At a glance
Studying Modern General Management - a master's program with a future
The aim of the three-semester master's program is to teach interdisciplinary connections between the various functional areas and a deeper understanding of one's own actions, building on a sound knowledge of business administration. Independent action oriented towards corporate strategy is to be promoted. In addition to deepening your business knowledge, the program also offers you personal development. Studying in small groups prepares you for working in a team later on and gives you an understanding of the role you will play as an employee in a company. The focus is on the knowledge and skills you need to work in a company or start a business.
Entrepreneurship and digitization as key competencies
Successful small, medium-sized or large industrial and service companies increasingly need employees who, when making decisions, always keep in mind how their decisions affect the company's goals. They attach importance to their specialists and managers helping to shape and positively influence strategic goals such as improving competitiveness or the performance of the value chain within the scope of their capabilities. In times of shorter product life cycles with increasing digitalization, this is one of the central competencies taught by the consecutive master's degree program. In addition, the program also supports and promotes students' own start-up activities.
Become an entrepreneur in the company
Do you have an ingenious business idea and want to use it to launch an entrepreneurial career? You dream of your own start-up company and want to be able to develop, finance and market your own business models? You want to take on responsibility in a company in a business management function? Do you want to be able to make valuable contributions to value creation within the company? Then our master's degree program in "Business Administration and Entrepreneurship" is just right for you.
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Curriculum
The master's program "Business Administration and Entrepreneurship" is designed for three semesters with 90 ECTS.
During the three semesters, students acquire in-depth knowledge and skills in the areas of financial management, market development and value creation in business administration, as well as in entrepreneurship. Aspects of the digital transformation are considered cross-sectionally to both topics and reflected in the context of business administration and entrepreneurship.
- In the area of financial management with the modules Financial Management and Advanced Controlling, you will deepen your knowledge and methods for the use of financing instruments of an existing or newly founded company, also with regard to modern approaches such as crowdfounding and blockchain. Furthermore, aspects of business ethics will also be reflected.
- Market cultivation as an important factor for innovation and company growth includes the modules Sales Excellence and Market Insight Excellence with the EyeTracking laboratory.
- The area of Strategy and Value Creation delves into management concepts and methods in the modules Strategy and Leadership, Operations Management, and Management Simulation.
- The Entrepreneurship area with the modules Entrepreneurship , Business Development (development of new business areas) and Innovation Management teaches you entrepreneurial design skills.
- The cross-sectional field of digitalization is represented by the two modules Digitalization I (Digital Transformation) and Digitalization II (Digitalization of Business Processes and Models) .
- The module Scientific Work and Empirical Social Research and the scientifically oriented master's thesis also qualify you for a possible doctorate.
For competence broadening or deepening, elective courses from the Faculty T are available (non-binding examples are: Future Design, International Project Management, Business Psychology, Organization and Leadership), but offers from our neighboring faculties can also be taken.
The teaching and learning forms of the modules are, according to the master level, lectures with practical applications and case studies, seminars and practical projects in cooperation with companies with current, practice-relevant topics.
Our Master's program also offers a high level of supervision by the program management and our professors.
Note on language skills: For the study program, it is necessary to have sufficient knowledge of German, as the courses are mainly, but not necessarily, held in German. You should also be able to read and write English texts/contents in a Master's program and present them orally if necessary.
Admission
Admission is for the winter semester and the summer semester. Application deadlines are July 15 and January 15 (cut-off deadlines - i.e. your application documents must be received electronically by this date in order to be considered for the allocation of study places!).
The application for a study place is done online. Here you can access the online application.
Please note: You will be informed about the status of your application electronically in the application portal. There will be no postal delivery.
Admission requirements:
Admission requirements are a university degree in business administration or in a degree program with predominantly business content with a final grade of at least 3.0 and a total of 210 ECTS credits.
Applicants whose Bachelor's degree comprises 180 ECTS must complete the missing ECTS at the latest by the time they register for the Master's thesis. The missing 30 ECTS can be obtained as follows:
- by recognition of competences acquired outside the university or
- by acquiring competences by taking modules of relevant bachelor programs.
Selection procedure:
Admission is decided by placement in a ranking list. The ranking list is drawn up on the basis of the final grade of the first university degree. In the event of a tie, the decision is made by drawing lots.
What does a predominantly business degree mean as an admission requirement?
Check your study plan for modules/subjects with business content. Add up the ECTS. If the total is more than half of all ECTS in your degree program, you have completed a "predominantly business-related university degree program."
Subjects with business content are those that are compulsory in a standard business degree program, e.g.
- Legal basics
- Mathematics/business mathematics
- statistics
- ECONOMICS
- Scientific work
- Introduction IT
- Enterprise software (ERP, CRM,..)
- databases
- Business Processes
- Production and Supply Chain Management
- Corporate Governance, Human Resources & Organization
- Operations Research
- Controlling, Financing and Accounting
- Marketing and Sales
- Business Psychology
If your bachelor's thesis, project(s) and internship semester are related to business studies, these ECTS also count.
