University Mannheim

Let's have a look on of my favourite programs: Wirtschaftsinformatik (Information Systems) in Mannheim and apply the earlier defined criteria.


Let's start with their nice promotional video:





Program Content


Courses offered


The program consists of the following parts. You can find all modules in the modul catalogue. Interesting is that no course at all is mandatory, you can literally choose everything. That means on the other hand, you need an excellent advisor to stick together an individual plan.


1. Fundamentals (48 - 53 ECTS)
2. Specialization Track (21 ECTS)
3. Team Project (12 ECTS)
4. Softskills (9 ECTS)
5. Master Thesis (30 ECTS)


1. Fundamentals


Here you have the tracks Computer Science, Business Informatics and Business Administration. You are allowed to choose 2 moduls out of each of those tracks.


Honestly, the track Computer Science is a little disappointing. Only 4 moduls to choose from and I'm not sure whether the modul Algorithmics 1 (!) and Advanced Software Engineering would tell me anything new. Advanced Computer Networks looks interesting though.


It gets better when it comes to Business Informatics. The moduls Advanced Middleware and E-Business or Enterprise Systems are most interesting in my view.


When you look at business administration, you will know why Mannheim is famous for this. In this track you can choose out of at least 60 (!) different modules that contain Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Management and Logistics.



2. Specialization Track


Here you finally decide in which direction you wanna go during your studies. We can decide between "Information Technology" (very technically, e.g. networks or IT security), "Development of Information Systems" (software development, process modelling etc.) and "Information Systems" (focus on overall understanding of IT in business, technology only on the surface).

Personally, I'm quite interested in the technical stuff, so IT or Development of IS would be for me.


3. Team Project


12 credits are given for a 1 year team project of your choice. Its content should be aligned with your specialization track and probably it makes sense to write the master thesis eventually about a similar topic, too.


I still need to ask if it's possible to do this project already in the first two terms in order to be able to go abroad in term 3.

4. Soft Skills


Besides the regular program you can earn credits by taking interesting holiday courses and additional courses dealing with topics like self development, intercultural awareness etc.

5. Master Thesis

I'd like to write the thesis in cooperation with a company or even abroad. Both should be possible in Mannheim.

Faculties involved

According to the website, the faculty of business and the facutly of IT / maths joined together to the "Center of Business Informatics". In fact there is not a real IT or computer science course available, everything is related to business. Wikipedia says, the faculty of Business Informatics exists only on trial, even though there were put in lots of money to build it up. I will double-check this information by uni advisors, since it is important that the faculty is considered to be a vital part of the uni.

The area "Imformation Systems" got 5 chairs. However, in total there are quite a few involved (Computer Science / IT) that teach courses as well.

Academic Focus

Look at the various research projects of the center.

Program Quality


Accreditation

Though ranked well, the program doesn't seem to be accreditated at all. The reason might be that the program is quite new, it just started off in the winter 2009, which is not necessarily a bad sign, but there might exist some confusion in the program structure as they lack of experience. I gonna ask current students to give me insider information about that.

Reputation

According to the HR ranking of Wirtschaftswoche, Mannheim is
- the top 2 in information systems (behind Darmstadt)
- the top 1 in business administration
- the top 10 in computer science

The Focus ranking puts Mannheim's computer science on rank 6.

At CHE Zeit ranking Mannheim's coomputer science is in the middle group in most aspects.

The Handelsblatt says Mannheim's business administration is on rank 1 in Germany.

Realize that those rankings refer actually to the bachelor programs, but it should be meaningful for the master as well.

THE ranking says Mannheim is not even amongst the top 200 worldwide (currently there are 14 Germany unis)

Admission

At least in the summer term it doesn't seem to be tough at all to get accepted. Department says they have more space than applicants, even though it seems to vary from term to term. Maybe they should improve their marketing a bit..


Infrastructure


They seem to have a lovely library, but I gonna check out how everything looks like in the place.


Program attendants

I found interesting student statistics, who is studying at the uni?
Out of the 9.300 students there are 1.150 foreigners, meaning around 12 %. This is quite a good number as the avarage in Germany is only 2 %.

When we take a look at the course itself (page 68), we count only 88 students in total, 15 of them were female. 61 students joined in the winter term 2009, and only 12 joined in the summer term 2010.

Internationality

The uni tries hard to maintain internationality and they seem to manage it quite well. For this reason, a change of the term dates has been established, terms start in February and September in order to adjust to most uni schedules in Europe and some worldwide. Many courses are taught in English, 12 % of all students in Mannheim are foreigners. According to the international office, the uni maintains 170 ERASMUS and 130 worldwide partnerships. In the Information Systems course alone there are 40 exchange programs offered, 8 of them in Asia (my main interest):

Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong (1-2 terms)
Japan: Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (1-2 terms)
Japan: Hitotsubashi University (1-2 terms)
Korea: Seoul National University (1 term)
Singapore: National University of Singapore (1-2 terms)
Taiwan: National Chiao Tung University, College of Management (1 term)
Taiwan: Tunghai University (1 term)
Taiwan: National Taiwan University (1 term)
 
Strange that there is no program in China, I gonna ask at the international office for more information.

A nice feature is the double degree in the Copenhagen Business School (Double Degree, 2 terms) which unfortunately seems to be only possible if you start studying in the winter term. I gonna try it though.

