Our Curriculum

You can find several excellent Master programmes in Management around the world – but the MGM at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) is clearly different on a closer look.The triad of Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Financial Management forms the core of our programme. HSG students also gain a deep and critical understanding of modern management in the VUCA world, which demands coping strategies regarding volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. In addition to this, you will experience critical impulses on the topics of leadership, business & data analytics as well as your own personal development. MGM students can deepen their knowledge from the compulsory courses through Europe's broadest range of Advanced General Management Courses and apply it specifically to current challenges of business and society (Managerial Impact Projects and Grand Challenges of Business & Society). In addition to the specialist methodological knowledge, the co-creation spaces for completely new forms of learning and interaction highlight the excellent conditions at the HSG.

The core studies consist of a compulsory area and a core electives area. A special feature of the MGM is its hybrid language model, which means that students must complete at least 1/3 of the core studies in German and at least 1/3 in English. The remaining third can be freely chosen. This ensures that our graduates are equally proficient in German and English and are thus well prepared for a career in German-speaking countries in companies with an international orientation.The compulsory subjects create a clear profile for the benefit of our graduates and recruiting companies. Over the course of two semesters, our students receive a sound education in our core disciplines of Entrepreneurship (founding and building companies), Strategy (developing and managing companies strategically) and Finance & Management Accounting (analysing and managing business challenges based on data and finance).

In addition, they receive valuable impulses in the areas of leadership, business & data analytics, and personal development. While our students learn new forms of working and leadership styles, they also learn how to deal with large amounts of data in our course in Business & Data Analytics, which enables them to make business decisions based on facts and not purely on gut feeling. Our compulsory personal development course spans two semesters and is accompanied by experienced coaches who train our students in the areas of self-reflection, well-being, and resilience.

Building on the strong foundation of the courses in the compulsory area, students can additionally sharpen their profile within the framework of the compulsory elective area, pursue their individual interests in greater depth and thus broaden their perspective on general management.

The Advanced General Management Courses allow students to further deepen, broaden and/or combine their knowledge and skills already acquired in the core disciplines of Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Finance and Management Accounting as well as Leadership and Business & Data Analytics with other courses. Students must take at least two Advanced General Management Courses.

Asia Compact courses

An alternative to a semester-long exchange program at a foreign partner university are our Asia Compact courses, which take place during the break at the HSG campus in Singapore. These courses with a specific Asian focus are compulsory electives that qualify as Advanced General Management Courses (4 ECTS). These one-week courses allow our students to attend courses in a compact format while gaining contextual insight into Asian culture and industry.

Hosted by the St.Gallen Institute of Management in Asia, the University of St.Gallen's local institute in Singapore, the Asia Compact courses combine lectures, company visits, site visits, and co-curricular events for the ultimate condensed learning journey. Please note that Asia Compacts are standard HSG courses that go through a special application process and cannot be taken through HSG's traditional bidding process. For more details, please visit SGI-Asia Compact.

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Our students are required to take at least one of the Grand Challenges of Business & Society courses, which thematically cover important current challenges within business and society, such as sustainability, the future of mobility and much more. Students are encouraged to approach these challenges from a business perspective and are trained to solve resulting complex problems. The Grand Challenges of Business & Society serve as an intensive discussion of selected Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Students must take at least one Grand Challenge of Business & Society.

Within the framework of the Managerial Impact Projects, our students develop solutions for actual and current challenges of our corporate partners. The six different projects from the areas of Strategic Management, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Human Resource Management as well as Sustainability give our students in-depth insights into management practice. The concepts developed by our students often find their way into the corporate practice of the partner companies in the long term. Projects in the area of Start-up Entrepreneurship also often lead to our students founding their own companies.

The Managerial Impact Projects are designed to strengthen the content-related, methodological, social, and communicative skills of our students. They are supported by our exclusive consulting partner McKinsey & Company by receiving valuable input on project management and the final presentation from experienced consultants who are often alumni of our own Master's programme. The Managerial Impact Project spans two semesters and begins exclusively in the fall semester. Students must take one Managerial Impact Project.

The contextual studies represent one of the most important unique selling points of the University of St. Gallen by strengthening the social and cultural competences of our students in a special way. Here, our MGM students can "think outside the box" and receive credit for courses in focus areas as well as in the skills area. The cultural and social science courses are very diverse and can be tailored to the MGM programme, while the skills area teaches essential competencies and practical skills for success in the corporate world. The contextual studies complement the core studies and are compensated with 18 credits.

Many of our MGM students are drawn to one of our partner universities worldwide in their third semester. While abroad, they can also earn credit for courses and acquire intercultural skills without having to pause their academic progress. In addition, our MGM students are offered the chance to do a double degree in the prestigious CEMS programme. Selected students can earn 2 Master's degrees in the shortest possible time through the CEMS programme, giving them a further competitive edge in the increasingly global job market. After all, the CEMS is also world-class, having been ranked 9th in the global Financial Times Rankings for several years in a row now. Here, the application criteria, especially the language requirements, are urgently to be considered in advance.

The MGM is characterised by a hybrid language model. It offers a well-thought-out mix of courses held in German and English that excellently prepares our graduates for a career in German-speaking companies or organisations with an international orientation. Students complete at least one third of their core studies, which consist of compulsory subjects as well as electives, in German, another third in English and the remaining third in one of the two languages as desired.

Here you will find a compilation of the most important legal principles in the Master's degree programme.

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