ESB Business School
The European School of Business or ESB Reutlingen is the business school of the Reutlingen University in Germany. As a member of the International Patnership of Business Schools, it offers international dual-degree undergraduate business degrees together with a number of European and American business schools, as well as MSc and MBA programs. The ESB Reutlingen ranks amongst the top business schools in Europe and is currently the number one ranked business school for undergraduate studies in Germany.[citation needed]
History
The ESB Reutlingen was founded in 1979 with the setting up of a cooperation agreement with its French partner university in Reims, the British Middlesex University in London and the then Reutlingen European Study program for Business studies. Additional partner universities quickly joined in and formed a network of business schools known as the International Partnership of Business Schools (IPBS).
New partner universities are only permitted membership of the IPBS with the agreement of all partners in the network. This ensures that the high quality requirements of all partners are met. In 1986 ICADE in Madrid was admitted followed in 1996 by Dublin City University and Northeastern University in Boston, and in 1998 by Indiana University Bloomington. In 2004 Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Mexico and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy became members.
In 2002 the previously autonomous Reutlingen MBA study programs, which had been in existence since 1984, joined forces with the ESB. Thus the ESB became a fully-fledged business school with proven undergraduate and new master programmes. Since then an MSc Programme and Corporate MBAs have been added to complement the classic MBA offering.
The school awards internationally recognised Bachelor and Master degrees. The ESB Reutlingen considers it its duty to maintain its excellence in higher education and training. It aims to continue to develop itself in the coming years and to react with new programmes to the changes in the education market.
Bacelor and Maters Programs
The IPBS (International Partnership of Business Schools) is a consortium which could be thought of as an international university with branches in various different international locations[citation needed]. The partner universities and offer joint Bachelor and Master programmes together with the ESB. With over 1,600 students the IPBS is the largest integrated cooperation programme between universities in Europe.
Undergraduate studies
The school offers dual-degree bachelor's programs where students spend two years each at the ESB and at an international partner university and receive the degrees of both countries, the German degree and the foreign equivalent. (Due to the Bologna Process Reutlingen offered a Bachelor instead of the "Diplom-Betriebswirt" from 2007 onwards.) These programs include two semester-long internships, at least one of which has to be completed abroad.
ESB Reutlingen currently has dual-degree programs with:
- CESEM Reims, France
- Dublin City University, Ireland
- ICADE, Madrid, Spain
- Indiana University Bloomington, USA
- Lancaster University Management School, UK
- Northeastern University, Boston, USA
- Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Mexico
- Università Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy
Practical Corporate Experience
In addition to its 2 years in-land - 2 years abroad, the ESB concept includes a practical experience phase in the form of mandatory internships. Students must complete one internship semester in each of their countries of study as part of their core curriculum requirements. The goal of the internships is to allow students to acquire real life corporate experience during their studies and bring theory in contact with practice.
Graduate studies
MBA
ESB offers a full-time and part-time MBA program in International Marketing. This program is the oldest MBA program in Germany, founded in 1984.
The full-time program takes three semesters to complete, the part-time program six semesters.
MSc
The ESB also offers a one-year Master of Science in International Management. One semester of the program is spent at ESB Reutlingen, the other semester at one of four international partner schools:
- Dublin City University, Ireland
- Lancaster University Management School, UK
- Reims Management School, France
- Universidad de las Americas, Puebla, Mexico
International Alumni Network
Many alumni remain in close contact with the ESB and return to the school to represent their companies or as speakers. The alumni association acts as a link between the ESB Reutlingen, the professors and the university’s administration. Currently over 1,600 graduates from the undergraduate programmes, and over 800 graduates from the MBA programme, are members of its alumni association, giving the ESB Reutlingen one of the largest alumni networks of any German business school.[citation needed] The alumni organise annual alumni meetings, monthly get-togethers in almost every major city in the world[citation needed], a job listing service as well as many other services.
The Mentoring Programme, which has been in existence since 2003 has matched up 300 mentors with mentees. Here every student (mentee) is allocated his personal mentor from the alumni community. A mentor is an important contact person for students for all study and work-related questions.
Corporate Sponsors
The ESB’s group of sponsors, V.I.M.A (International Management Education Sponsorship Club), has been in existence since 1999. 35 well-known companies are currently members. These support the ESB’s goals and help to finance its activities. These companies seek active contact with students at company fairs (FIFO) and the Career Forum.
The ESB's current corporate sponsors include:
• BASF AG • becos GmbH • Beiersdorf AG • Booz Allen Hamilton GmbH • Robert Bosch GmbH • The Boston Consulting Group GmbH • Capgemini Deutschland GmbH • Citigroup Global Markets Deutschland AG & Co. KGaA • Coca-Cola GmbH • DaimlerChrysler AG • Deloitte Consulting GmbH • Deutsche Post World Net Business Consulting GmbH • Ernst & Young AG • General Electric, Energy Division • Hewlett Packard GmbH • Hilti Deutschland GmbH • Lilly Deutschland GmbH • L’Oréal Deutschland GmbH • Loyalty Partner GmbH • Masterfoods GmbH • Metro International S.A. • MLP Finanzdienstleistungen AG • Novartis Consumer Health GmbH • Otto GmbH & Co. KG • Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH • Roche Diagnostics GmbH • RGE – Rolvering, Germann & Effing UnternehmensPartG • SAP AG • Schwarz Beteiligungs- und Finanz-GmbH (Lidl) • Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH • Solon Management Consulting GmbH & Co.KG • R. Stahl AG • Stern Stewart GmbH • Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH • ZF Friedrichshafen
Corporate Fairs
The main company fairs on the ESB campus to which V.I.M.A members can participate are: the Corporate Forum (Firmen Forum, FIFO) and the Career Fair(Karriere Forum, KAFO). The 2007 Firmen Forum will take place on November 14 and 15. [1]