Get settled on campus, learn about the study programs, student initiatives, and the WHU Sustainability Management Center!
Take an active role and participate in the annual Rhine Cleanup with SensAbility x WHUSH.
Note: The examples shown here are for illustrative purposes only.
Master in Management: Curriculum
One program, countless course combinations. A program built to reflect its subject. And its students. WHU’s flagship MSc Program has a strong reputation for good reasons — expert faculty, small classes, a focus on practical learning. And the leaders we help grow. Welcome to the Master in Management.
Your personalized path to success
Chart your career trajectory with our comprehensive curriculum, offering structured guidance and flexible options for a tailored study experience. Immerse yourself in essential business skills through six core electives, followed by specialized studies in six electives matched to your interests. Opt for concentrations such as Business Analytics, Leadership, and Innovation from a selection of eight.
Beyond academic rigor, engage in a range of student clubs, conferences, and industry events — enriching your life at WHU. Acquire practical expertise and cultivate meaningful connections with peers, alumni, and valuable WHU partners.
Your studies. Your focus. Your career tracks in the WHU Master in Management
A Career Track is a recommended combination of elective courses that helps you tailor your master’s program to your professional goals. Each track is designed to build deep expertise in a specific area while still giving you the freedom to explore other interests. These tracks serve as a flexible guide to help you make strategic course choices without limiting your ability to shape your own unique academic journey. You are welcome to follow a Career Track or create your own path based on your personal interests and aspirations.
Consulting Excellence
Build the expertise to guide organizations through complexity and change. This track prepares you for careers in management consulting, performance improvement, and corporate transformation. Learn to diagnose challenges, align stakeholders, and execute strategy to deliver measurable impact in dynamic business environments.
If you are aiming for a career in consulting excellence, we recommend the following courses:
Quarter 2
- Performance Management and Controlling
Quarter 3
- Responsible Leadership
Quarter 4
- Strategy Execution
Industry and Service Excellence
Step into leadership roles across established organizations and service-driven industries. Develop your ability to lead people, brands, and customer-centric businesses. By combining organizational behavior, marketing, psychology, and economics, you gain insight into how companies perform and how customers decide.
Sounds interesting? Here are some recommended courses for you:
Quarter 2
- Advanced Organizational Behavior
Quarter 3
- Luxury Brand Management
Quarter 4
- Psychology and Economics
Data & Technology Excellence
AI and data are redefining business. This track prepares you to lead in technology-driven environments by combining generative AI, data science management, and text, image, and video mining. Learn to translate complex data into actionable insight and drive responsible, technology-enabled transformation.
Here are some suitable course recommendations:
Quarter 2
- Generative AI for Business
Quarter 3
- Managing Data Science
Quarter 4
- Text, Image, and Video Mining
Finance and Investment Excellence
Develop the analytical depth required for careers in corporate finance, banking, investment, and transaction-related roles. This track combines venture capital, M&A, and valuation with financial statement analysis. Learn to assess opportunities in the face of uncertainty and make sound, forward-looking investment decisions.
Here are the courses we recommend for you:
Quarter 2
- Venture Capital Finance
Quarter 3
- Mergers & Acquisitions
Quarter 4
- Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation
Founder & Start-up Excellence
Tailored for future entrepreneurs and innovation leaders, this track focuses on turning ideas and technologies into scalable ventures. Explore intellectual property strategy, technology management, and venture scaling, and learn how to create defensible business models from early validation to sustained growth.
Our recommended courses for this career option:
Quarter 2
- Heinz-Nixdorf-Lecture: Strategic Intellectual Property Management
Quarter 3
- Strategic Technology and Innovation Management
Quarter4
- Building and Scaling Successful Companies
Curriculum
Year 1
Quarter 1 | Core Electives & Electives
September - Mid-October
Core Elective - Accounting & Finance (choose one course)*
- Accounting and Financial Analysis
- International Tax Strategy
Core Elective - Economics (choose one course)*
- Financial Markets, Banking and Monetary Policy
- Industrial Organization
Core Elective - Strategy & Management (choose one course)*
- Corporate Governance
- International Strategy
Electives:
- B2B Pricing: Negotiation, Calculation, Strategy
- B2C Price Management
- Data Visualisation & Storytelling
- Predictive Analytics
- The Analytics' Edge
*All core electives can also be chosen as electives.
