Management

"Rethinking Management" is what the Karls stands for.

In contrast to the prevailing concept of "man-as-machine" in management studies, we believe you must understand what makes people tick, how they shape and are shaped by culture, and how society as a whole progresses for you to be successful at what you do. Accordingly, as a young professional, you need to be qualified for management and leadership functions both in business and in society. You need to be able to understand, accompany, and actively design social and cultural change in management positions within organisations.

In the Karls Management MA programme, we don't spoon-feed you mere factual knowledge or a "universal truth". You will get insights into relevant fields, theories and practices. But the focus of our teaching is not on pure instruction. It is on the interaction between the lecturer and your group of students, an interaction in which individual experiences and opinions are appreciated, discussed, and worked on together. This enables you to re-think established paths and to tread new ones on the basis of an embodied sense of responsibility, empathy, sustainability, and expertise.

Why apply for the Management MA at the Karls?

The Karls is a different kind of university for people who are, or who want to be, different. In fact, it is for people who want to make a difference. We want to accompany you in your personal and professional development.

The Management MA programme is a playing field where management, cultural and social sciences, theory and practice, ethics and sustainability come together - and where you learn not to take these phenomena for granted, but to reflect on them critically and empathetically.

In addition to a broad management education we give you the possibility to become an expert in the fields and topics you are interested in. For this, you can select two out of eight specialisations:

• Brand,
• Creativity & Innovation,
• Cultural Change & Society,
• Finance,
• Human Resources & Diversity,
• New Media,
• Sustainability, and
• Tourism Culture & Consumption.

This profile qualifies you for a variety of career paths in management and business as well as for further academic excellence programmes. As a graduate, you will be able to connect your knowledge and skills in the field of general management with the specialisations you have selected, shaping and changing the area you will be responsible for in your later life (and, beyond this, shaping and changing the entire organisation and its environment).

Educational organisation

Regardless of the two areas in which you decide to specialise, the management modules and personal skills are mandatory components of the Master's programme. In the first semester, you will refine and deepen previously acquired knowledge. In the second semester, you will be confronted with the political (strategic and tactical) levels of management in various arenas. In the third semester, you will learn to deal with complexity by assuming responsibility and developing both intuition and the ability to improvise.

You will decide on your two core areas at the beginning of the first semester, choosing from among eight possible pillars. Each semester has an overlapping focus with respect to content.

For further information, see the programme website.

Study abroad unit(s)

Spending a semester abroad is not possible for this programme. It is of high priority to the university to guarantee not only the highest quality of education within modules, but also a perfect interconnection in between module contents in order to achieve the best possible learning results and to foster strong coherence within the group as well as mutual inspiration of students.

Internships

Any module content is reflected and re-worked on the basis of case studies. These case studies can derive from exhaustive online research but are mostly determined by the variety of practical experiences of our professors and lecturers and frequently deepened by the inclusion of external lecturers from the field. Apart from this, regular excursions and practical projects are part of most of the modules at Karlshochschule. Particularly in this Master's programme, the EduTour in the second and the Innovation Project in the third semester represent the practical outreach as inherent part of the studies.

Forms of assessment

The forms of course-related assessment are written assignment, seminar paper, essay, learner's portfolio, simulation, presentation, project, written exam, oral exam, case study and field study.

Other forms of course-related assessment are permitted with the approval of the Examinations Committee. They must be announced publicly within the university, specifying the evaluation criteria and the prescribed time period, before the beginning of the semester.

Course objectives

The objective of the Master's Programme in Management is the acquisition of the qualification to take on responsibility competently and in an ethically reflected manner, building on knowledge acquired during the Bachelor's programme. This includes being able to take on responsibility in unfamiliar, ambiguous, conflictual, and complex leadership and decision-making situations in companies and non-profit organisations.

On the basis of this, successful graduates are able to connect their knowledge and skills in the field of general and transformative management with the specialisations they have selected, to continue autonomously to extend their knowledge and skills and independently develop, communicate and implement ideas, obtaining acceptance of these ideas and thus shaping and changing the task area they have been assigned (and, beyond this, shaping and changing the entire organisation and its environment).

An integral part of this objective is the acquisition of the competence to autonomously conduct research projects, in accordance with state-of-the-art research approaches.
Graduates are thus able to perform a sound analysis and evaluation of complex leadership and decision-making situations by applying scientific theories and methods (in particular from the field of cultural sciences).

Language requirements

• English: level C1 or above according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) or
• IELTS of 6.5 or above or
• Internet-based TOEFL score of at least 100 points

Academic requirements

As we strongly believe in interdisciplinary learning the programme is open to students who have completed their undergraduate studies in business administration, economics or any related field of study (e.g. social and cultural sciences, the humanities, art and design etc.).

Please find further information on the admission process and documents to be submitted on our website.

Enrolment fees

All students pay 68 EUR per semester to the Karlsruhe Student Union.

Costs of living

Rent at a hall of residence or shared flat: 260-350 EUR
Health insurance: 65 EUR
Food: 160 EUR
Miscellaneous (books, computer, leisure, etc.): at least 120 EUR

Job opportunities

With our Career Service, Karlshochschule offers consultation and mediation support for our students. We maintain strong connections with a variety of companies and institutions in the area and are thus happy to help in finding job placements and through application and interview training.

Arrival support

• All visiting students have a student adviser (a Karlshochschule student) who helps to make sure that they quickly feel at home here, by picking them up from the train station when they arrive and showing them around the city later on
• Advice on accommodation for students
• Assistance with necessary tasks as student visas, residence permits, registering in the city, selecting health insurance, and opening a bank account
• Introduction days at the beginning of the study programme

Services and support for international students

Every year, Karlshochschule International University welcomes students from all over the world to Karlsruhe. However, it is not only our students that shape university life, it is also our employees, who come from China, Egypt, France, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, Spain and Turkey - making us an international and open-minded university!

Integrating and supporting our students is our top priority. This involves close contact with professors as well as a service-oriented, accessible administration and academic offices.

We offer:

• Programmes instructed in English
• German and English language courses at different levels
• German culture classes
• Academic counselling
• Counselling on financing and scholarship programmes
• Counselling on internship applications
• Open-door policy of professors
• Assistance with application procedure
• Online platform for international students
• Advice on accommodation for students
• Assistance with student visas and residence permits
• Assistance with practical matters and organisation of leisure activities by the International Office and student advisers
• Introduction days at the beginning of the study programme
• Excursions and extra activities with professors
• Specific events and excursions for international students, e.g. to Heidelberg, Strasbourg or Berlin
• Pick-up service from Karlsruhe train station

Accommodation

In Germany, students stay in rooms in a student residence, in a shared apartment or with their families. The International Office helps exchange and visiting students to find a room. With the letter of acceptance, you will receive an accommodation sheet which you must fill in and send back to us. We recommend that you start looking for accommodation as early as possible because the housing market in Karlsruhe is fairly tight. You should join our Karlshochschule Facebook group "Wohnungsbörse an der Karlshochschule".

For the first few nights, you might not be able to move into your room. In this case, we recommend that you stay at a youth hostel.

For international applicants, a limited number of spaces in our EduPartment - a residential home dedicated to students of Karlshochschule - are available.