Management & Human Resources

The guiding principle of the Management & Human Resources major is to train students as consulting business partners who develop practical solutions based on the companies' goals.

Content and Idea

Practical orientation and academic excellence complement each other in the Management & Human Resources degree program. Human resources questions are examined from an interdisciplinary perspective by incorporating business economics, psychology and law. Students learn to look at the full picture of human resources concerns by including also ethics, diversity and intercultural aspects. Key qualifications (such as systematic consulting skills, conversation and negotiating techniques) are integrated into students' training. As human resources managers increasingly operate internationally, the program emphasizes the international and intercultural aspects of human resources responsibilities. The program regards human resource management as an essential task of corporate governance and as a key factor for successful business.

Structure

During the first semester, students complete modules in Strategic HR Management and its Implementation as a Business Partner as well as Designing HR-Management tasks and acquire core competencies in the fields of labor law and functions of human resource management. In the second semester, students deepen these competencies with the modules International HR Management and Legal Structures in Human Resource Management and attain skills in research methods in the field of human resource management. Within the scope of a challenging research project, students work in a team to address questions of practical relevance that can be looked at from an either disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective.

The third semester gives students the opportunity to deepen their specialist knowledge in major-specific electives or broaden their competencies by choosing a maximum of two cross-disciplinary optional courses. Within the field of human resources, the following topics are offered: HR Management as Change Management, International Aspects of HR Management, HR as a Business Partner: the Economic Perspective, and HR Management in the Context of Current Challenges. Students are recommended to plan their study abroad in the third semester.

From the first to the third semester, students complete, apart from the modules in their major, additional modules as follows: In the field of Management Studies, students further deepen their specialist skills in management by completing a total of three modules; the cross-disciplinary Complementary Studies program, also comprising three modules, provides students with the general academic foundations reflecting on science. The special focus of this program allows students to familiarize themselves with modes of thinking and working methods reaching beyond disciplinary boundaries and, as a result, to develop different strategies for solving problems arising in science and practice.

In the final semester, students write their master’s thesis and attend the accompanying Master’s Forum.

Prospects

Graduates have a broad command of human resource management issues at both strategic and operative levels. There are plenty of career choices available to them once they complete this degree. They could take on a leadership role, or a more specialized function, in the personnel department of a profit or non-profit organization. Graduates might work in a consulting firm that specializes in business, personnel and organizational consulting, or work as a labor law expert in a legal department or in an association or research institute with human resources as the object of research.

Upon completion of the graduate program of study, students are awarded the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree.

Aspirants

The degree program is targeted at graduates with a bachelor’s degree, or equivalent, in economics, business psychology, business law or a related field. Admission requirements include, among other aspects, an above average transcript from the previous degree as well as adequate knowledge of the English language.

For further information about admission requirements, please click on the “Application” button.