Institute for Business Administration and Leadership

The institute’s profile

Our students are well prepared for their professional future and modern business challenges. In order to ensure a relevant, practice-oriented and sustainable education, all courses are continuously updated. New research results and current developments are taken into account in order to meet the current and future challenges in science and practice.

Teaching and research - relevant and sustainable

• Teaching and research in the field of management studies and organizational sciences 
• Practice-oriented education of students in all major Bachelor's and Master's degree programs in computer science and engineering at Gummersbach Campus in courses, practical projects and thesis supervision
• Provision, maintenance and further development of a diverse set of educational offerings

Cooperation with industry, business and administration - current and practical

• Consulting and research services for industry and administration and joint research projects in our fields of expertise
• Development and implementation of projects in close cooperation with company executives
• Knowledge transfer to partners in business and administration in the form of workshops, thesis projects and project work

Know-how - integrative service for complex requirements

• Diverse competences from several scientific disciplines (business administration, psychology, ergonomics...) are bundled at the institute and networked within the framework of teaching, consulting and research activities: controlling, financing, marketing, general management, organization and personnel, communication and leadership, corporate management, supply chain management and project management are considered from several perspectives.
• Please see below for a list of our professors and fields of expertise.

Teaching and learning

We see teaching and learning as a cooperative process. Students should receive the best support in a curriculum focused on competencies. For us excellent teaching means direct practical orientation during all processes of learning and teaching. The course content is directly linked to challenges that students will later face as professionals. Using a diverse toolbox of didactical methods, we give frequent intermediate feedback to students on their learning progress. The final goal of achieving specific competencies is broken down into a number of clear and achievable parts, so that students know where they stand and where they need to go.

We use a range of course types and learning arrangements to implement this goal of competency development. First, courses are organized in a project based structure, so that students become familiar with interacting in professional project settings. Problem-based learning that is organized in projects with a clear research goal allow students to build up applicable knowledge independently. Students switch settings frequently between large groups, smaller groups, project teams, teams of disciplinary specialists and interdisciplinary as well as intercultural teams. Following this approach, students learn  business competencies,  as well as methods and social skills. Students learn to learn, cooperate and structure their tasks.

You can browse the list of courses here. 

Note that we currently offer only a selected number of courses in English, most courses are in German.