For complete information on admission requirements as well as instructions for applicants whose bachelor's program includes 180 ECTS, please refer to the current admission and selection statutes for master's programs.
The Master's degree can only be awarded if, including the previous studies, 300 ECTS-points have been achieved.
Information on the application procedure is also available in our online info sessions.
FEES FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND FOR SECOND DEGREE STUDIES
In Baden-Württemberg, since the winter semester 2017/2018, there is a tuition fee for international students (non-EU citizens) and a second-study fee. Thus, in some cases, a tuition fee must be paid in addition to the semester fee.
Prior to enrollment, applicants from non-EU countries or applicants for a second degree will receive a form to assess whether a tuition fee obligation actually exists.
The amounts and detailed information can be found under Finances.
News
Faculty of Technology and Management
Outstanding achievements honored
78 graduates successfully completed their studies at RWU last winter semester. These achievements have now been honored and celebrated at the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Technology and Management.
Faculty of Technology and Management
"Go out and change this world!"
The Faculty of Technology and Management honored and bid farewell to its graduates in a festive setting.
In conversation with the Schwäbische Zeitung
"If you don't want to make a dent, you won't".
About digitization in Germany, generation Z and the role of vacuum cleaners
Business Psychology
A constant winner
What effect do sustainability features on products have on young consumers?
Business psychology perspective on personnel development at ZF
How does learning work in the company?
Felix Aurich, personnel developer at ZF Friedrichshafen AG, showed how challenging a change process can be for a company and its personnel in his guest lecture "Strategic Personnel Development @ZF - The E-Cademy Project".
With a business degree in IT? Yes of course!
Guest lecture of Dell Technologie Germany
At the guest lecture of the company Dell on 05.04.22 our BWU students learned that they are exactly right after their master in an IT company!
Elective "Future Design
Review from the future
The first "Summer-Class" of the elective "Future Design" ended with the presentations of the working groups. Whereby one should rather speak of "beginnings on the way to different futures" when talking about future design.
Projects
Do you value a practice-oriented study program? In the master's program in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship, projects are carried out in cooperation with well-known companies, especially from the tech industry. The projects are coordinated and supervised by Prof. Dr. Barbara Niersbach and Prof. Dr. Frank Ermark. As a student, you will gain comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of current business topics. Organizing yourself in a team, presenting results to a business partner and convincing others of your ideas are just some of the soft skills you will acquire in our projects. The contact to employees of different tech companies prepares you additionally for your career and the entry into business life.
Business Development and Product Management with Voith
Students learn how to develop concepts for new business areas based on practical tasks
In the module "Business Development and Product Management" (summer semester) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Frank Ermark, students of the Master BWU learn how new business fields can be developed systematically. This enables the students to explain tasks, processes and methods of the entrepreneurial thinking and acting product manager or business developer. Since theory is necessary but not sufficient for professional life, the internalized teaching content is supplemented with concrete examples for transfer to business practice. In teams, the students investigate the development potential of new, especially digital, business areas or models of the Heidenheim-based technology company Voith. The content of the project teams is supervised by Frank Opletal, the former CTO at Voith Paper. Using concrete case studies from the company, the students thus learn to reflect on the knowledge from the lecture and transform it into practical action. At the end, the students' results are presented to the Voith employees involved and discussed.
Key points of entrepreneurial action
Sales Excellence and Digitalization in cooperation with DELL-EMC Germany
In the context of a cooperation with the technology company DELL-EMC Germany, our students receive an in-depth and practical insight into the entrepreneurial activities of a large tech company. The focus is on two fields that are essential for budding entrepreneurs today: Digital transformation with all its effects on a company and the sale of current technology developments and products.
In the "tandem project," the company provides more than 10 guest lecturers who teach the content and methods together with the university lecturers responsible for the modules, Prof. Dr. Barbara Niersbach (Sales Excellence) and Prof. Dr. Frank Ermark (Digitalization). The tandems are coordinated from the company side by Hans Jürgen Brass, Senior Director/Global Lead IT and Service.
In the module Digitalization (1st semester), students work in teams to analyze different aspects in five industries/thematic focus areas: Automotive, Manufacturing, Insurance & Banking, Healthcare and Smart City.
The focus is on selected aspects of the digital transformation, such as new use cases through digital technologies, business models with new value propositions and value creation options, cooperation networks/business ecosystems or competence developments. In terms of content, the students are accompanied by professors as well as coaches from the Dell company in order to enable a close integration of applied science and business practice.
In the module "Sales Excellence" (2nd semester), students learn in various areas, such as technical service, area sales or key account management, how customers must be comprehensively handled nowadays. In project work, students realize how important it is for a company to create value. Understanding the interface management of their own company is one of the goals of this tandem project with DELL-EMC.
Smart Mobility with BOSCH - The start of an automotive revolution?
