Master of Arts in Entrepreneurship – classic/cooperative

The Master’s degree program in Entrepreneurship is an international and consecutive business administration program in the English language with a strong entrepreneurial focus.

The “Master in Entrepreneurship” offers the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills and an entrepreneurial mindset. Students will acquire the skills and knowledge to start their own businesses or to add value to an already established small or medium-sized private or family business. Students will also be empowered to be successful as “entrepreneurs” in corporations after graduation and to master entrepreneurial transformation.

The program offers a practice-oriented curriculum and teaches skills and effective strategies for managing diverse companies and building new businesses. The program promotes and fosters personal development and professional identity in order to develop an entrepreneurial mindset while being able to navigate the global economy.

Lectures will be taught entirely in English. In addition, students will optimize their intercultural skills thanks to the internationality and heterogeneity of the course participants.

Start-up ecosystem on campus

Students of the program can access a well-developed start-up ecosystem on campus. There is a full range of consulting services on campus for students interested in founding their own businesses and who would like to go beyond the curricular training and start a business during their studies.

People who can think and act entrepreneurially both as employers and employees, especially qualified and dynamic entrepreneurs, are increasingly needed to create and ensure the foundations for good economic growth and for the further development of our societies. In order to qualify employers and employees, in particular, to qualify entrepreneurs, to cope with current and future challenges, and to create entrepreneurial thinking and acting as well as entrepreneurial spirit in society, it is necessary to have a suitable vision of the qualified entrepreneur.

Graduates of the Master’s degree program in Entrepreneurship will have extensive and practical specialist knowledge. In addition to business management and entrepreneurial expertise, important analytical skills, leadership competence (and the ability to develop companies), methodological competence, intercultural competence, and other soft skills are taught, which guarantee high “employability” on the national and international job market after graduation.

In addition to the business management background, the graduates also will have the expertise to independently design and achieve business goals. Even in situations of limited information, they will be able to understand complex contexts and present alternative courses of action in specific situations.

In addition, graduates will develop a holistic view of companies. This includes the ability to resolve goal conflicts and priorities, as well as to make trade-offs in decision-making in order to secure differentiation potential for a sustainable market presence and survival.

The graduates of the “Master in Entrepreneurship” will

• be able to create and implement innovations, especially innovations that involve novelties and quantum leaps, as these are becoming increasingly important for all regional economic progress
• demonstrate ethical, social, and corporate responsibility
• be able to create an innovative corporate culture, which is important for success, especially for the realization of innovations
• have the necessary intercultural understanding and communication skills to enable them to manage culturally diverse companies

The Master's degree program in Entrepreneurship does not train students for a sector-specific job description. The fields of application are manifold and include national and international companies, but especially start-ups and family businesses. During the program, students will be comprehensively prepared for starting their own businesses and for a career in innovative small and medium-sized enterprises or in national or international groups.

The graduate of the “Master in Entrepreneurship” program will be able to create and/or manage and develop a small or medium-sized enterprise or a unit of a larger organization. Modules such as “International Entrepreneurship”, “Managing Family Businesses” or “Corporate Entrepreneurship” reinforce these skills.

Successful graduates of the program will be able to start or continue a career as self-employed professionals (new ventures) as well as entrepreneurial leaders or managers in companies (corporate entrepreneurship), social and non-profit organizations, and other industry sectors. At the same time, graduates will also have opportunities to pursue an academic career.

Practical Course: At least 20 weeks (study period 3 semesters without placement semester)

The program Entrepreneurship can be studied in two different study variants. Based on the admission requirements, it will be decided whether an internship semester will be integrated for the course of study of 4 semesters or the possibility of a shortened course of study of 3 semesters.

On successful completion of the program, students will receive a Master’s degree in

• 3 semesters with 90 CP or in
• 4 semesters with 120 CP.

The structure of the Master’s program follows the entrepreneurial life cycle. In the first semester, students will acquire knowledge, skills, and competencies concerning the topic of “Founding a company”; in the second semester concerning the topic of “Growth” and in the last semester concerning the topic of “Advanced development and special forms of entrepreneurship”.

Therefore, the program can be divided into the following sections:

1 ǀ Semester 1: Founding a company

The core subjects are arranged according to the entrepreneurial life cycle and are extended and built upon over the course of the program.

