Business Administration and Management, M.A.

What are the admission requirements?

You have a first professionally qualifying university degree or an equivalent qualification (alumni of universities, universities of applied sciences, universities of cooperative education, universities of cooperative education or equivalent international educational institutions) in a degree program with a focus on economics. You must have earned at least 180 ECTS credits as part of this degree program.

The economics major in the first degree program must include all core content of an undergraduate economics degree program (fundamentals of business administration and economics, business mathematics and statistics, fundamentals of private and commercial law). If these core contents were not included in your first degree program, you can take the corresponding Additional modules before starting your studies. We will be happy to check this for you individually.

A further requirement for admission is advanced written and spoken English language skills (comparable to level B2 of the Common European Framework). The level must be proven by a corresponding certificate (e.g. Cambridge First Certificate in English, Internet-Bades TOEFL test with at least 72 points) or a comparable proof of competence.

What credits are possible?

If you have already completed comparable coursework in a Master's program or comparable program at another university, recognition is generally possible. Please contact our student advisory service.

How is your course structured?

The distance learning course "Business Administration and Management - Master of Arts" comprises four consecutive study sections with very diverse content:

1st semester:

• Methods of scient. Work and empirical social research
• International management and intercultural competence
• Organization and knowledge management
• Leadership
• Process management and quality
• Project management

At the beginning of your studies, you will first deal with the methods of empirical social research that are important for a Master's degree course in order to be able to use them in your further academic work. The "International Management and Intercultural Competence" module is where the international orientation of the course is first expressed. In the modules "Organizational and Knowledge Management" and "Leadership", you will deal with leadership-related content before the overarching management concepts of project and process management are addressed at the end of the first semester.

2nd semester:

• Business and corporate ethics
• Core elements of market-oriented corporate management
• Corporate governance and compliance
• International personnel management
• International accounting
• Collective project work

The second semester comprises important core modules of the course, with two modules with an international focus in addition to "Business and Corporate Ethics", "Core Elements of Market-Oriented Management" and "Corporate Governance and Compliance": International Human Resource Management and International Accounting. The second semester is rounded off by the project work, which can be completed as group work in virtual form.

3rd semester:

In the third semester, you will complete the three modules of your specialization and acquire expert knowledge. In preparation for your Master's thesis, you will complete a seminar paper in each of these modules, in which you will deal with subject-specific topics.

4th semester:

The central highlight at the end of your distance learning course is the Master's thesis. With this, you prove that you can work independently on a problem from the subject areas of the Master's program using scientific methods. Of course, you will be individually supervised by our professors during this phase. You will present your Master's thesis at the end in a colloquium (online).

Choose one of the following three specializations:

Compulsory elective area "Digital transformation"

• Management of the establishment and development of companies
• Innovation management
• Data Science Management

The Digitization plays an important role in the development of companies. In the focus "Digital transformation", you will learn about success factors in setting up a company and will be able to critically analyze cooperation and acquisition strategies. You will also analyze the emergence of corporate crises and develop strategies for crisis management. As a result, you will acquire or improve your prerequisites for founding your own company or developing new business models as an intrapreneur in an existing company.

Innovation as an important success factor for the continued existence of companies today is also closely linked to digitalization. You will therefore also deal with the different phases of the innovation process and the associated methods and techniques for process design so that you can identify the fundamentals of innovation management as success factors for innovation processes and successfully implement innovations.

"Big Data" and "Digital transformation" are current topics that present companies with new challenges. The module "Data Science Management" aims to familiarize you with the current developments and challenges with regard to information management in companies and the complexity of dealing with data, information and knowledge and to enable you to apply methods and tools for dealing with large amounts of data and to manage or advise on specific implementation projects.

Compulsory elective area "Finance"

• Corporate Finance
• Digital Finance
• Risk management

In this specialization, you will first learn about the key aspects of financial decisions in companies, be able to evaluate cash flows on the basis of financial mathematical relationships, prepare investment decisions under certainty and uncertainty and correctly interpret key figures for investment decisions. By becoming familiar with the associated models, you will be able to make qualified financial decisions.

In the "Digital Finance" module, you will analyse the consequences of digitalization for customer management and the impact of new technologies on the business models of financial service providers. At the same time, you will learn how to adapt processes for the implementation of digitalization. Operational recommendations for the use of social media in sales are also covered in this module.

You will also learn how to identify and systematically delineate risks, apply simple and complex quantitative risk measurement methods and evaluate their advantages and disadvantages. This will enable you to identify, assess, monitor and manage business risks in order to reduce undesirable risks for the company and increase the company's value.

Compulsory elective area "Marketing Management"

• Industry-specific marketing management
• Business relationship management
• Implementation of market-oriented management

In the focus "Marketing Management" you will deal with industry-specific differences in marketing management and develop appropriate marketing concepts for different industries. The core element is the management of customer relationships, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. In addition, you will learn about the interfaces between marketing and other areas of responsibility in the company and will be able to use suitable instruments to shape these interfaces. Marketing controlling, procurement marketing and the design of "internal marketing" round off this focus.

How long will your studies take and what degree will you receive?

The standard period of study is 24 months. This refers to full-time study and can be extended accordingly if you are working at the same time. A free extension of 12 months is included in the tuition fees, so that the course can be completed in up to 36 months, depending on individual scheduling.

After you have successfully completed all examinations, the university will award you the academic degree "Master of Arts - Business Administration and Management", which also entitles you to a doctorate. Alternatively, we also award the degree "Magister Artium".