Quarter 2 | Core Elective & Electives
Mid-October - December
Core Elective - Data Analysis (choose one course)*
- Actionable Customer Analytics
- Advanced Methods of Market and Management Research
Electives (choose two courses):
- Advanced Corporate Finance
- Advanced Organizational Behavior
- Entrepreneurial Selling
- Generative AI for Business
- Heinz-Nixdorf-Lecture: Strategic Intellectual Property Management
- Performance Management and Controlling
- Prescriptive Analytics and Machine Learning
- Strategy Making in Professional Sports
- Sustainable Innovation & Entrepreneurship
- Transportation Management
- Value Creation in Family Firms
- Venture Capital Finance
*All core electives can also be chosen as electives.
Quarter 3 | Core Elective & Electives
January - February
Core Elective - Marketing & Sales (choose one course)*
- Product and Shopper Marketing
- Sustainability and Marketing
Electives (choose two courses):
- Carbon Analytics
- Financial Technologies
- Luxury Brand Management
- Managing Data Science
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Negotiations
- Responsible Leadership
- Strategic Technology and Innovation Management
*All core electives can also be chosen as electives.
Quarter 4 | Core Electives & Electives
March - April
Core Elective - Supply Chain Management (choose one course)*
- Industrial Excellence
- Sustainable Operations Management
Electives (choose two courses):
- Building and Scaling Successful Companies - the WHU founder lecture
- Data Driven Entrepreneurship
- Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation
- Leadership in Practice
- Leadership in Professional Services
- Leading the High-Performance Sales Force
- Managing Resilient and Sustainable Supply
- Managing The Family Business
- Psychology & Economics: Applications in Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Finance
- Strategy Execution
- Supply Chain Optimization
- Text, Image, and Video Mining
- Visual Prototyping
*All core electives can also be chosen as electives.
Career Tracks
September - April
Career Tracks allow you to specialize in selected business fields.
The Master-in-Management program currently offers the following five career tracks, each with its associated courses:
- Consulting Excellence:
- Performance Management and Controlling (Quarter 2)
- Responsible Leadership (Quarter 3)
- Strategy Execution (Quarter 4)
- Industry & Service Excellence:
- Advanced Organizational Behavior (Quarter 2)
- Luxury Brand Management (Quarter 3)
- Psychology & Economics: Applications in Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Finance (Quarter 4)
- Data & Technology Excellence:
- Generative AI for Business (Quarter 2)
- Managing Data Science (Quarter 3)
- Supply Chain Optimization (Quarter 4)
- Finance & Investment Excellence:
- Venture Capital Finance (Quarter 2)
- Mergers & Acquisitions (Quarter 3)
- Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation (Quarter 4)
- Founder & Start-up Excellence:
- Heinz-Nixdorf-Lecture: Strategic Intellectual Property Management (Quarter 2)
- Strategic Technology and Innovation Management (Quarter 3)
- Building and Scaling Successful Companies – the WHU founder lecture (Quarter 4)
Year 2
Summer | Internship
May - July
You will gain valuable work experience and the opportunity to apply theory learned in class through an internship in Germany or abroad. The Career Center supports you in finding an internship position via a broad range of activities such as individual career counseling, workshops, and company presentations.
Quarter 1 & 2 | Semester Abroad
September - December
The Master in Management Program also includes a semester abroad at one of WHU's 200 partner universities worldwide. During the semester abroad, you will gain a global perspective and immerse yourself in another culture.
Quarter 3 & 4 | Thesis
January - May
The Master thesis concludes your studies, providing you the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge you have gained throughout the course of the Master Program. While writing your thesis, you will be supervised by a WHU faculty member. You may also write your thesis in collaboration with a company.
A helpful guide to our courses
Download the Module Handbook or visit the Online Course Guide to obtain detailed information on all of the courses included in our Master in Management.
Download Module Handbook (PDF, 860 KB)
Learning objectives & final grades
Here you will find an overview of all the learning objectives and comeptences that you will achieve with a Master's in Management: Qualification goals Master in Management (PDF, 145 KB)
Would you like to know how successful our students have been in the Master in Management program over the past years? You can find an overview here: Distribution of Final Grades MiM 2010-2024 (PDF, 140 KB)
Go further: Double Degree
After two semesters at WHU, students have the opportunity to earn a second degree by completing two semesters abroad at one of our Double Degree partner universities. In addition to a Master of Science degree from WHU, the second degree will either be a Master of Science or an MBA.