Autonomous and connected driving is one of the main trends in the automotive industry. Current developments in technology companies will fundamentally change what we want from a car. Business administrators also have to deal with this trend. After all, customer needs will change in the future and new demands will be placed on sales employees. In the summer semester of 2019, our students had the opportunity to address this trend together with technology company Bosch in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Barbara Niersbach.
Under professional guidance from Bosch employees, the master's students were first able to gain an insight into the current state of knowledge on autonomous and connected driving. In a market research project, the students explored the needs of mobility users. The aim was to explore the potential of future mobility. Estimating these can be an important basis for strategic decisions for automotive suppliers and manufacturers.
Analysis of requirements for employees in Sales Excellence with Felss Group GmbH
In addition to the main module "Sales Excellence" (supervised by Prof. Dr. Barbara Niersbach), an elective module was started in the summer semester 2019 with Felss Group GmbH, an internationally operating automotive supplier. In small project teams, students explore the competence profile of a Sales Excellence employee. In doing so, the students were to fathom which personality traits, organizational structure and transformation processes are necessary in this area. They analyzed which competencies in the areas of sales, pricing, service and digital service are required by companies across industries today. In doing so, our students conducted a comprehensive literature research as well as an empirical investigation in the form of interviews within and outside the Felss Group.
Success Stories
With our master's program to the professional goal
For many of our students, the master's program in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship is the springboard to their dream job. Experience has shown that our graduates have very good career opportunities in attractive professional fields that fully match the profile of the degree program. They have the best opportunities in the full range of companies - from start-ups to medium-sized businesses to global corporations.
What's special is that students usually already receive job offers during their studies or during the time they are writing their master's thesis. The implementation of the study program also has a positive effect here: students can work for their future company as student trainees during their studies. Some of our students are also given management responsibility immediately after completing their master's degree.
The following table provides an insight into the job profiles of our graduates:
You want to know even more about what our graduates have become?
See what they tell you:
"My first contact with Dell Technologies was at my university, Ravensburg-Weingarten University (RWU). Through RWU, we implemented various joint projects in the Business Administration and Entrepreneurship (BWU) degree program. The employees of Dell Technologies supported us in getting to know application fields beyond theory. So I had the opportunity to gain some "Dell Buddys" over time and get a good insight into the company."
Our graduate, Mr. Daniel Leibinger, is now an Inside Sales Account Manager at Dell Technologies. In the following blog, he reports on how the master's program helped him start his career, and why it is possible to make a career in a pure tech company even as an "IT greenhorn" with a business administration master's degree. Click here to read the blog!
"Content-wise, the open-ended courses and seminars in particular helped me get the permanent job. This refers to the modules that took place in group work and for the most part with practice partners, without a defined outcome to be achieved being specified beforehand (digitalization, innovation management, market insight excellence, sales excellence, entrepreneurship). The big challenges of these events were (1) to find ways and goals in the team and, (2) after introductory and introductory teaching units, to deal with the content myself and independently. Through this mixture, on the one hand my analytical and conceptual skills improved and on the other hand I got to know my strengths and weaknesses better through the intensive group work. These experiences qualified me for direct career entry."
(Jakob Felix Paxian, graduate of the master's program in business administration and entrepreneurship)
"This is the best thing that could have happened to me," says Vanessa Hagenberg. She has arrived. Vanessa Hagenberg grew up in Weingarten and went to school there. After studying business administration at Nürtingen-Geislingen University, she went on to study for a master's degree in business administration and entrepreneurship at RWU. She now lives in Bad Schussenried and is Head of YESSTER, responsible for strategy and management. In the university magazine "Konzepte", issue 20/21, she tells us about her career. Click here for the report.
International
New impressions, new perspectives - Our students during their semester abroad
In February 2020, Isabel Wallisch traveled to Estonia. She spent her semester abroad in a special country at an an extraordinary time. In the middle of the first wave of the Corona pandemic. On page 62 - 64 of the university magazine Konzepte, issue 20/21 she describes her experiences.
Image galleries
Contact & People
General contact details
| Phone | |
|---|---|
| franziska.mueller@rwu.de | |
| Room | B 214 |
| On campus |
Building B
Leibnizstr. 12
88250 Weingarten |
| Postal address |
RWU Hochschule Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences Business Administration and Entrepreneurship P.O. Box 30 22
88216 Weingarten Germany |
Secretary's office
Sylvia Pilz
Study program counselling and coordination
Head of study program
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Frank Ermark
Admissions Office
Marina Schneider
Examination Office
Aylin Baur
Professors
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Theresa Breckle, MBA
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Frank Ermark
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Nils Hagen
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Tobias Harth
Prof. Dr. Steffen Jäckle
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Cornelia Neff
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Barbara Niersbach
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Peter Philippi-Beck
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Dirk Steffens
- Building B
- Room B 118
Prof. Dr. phil. Götz Walter
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Heike Willax
Coordinator for international affairs
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Barbara Niersbach
Dean's office
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Nils Hagen