The Course

Since the seventies, international business relations have constantly been expanding. Apart from trade integration, the expansion of company activities to other countries is becoming more and more important. To succeed in global competition, employees of internationally acting companies are expected not only to speak several languages but also to know and understand the context of  international relations both in a business and an economics level. 

With the course International Business Studies, the University of Paderborn adjusted to this trend in the winter semester of 1991/1992. The interdisciplinary concept was created to integrate business economics, economics and two foreign languages. IBS is very different from other economics courses at German universities. The comparatively short period of the course as well as the internationally recognised degree of the B.A. and the consecutive M.A. are attractive assets. 

IBS is a full University course and has two consecutive steps.

The first step is the B.A. with a standard period of study of six semesters. After completing the B.A. course and a thesis, graduates will be entitled to the degree of “Bachelor of Arts in International Business Studies" and thereby be qualified to enter a career. After the B.A., postgraduates can study the M.A. IBS course for a period of three semesters. The title of the academic degree after completion and dissertation will be "Master of Arts in International Business Studies". 

The content of the course is consistently geared towards internationalism: 

About 40% of the course concentrates on intense education in two foreign languages, English as the compulsory first language and French or Spanish as the second. The other 60% consists of economics and especially business economics. 

Studying at universities abroad or placements with companies abroad are not compulsory but IBS students do this a lot and the Faculty of Business Economics and Economics at Paderborn supports and assists them. Among all German Universities, Paderborn’s international relations with 52 partner Universities in 24 countries are top ranking. Students who want to study abroad should therefore be able to achieve their preferences regarding country and language quite easily for example in the UK, USA, France, Spain and more.

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IBS is synonymous with...

...short period of studies through the Credit Point System (CPS)

The examination procedure in the IBS course is carried out using the internationally recognised Credit Point System. An important feature of the CPS is the direct examination at the end of each semester in each individual subject. The former block exams with examination in all subjects at the end of the whole course do not apply anymore. For every exam passed students earn Credit Points. Every lecture is considered for the final mark in the amount of its Credit points. 

The Credit Point System has some important advantages: The incentive rises for dealing properly with a subject at the time it is being taught. To prepare for the exam, it is therefore necessary to focus clearly on the content of the course. For students, this means less stress in learning as they have to prepare less content at a time but more intensively than a lot of subjects to be more superficially examined at the end of the whole course. Also, the CPS complies with international standards and guarantees an easy accreditation of study achievements from abroad. 

All exams are to be taken during the period of studies according to the principle of the CPS. For weighting, counting and accreditation, Credit Points according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) are used. A Credit Point in the view of the examination regulations is equal to one ECTS Credit Point. A Semester period per week (SPW) accounts for two Credit Points in the core modules (Economics, Language and Culture) and for 1,5 Credit Points in all other modules.

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International Business Studies - Prepared for the future

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