End of August – September
Welcome Week & Rhine Clean-Up
October
WHU Sustainability Management Center
Take MiM Elective: Transportation Management (Professor Ringbeck): Transportation is essential to the functioning of a global economy. As a major GHG emitter, it is also a key contributor to climate change. Learn about future trends and new management approaches to make travel and logistics companies more sustainable, both economically and environmentally.
Support the WHU Sustainability Management Center and take on projects to help connect stakeholders on and off-campus to take action towards a sustainable future.
Support the WHU Sustainability Management Center and take on projects to help connect stakeholders on and off-campus to take action towards a sustainable future.
November – December
WHUSH Charity Concert & Guest Lecture on ESG Investing
Organize (or perform at!) the WHUSH Charity Concert to help raise funds for WHU’s community projects in Rwanda.
Participate in a guest lecture on ESG investing with Hendrik Schmidt, governance expert at Germany's largest asset manager DWS: “Why the G-Force matters - Insights from an institutional investor.”
Participate in a guest lecture on ESG investing with Hendrik Schmidt, governance expert at Germany's largest asset manager DWS: “Why the G-Force matters - Insights from an institutional investor.”
January – February
MiM Electives
Responsible Leadership (Professor Müthel): The environmental, economic and social crises of recent times have brought the need for responsible leadership to the forefront. Future leaders in business need to have key skills in understanding societal grand challenges and knowing how to tackle them to be able to lead through uncharted waters.
Sustainability and Marketing (Assistant Professor Schmitz): In an increasingly carbon-restricted world, companies need to build and communicate the business case for sustainability. Solve a real-life case with a company to learn how marketing methods evolve to address this challenge.
Sustainability and Marketing (Assistant Professor Schmitz): In an increasingly carbon-restricted world, companies need to build and communicate the business case for sustainability. Solve a real-life case with a company to learn how marketing methods evolve to address this challenge.
March – April
SensAbility – The WHU Impact Summit & MiM Electives
Be inspired at SensAbility – The WHU Impact Summit. Engage with leaders and entrepreneurs actively shaping and supporting social and green business. Network and speed-date with recruiters to secure your internship.
Take a MiM Elective: Health Economics, Policy and Management (Professor Hagist): Health care is one of the biggest and most important markets around the world. It is not a regular economic commodity and is widely considered a right, not a privilege. Dive into the complex interplay of private companies and regulators in this market and grapple with difficult questions of access and equity.
Take a MiM Elective: Health Economics, Policy and Management (Professor Hagist): Health care is one of the biggest and most important markets around the world. It is not a regular economic commodity and is widely considered a right, not a privilege. Dive into the complex interplay of private companies and regulators in this market and grapple with difficult questions of access and equity.
May – End of August
Summer Internship
Join Henkel Adhesives as Global Market Strategy and Operational Excellence Intern for the summer. Explore how different Strategic Business Units support B2B and B2C customers to develop and bring to market more innovative and sustainable products and solutions. Deepen your understanding of the complexity of achieving real-world sustainability gains in deeply interconnected value chains.
September - December
Semester Abroad
Complete a semester abroad at the Fudan School of Management in Shanghai. Gain first-hand insights into how the use of digital technology and electrification can help slash GHG emissions while economic growth also triggers substantial challenges in areas such as resource depletion and wealth distribution.
January – May
Master's Thesis
Write your master’s thesis on talent acquisition challenges for purpose-driven startups with Professor Faems, Chair of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Technological Transformation.
Your thesis is shortlisted for the In Praxi Outstanding Thesis Award, which recognizes a thesis that generates impact for both business and society.
As graduation approaches, you are debating the pros and cons of founding a startup that traces carbon in food supply chains or joining the sustainability practice of a strategy consulting firm.
Your thesis is shortlisted for the In Praxi Outstanding Thesis Award, which recognizes a thesis that generates impact for both business and society.
As graduation approaches, you are debating the pros and cons of founding a startup that traces carbon in food supply chains or joining the sustainability practice of a strategy consulting firm.
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