Full-Time Master of Business Administration (MBA) WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management

The one-year full-time MBA is designed for high-achieving professionals from all over the world who are seeking a career change and who are eager to learn more about general management. In the full-time MBA programme, our students study and work in interdisciplinary, multicultural study groups and have the opportunity to develop leadership and interpersonal skills in an international environment.

Top five reasons to study the MBA at WHU:

1. Develop a global business mindset: Experience 30 days of immersive international courses across Europe, the USA and beyond, where you’ll be equipped to make a lasting impact in your career and the world around you.
2. Become an influential and effective leader: Personalise your growth with pick-and-choose courses and workshops designed to complement and enhance your leadership skills.
3. Maximise your career impact: Our top-ranked MBA Career Centre supports you individually and is dedicated to helping you turn your career ambitions into reality.
4. Benefit from lifelong learning: Even after your graduation, you will have free access to MBA courses and workshops for your continuous professional development.
5. Develop a strong professional network for life: Create valuable connections and build a robust professional network that will last throughout your career.

Start.Grow.Sustain
By structuring our courses around the unique Start.Grow.Sustain framework, we will provide you with a comprehensive, systematic, and practical roadmap for corporate and entrepreneurial success across all C-suite functions.

Foundations: Strategy, Financial Accounting, Marketing
Start: Entrepreneurship, Economics, Statistics, Organisational Behaviour
Grow: Data Science & AI, Operations, Finance, Leadership + Elective Course
Sustain: Governance, Sustainability, Innovation, Managerial Accounting + Elective Course

Customised Personal Development and Leadership Journey

All students take part in the Future Leaders Fundraising Challenge and the Midterm Strategy Challenge as well as the Leadership Credo. Furthermore, students can choose from a number of Personal Development Elective Workshops, such as Creating Value in Negotiations, Leadership Communications & Stage Rules, or Risk Management & Crisis Leadership.

Finalise your MBA with a research paper, business plan, or internship project. The duration is 17 weeks, and the project can be completed individually or as a small group.

Application deadlines:

• 30 April: applicants requiring APS*
• 31 May: applicants requiring a visa
• 15 July: applicants not requiring a visa

We require the following for your application to the full-time MBA programme:

• A general or subject-specific German "Hochschulreife" or an equivalent international university entrance qualification
• Undergraduate degree (Bachelor's or equivalent)
• Minimum of two years postgraduate work experience
• Proof of English proficiency (details below)
• GMAT or alternative in our Excellent Fit Assessment:
  • External certifications (GMAT / GRE / WHU Admissions Test (BAT) or CFA Level II) or
  • PhD / doctorate level academic degree or
  • previous academic degree in business sciences from an accredited university and three years of professional experience or
  • top 5% of graduating class in a non-business field from an accredited university and three years of professional experience in a business field or
  • extraordinary achievement (based on the assessment of WHU)

None

Due to a very tight schedule, students do not have the opportunity to work during this intense full-time MBA programme. Nevertheless, we encourage our students to undertake the final MBA project as part of a company project.

WHU grants partial scholarships to enable highly talented candidates from all countries to pursue the WHU MBA. As you can infer from the description of the respective scholarship (e.g. Diversity Scholarship, Developing Countries Scholarship, Entrepreneurship Scholarship, Women in Business Scholarship, etc.), we try to support individuals who are likely to add special value to the MBA class.

The MBA marks an important and exciting turning point in your career. Whether you aspire to move up the career ladder in your current field; change industry, job function, or location; or become a successful entrepreneur – our top-ranked MBA Career Center is dedicated to helping you turn your career ambitions into reality. We will support you in carving out a career path in line with your personal goals, enabling you to have a positive impact on the world.

WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management is a state-approved private institute of higher education with university status. WHU offers internationally-oriented courses of study in Business Administration (MSc, BSc), a full-time, part-time, and online MBA, the Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA, and a doctoral degree programme, as well as specialised corporate training programmes.
WHU also has the authority to award PhDs and professorships. Its international network includes more than 200 partner universities on all continents with whom exchanges of lecturers and students take place, as well as cooperation in research worldwide. In 1998, WHU became the first German university to be accredited by the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS). In February 2024, the accreditation was extended by EQUIS for another five years. WHU is regularly certified by EQUIS, FIBAA, and AACSB, which guarantees an excellent standard of courses and a high degree of internationalisation.
In addition, WHU is the only private institution of higher education in Germany that is a member of the German Research Association (DFG). In both national and international rankings, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management continues to occupy leading positions.

Düsseldorf is the capital of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and is a city with many different faces. It is an international business and financial centre and is renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Centrally located in Europe, the city is headquarters to five Fortune Global 500 and several DAX companies. Additionally, the city is home to thousands of students, all drawn to Düsseldorf because of its creative atmosphere and its beautiful historic centre.