Environment

City

Surely Mannheim is not the nicest city in the world and also not a real "student city" like Münster or Tübingen. I was there one day and I found it surprisingly nice, since you will find the Neckar and the Rhein over there and they say there is a nice harbour too (I didnt visit it myself yet).

Main advantages:

- campus uni is located right next to the inner city
- lots of companies are located here (university has a lot of company contacts too)
- half an hour ride to Heidelberg and Frankfurt
- people I talked to on the streets are friendly and nice speaking a funny dialect, typically Southern Germany ;)

Also check out this promotional video for the whole region (mainly Mannheim, Heidelberg and Speyer). They even compare the region to New York.. After watching this, you can hardly refuse to live you whole life there ;)






Non-Uni

There are plenty of organizations established in Mannheim. Besides AIESEC, the student consultant INTEGRA e.V. and Arbeitsgruppe Börse seem interesting and definitely worth a try.

The uni sports program is OK, nothing compared to Münster though. I wonder if the courses are not very crowded. They even provide a board games program, of course I gonna join ;)

The Mannheim Entrepreneur Guide provides a community and regular events about entrepreneurship.

Loads of language courses are available as well.

Ultimately,....

I can say that the course of Mannheim is an extremely interesting opportunity. The city is not the most exciting one, but the inner city is awesome and they say a lot of party is possible as well. Out of question, it is the best business administration uni in Germany. Going abroad seems to be easy. The only thing that needs to be checked is wheter the Computer Science is just on trial and actually not wanted (they just love business) or if they take this part really seriously as well.

HOT candidate!

How to pick the best Grad School

Back in Germany I enjoyed Christmas, seeing my family and friends again after more than one year abroad. It was just awesome so far. Cause I wanna start my masters this year, I started to do an intense research on all available programs in my major Information Systems (German Wirtschaftsinformatik).

I focused on German programs as programs in English speaking countries are usually not consecutive, which means the master programs start from zero and don't build up on the bachelor programs. I plan to go abroad though, so I gonna look in particular for international programs in Germany.

My Criteria

To have fairly well defined criteria about what is important is going to help to make a reasonable decision rather than just go with gut feelings. In the end the whole package should fit to my needs. This page helps to find criteria.

Program Content

• Courses offered: The most important factor. What does an university with excellent infrastructure and reputation help, if most courses are marketing related and I want IT? What I check is the complete range of provided courses. How many courses are selectable? How flexible is the whole program? How many seminars compared to lectures? How are the credit points distributed, how important are projects and the master thesis? How many semesters will you be studying?
• Faculties involved: Are main parts of the program in the computer science faculty? Or business administration? How many publications? How many professors are teaching? How good is their reputation? (prof research on meinprof.de and google scholar)
• Academic Focus: What is the core focus of the university? E.g. in my Bachelor program in Münster it was process management.  

 Program Quality

• Accreditation: Is the program accredited by at least one of the well-known German agencies? This database helps to find the information.
• Reputation: My source the following rankings:
• CHE universtiy ranking
• karriere.de
• Humboldt-Ranking (Internationality)
• Times Ranking (overall university reputation)
• Handelsblatt (only Business Administration)
• Admission: Is it tough to enter the program? The tougher the better, it usually means higher quality and better reputation. I use two criteria here:

• Requirements to enter the program, always published on the program pages of the universities
• Ratio of applicants and acceptances. In Germany institutes prefer to remain nontransparent and don't publish these information on their websites. A polite phone call can help though
  
• Infrastructure. How does the library look like? Are there lots of modern computer labs? These information are easiest to get when visiting the place or ask students actually studying there or Alumni.
• Program attendants. Take a look at the students attending the program. How many internationals? The more the better. How many students study there? The less the better since the atmosphere will be much more personal and efficient. 
• Internationality. For me especially interesting, because I want to go at least 1 semester abroad, preferably USA or East Asia. Does the uni have partner unis in these countries? Does the program make it easy to go abroad? How about master thesis abroad? Is there even a double degree to earn? Usually these information should be available at the university's international office. Very important: Is the whole program in English or German? I strongly prefer English since I aim for an international career. 
  

Environment

• City. How large is the city? (after a year in Bangkok, even Berlin seems small and quiet. I would prefer a big city with lots of cultural options, VERY small towns get sorted out). How expensive? How is the overall atmosphere? Are there a lot of interesting companies to get connections for later work?
• Uni Location. Is the university a campus or is it spread out in the whole city? I prefer the spread out version like in Münster or Karlsruhe, as it makes the city look more like a real student city. A campus is OK though, if it's not too far away or extremely ugly.
• Non-Uni. After a good while at the world's largest student organization AIESEC I would like to get in touch with another organization e.g. company consulting. Is this possible in the university?What about uni sports?

The programs I'm most interested in starting in the summer term:

Muenster: Information Systems international program, excellent reputation

Mannheim: Wirtschaftsinformatik partly English, well-known in business

TU Munich: Wirtschaftsinformatik part of the excellence cluster, strong in computer science

Erlangen-Nuernberg: International Information System not actually starting in summer, but possible to start off with Informatics and switch later


The programs also interesting but only starting in the winter term:

Augsburg: Finance and Information Management international excellence program, highly competitive and small classes
Hamburg: Wirtschaftsinformatik interesting topics to choose of: logistics and IT management

Useful books and links:

Not ordered yet, but probably valuable: Studienführer Wirtschaftsinformatik 09/10

Find programmes in Germany: Studis online

In the next days I will have a look at each of those programs based on my criteria.