At the School of Business and Economics at Münster University, we believe that much human talent and inspiration is wasted because many people pursue a business career, but never get excited about it, never see the immense, and enormously diverse potential that it carries. They never get onboard of the “MS Business Administration”, if you want.
Last year, with a fully redesigned Bachelor-in-Business program, we set out to change that, at least for those who study in Münster. A core element of the new program is a large “Onboarding” module (12 ECTS, or 40 percent of the first semester’s workload!), a true team effort which MCM professors Thorsten Hennig-Thurau and Manfred Krafft have been heading. Here are some of our guiding principles:
1 Stimulating INTERACTION, whatever it takes! Without activation there is no thinking, which is the raison d’être for in-class education. Interaction is critical.
2 EXPERTS! We believe that it makes a huge difference from WHO you learn. What we can offer as a top 5 business school is great talent. In Münster, no one claims to be the expert in “everything business administration”, but we are so fortunate to be able to bring an all-star team of scholars into the classroom. This is definitely not Marketing Center only — thanks Martin Artz, David Bendig, Julia Backmann, Sebastian Hohenberg, Christoph Schneider for you engagement and contributions as thought leaders and “co-onboarder”!
3 It’s theory not versus practice, but THEORY MEETS PRACTICE! We are so lucky that our effort is supported by so many business leaders. This winter, our students will get practical insights from Dieter Kahling (Henkel), Christopher Huesmann (Flaschenpost), Michael Müller (RWE), Mirko Caspar (Mister Spex), Florian Mair (Amazon) and Christiane Giesen (Metro) as well as Annegret Saxe (Sparkasse) on the Münster stage. In a single (FIRST!) semester, in a single module!!
4 ACTION! Nothing can bet the learnings that result from translating theoretical insights into actions. Thus we made a full-blown, award-winning simulation (from Marketplace Simulations) a key element of the module, against all odds that result from being not only a leading, but also a quite large public university. Teams of Five will manage innovative bikes. We can’t think of anything more fitting for Münster, which takes so much pride in being Germany’s “bike capital”… 🙂
The second iteration of our “Onboarding” this winter will come with an exceptional (or herculean…) additional challenge though: while the same number of applicants got permitted, way more decided to make Münster part of their educational journey this year, and so we won’t have “just” 500 freshmen and -women to get on board of the MS (= “Muenster Ship”) Business, but more than 1,000. But with the help of so many, we won’t let this get in our (or the students’) way. As you can see in the photos, we already got two students “on board”! 😉
Wish us luck, as you all will benefit from what we’re doing when we succeed — as parents, as employers, as managers. As citizens.