M.A. International Cultural and Business Studies

About the degree programme

Are you keen to give your studies an international orientation and do business, languages and culture fascinate you? This degree programme is both interdisciplinary and international, giving you the chance to acquaint yourself with business and economics, combined with two foreign languages and cultural studies focus in a cultural region related to one of your chosen languages. This programme teaches you to think in terms of networks and allows you to develop strong organisational and communication strategies, as well as developing important key Accreditation of Study Programmes in Germany.

Features

• A combination of business, economics, cultural studies and languages that is unique in Germany
• Cultural studies in one of seven cultural regions:
  • America and the British Isles
  • The French-speaking world
  • The Ibero-Romance cultural region
  • The Italian cultural region
  • East and Central Europe
  • Southeast Asia
  • Only for international students: the German-speaking world
• Subject-specific language programmes with a business or cultural studies focus
• A hands-on programme with project work in a cultural field
• Double degree options in partnership with our partner universities in Scotland, France and Turkey

Programme Syllabus

The programme comprises four module groups:

A) Core modules
B) Cultural area studies
C) Business administration and economics
D) Foreign languages

A) The core modules are further subdivided into two areas: theory and methods as one area and applied skills as the other. You will gain well-founded knowledge of intercultural communication and comparative cultural studies, intercultural management and academic research. Moreover, you will work on a cultural project outside the University and hone transferable skills by choosing your own Key Competencies courses taught by professional instructors.

B) In this module group you will consolidate your knowledge related to your chosen cultural region in up to three of the following subjects: cultural studies, literary studies, linguistics, history, geography, political science, sociology, history of art/visual culture, intercultural communication, communication studies, media studies, philosophy or digital humanities.

C) You will choose business studies or economics modules in this module group: The business modules are concerned with international market-oriented business management and organisation as well as marketing; the economics modules include international economics, development economics, economic policy and behavioural economics.

D) You will choose two of the following foreign languages: Chinese, Czech, English, French, German (for speakers of other languages), Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai or Vietnamese. If you intend to choose the English language option you will need to have advanced English language skills. No existing language skills are presupposed for the other languages (i.e. they are also available ab initio). However, if you do have existing language skills, they will be taken into account by way of a placement test. The subject-specific language programmes are available with a business/economics focus or a cultural studies focus.

You will write your master's thesis on a topic derived from module group B or C.