International ECONOMICS
The University of Tübingen, one of the oldest and most well renowned universities in Germany, is one of the few colleges of higher education to offer a course in “International Economics” – a combination of sound academic training (diploma degree) and intensive language training.
The special thing about the university's “IVWL" (from German "Internationale Volkswirtschaftslehre") offer is that during the language training Japanese and Chinese are also offered in addition to more commonplace languages such as English, German and French where it is assumed that most people have a command of them nowadays.
The intensive language training, the objective of which is to ensure the students can speak, read and write Japanese and Chinese proficiently, will be supplemented by courses on Japanese and Chinese society, politics, history and culture.
Stays abroad and internships are obligatory parts of the degree course.
The structure of the degree courses
The degree course comprises two regular degree courses and a standard study period of 10 semesters. The strictly limited places are directly allocated by the economics faculty. The key aspects to gain admission in addition to the Abitur marks (roughly equivalent to English A.Level) are extracurricular fields of activity, experience gained abroad and their personal conduct during the demanding selection procedure. In 2004 only six per cent of the applicants were granted a coveted place on the International Business Administration degree course.
In the new Spiegel magazine ranking (November 2004) the economics graduates (graduates in business management) came 1st throughout Germany . This high accolade acts as both a confirmation of our good work and an incentive for us.
The economics training comprises elements of a regular business administration degree course as well as the additional “International management” course and additional specialised offers, for instance seminars for advanced students and lectures on Japanese financial markets, which are also held on the spot in Japan . The faculty's specialist area is Accounting & Finance.
The objective of the language training is to enable the students to speak proficient Japanese or Chinese. The students are also expressly expected to be able to proficiently master the standard language with thousands of characters. The University of Tübingen cooperates with select international universities such as the renowned Doshisha University in Kyoto in order to reach this ambitious objective. Each year a few students are provided with the opportunity of spending a semester abroad there. Their admission is dependent on their marks.
A language course takes place virtually every day throughout the entire degree course.
Attending numerous lectures and seminars relating to history and Japan's (or China's) contemporary society as well as lectures and seminars relating to the countries' special cultural features forms a compulsory part of the training in order to combine hard skills with soft skills.
A lot of lectures and seminars are taught by prestigious lecturers with profound international experience, who are themselves graduates of internationally respected universities such as Tübingen. In addition the university employs private lecturers, who can pass on their immediate practical knowledge from their professional working lives to the students (e.g. the management of the branch of a major German in Japan ).
Key qualifications of the graduates:
• Complete economics training (degree)
• Fluent command of Asian business languages
• Comprehensive training in intercultural communication
The special aspect of these international degree courses is the combination of these three skills. Thus the graduates are not just able to independently solve economic problems, but they can also express themselves in their Asian business language without any language barriers and can conduct themselves appropriately. Students of this degree course do not only meet the high demands of a "dual degree course", they additionally possess an enormous degree of flexibility by studying at two different faculties with differing contents.
The Internet portal “Eastudies.org“
Eastudies stands for Economics and Asian Studies.
Eastudies.org was created on the basis of team work by students of the courses of IBA and International economics with the specialist languages of Japanese and Chinese. In addition to the presentation of our degree course the most important element of the Internet portal is a comprehensive range of information for Asian exchange students. Regardless of whether they are having everyday problems or have questions with respect to the complex study regulations - we would like to use our language qualification to support students from China and Japan during their degree course in Tübingen. We offer this information free of charge and in four languages: Japanese, Chinese, English and German. The database is constantly being extended.
Would you like to obtain additional information?
We would be happy to send you our information brochure.
Please contact: kontakt@eastudies.org.