Starting a business is the focus of the modules “International Entrepreneurship” and “Creativity and Innovation” in the first semester. Students develop the skills to start their own businesses, develop a business plan, identify entrepreneurial opportunities, and present them to investors. Entrepreneurship, business model and business plan development, business model trade-offs, innovation, creativity, and idea generation as well as design thinking elements are the main focus.

Closely related to this, the module “Strategies of Internationalization” equips students with the strategic management tools and skills to lead, develop, change, and restructure a company. The right strategic positioning in highly competitive markets and the development of competitive advantages are particularly important for startups.

Leadership competence is reinforced in the modules “Business Psychology” and “Leadership and Intercultural Management”. These provide students with the competence to successfully link their theoretical management knowledge with practical application. However, they also learn how to deal with challenging situations that are typical in the corporate life cycle, as well as how to cope with the failure of start-ups and how to deal with mistakes. Management of failure and resilience are critical success factors for founders. Thus, the program Entrepreneurship is not only about becoming an entrepreneur but also about being an entrepreneur.

In “Project and Change Management”, students strengthen their ability to plan, structure, and implement change in companies as these skills are essential for everyday business life in companies with rapid and frequent changes. In addition, the students practice working together on diverse projects learning how to cope with conflict in international teams.

2 ǀ Semester 2: Growth

Early development, consolidation, and growth are the entrepreneurial focuses of the second semester with the modules “Management and Marketing of Innovations” and “Managing Family Businesses”. This includes strategies for growth processes, maintaining and expanding the innovative drive in young companies, but also the development of structure and organization in small companies. Family businesses often confront entrepreneurially minded graduates with particular challenges.

The modules “Intellectual Property Rights” and “Advanced Corporate Finance” also form the focus of the entrepreneurship training. They familiarize students with the basic rules and challenges of protecting intellectual property and financing options, for example for scaling up start-ups.

In addition, the second semester includes a special high application-oriented format: the “Entrepreneurship Boot Camp”. Here, students will be intensively engaged in the creation of start-up concepts and actively work on problems of selected start-ups in different stages of development.

In addition to the core elements of the program, students will have the opportunity to choose an additional specialization from a carefully selected group of elective modules, thus increasing their expertise in their preferred areas. These elective modules represent state-of-the-art business management specializations and reflect the relevant activities of the value-added process of an internationally active company.

These compulsory elective modules include:

• E-Commerce
• Advanced International Controlling
• Global Careers, Employee Motivation & Organization Design
• Strategic Marketing & Relationship Marketing
• International Supply Chain Management

The elective modules are all, without exception, internationally oriented and, thanks to small group sizes, enable very practice-oriented teaching. Project work, workshops or excursions to international companies and/or organizations are often offered.

3 ǀ Semester 3: Placement semester

The third semester is designed as an internship semester. It comprises a continuous period of at least 20 weeks and must be completed in a company in Germany or abroad. The goal is to apply the acquired specialized business knowledge and skills and entrepreneurial competencies in practice and to implement them in a professional way.

In line with the admission requirements, it may be possible to shorten the regular duration of study from four to three semesters. If no practical semester is completed, the standard period of study is 3 semesters only.

It is recommended to complete an internship semester as this is where the knowledge gained can be deepened and important contacts for the further career can be made. The duration of 20 weeks ensures a comprehensive insight into the company and the work areas.

4 ǀ Semester 4 (3): Advanced development and special forms of entrepreneurship

Change, further development and special entrepreneurial issues are the focus of the fourth (third) semester. “Social Entrepreneurship” represents a rapidly growing area in the start-up landscape and requires a modified way of thinking and design of start-ups, especially when weighing up non-financial and financial goals. “Corporate Entrepreneurship” strengthens the intrapreneurship education of students and enables them to transfer entrepreneurial approaches to the structures of existing large companies or private and public institutions.

The last semester is also reserved for writing the Master’s Thesis in the form of a research topic related to a selected area of entrepreneurship or innovation management. The Master's thesis can be written in a company, whereby the students apply their expertise in a company. Finally, the writing of the Master's thesis enables students to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired during their studies to real-life corporate problems within a specified period of time (5 months).