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!