

Your next step: Check the rules below, then write a one-page working plan with your research question, likely sources, method, timeline and questions for your supervisor. The Getting Started Guide and Templates & Checklists help with this. If your project involves data, participants, sensitive material or computational methods, also read the Methods Guide and Ethics.

Key Requirements

Requirement Details
Word count 10,000 words (±10%), including footnotes, excluding bibliography and appendices
Citation style Chicago Notes-Bibliography
Language English for this seminar. Program rules allow Dutch or English, or another Western language with Board of Examiners permission
Korean sources At least 10% of sources in Korean
Romanization McCune-Reischauer (MCR)
Final deadline June 1, 2027

Key Deadlines (2026–2027)

This site will be updated as new AY2026-2027 deadlines are published. Dates not yet announced are marked TBD.

Deadline Date
Register for thesis supervision (form) February 1, 2027
Assignment #1: Revised Research Proposal TBD (see the seminar site)
Assignment #2: Full Design Draft TBD (see the seminar site)
Assignment #3: Empirical Draft May 2, 2027
Final thesis June 1, 2027

Submit assignments through Brightspace by 23:59 on the due date. Late work can lose 0.5 points per day.

There are two thesis deadlines, May 2 and June 1. If you hand in a draft by May 2, your supervisor returns feedback within three weeks, and you can revise and resubmit by June 1. If you do not hand in a draft by May 2, you can still submit a final version by June 1, but you lose the right to revise and resubmit. Email your thesis to your supervisor as Word and PDF files, with bathesis@hum.leidenuniv.nl in cc. Your thesis goes through Turnitin, and you receive your grade within six weeks.

If you submit after June 1, your thesis is assessed only from September. If you have met the seminar’s attendance and submission requirements, you may hand in your thesis until December 10, provided the Board of Examiners gives permission and you inform your study advisor. If you do not meet this deadline, you must write a new thesis, in principle on a different subject and with a different supervisor.

Assessment

Seminar Evaluation

Component Weight
Participation (including peer review) 10%
Assignment #1: Revised Research Proposal 20%
Assignment #2: Full Design Draft 35%
Assignment #3: Empirical Draft 35%

For the thesis to be accepted, the thesis draft must itself earn a pass (5.50 or higher).

Thesis Assessment

A first and second reader grade the final thesis separately from the seminar. The prospectus lists five criteria:

  1. Knowledge of the academic literature and a research question based on it
  2. Consistent application of a methodology to primary sources
  3. Careful processing of primary source materials
  4. Substantive engagement with Korean-language materials
  5. Communication, including language use, thesis structure and apparatus

See Assessment Standards for detailed criteria and grade descriptors.

What’s Expected at BA Level

The five criteria above define a strong BA thesis. See BA vs MA Expectations for how this differs from MA work.

Documents