The South East Technological University in Carlow, Ireland (SETU) has been cooperating with the Hochschule Hannover – University of Applied Sciences and Arts for some years (until May 2022 in the shape of one of its founding institutions, the Institute of Technology Carlow (ITC)). SETU Carlow's location makes it possible to study in peace and quiet, and the modern facilities offer a very good learning environment.

Carlow is located in the southeast of Ireland, about 90 kilometres from Dublin. The town has about 20,000 inhabitants; 4000 of them are students at SETU Carlow. The campus is located directly on the River Barrow, only five minutes from the city centre.

The cooperation with the Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen, Great Britain dates back to 2013. RGU is a renowned university whose content is an excellent match for the range of courses offered at Hochschule Hannover – University of Applied Sciences and Arts and offers students an insight into Anglo-Saxon university and business life.

Aberdeen, which lies not far from the Scottish Highlands, is Scotland's third largest city with a population of around 180,000.

The University of Applied Sciences in Seinäjoki (SeAMK), Finland, has been cooperating with the Department of Economics at the Hochschule Hannover – University of Applied Sciences and Arts for about 15 years. Within the framework of this long-standing cooperation, there is already an established double Bachelor's programme. SeAMK currently has 4,600 students who are supervised by a professional staff. The university attaches great importance to internationalisation and cooperation with the local business community. It is designed as a campus university and is integrated into a large technology centre.

Seinäjoki is located in the province of South Ostrobothnia in south-eastern Finland, about an hour from the international airport in Tampere, which is easy to reach from northern Germany. The townscape of the city of 36,000 inhabitants is characterised by the architect Alvar Aalto. Seinäjoki hosts the largest tango festival in Europe every year.

The Zhejiang University of Science and Technology (ZUST) in Hangzhou, China and the Hochschule Hannover – University of Applied Sciences and Arts can look back on twenty years of cooperation. ZUST has many years of experience in German-Chinese cooperation and is located in an interesting location.

Hangzhou, with around 6 million inhabitants, is the capital of the booming province of Zhejiang and lies about two hours' drive from the metropolis of Shanghai. The city has been considered one of the most beautiful cities in China since the times of Marco Polo. There are numerous German-Chinese economic ties and corresponding employment opportunities in the region.

The Escuela Superior de Ingeniores Camerciales (ESIC), a private university headquartered in Pozuelo de Alarcón near Madrid, Spain, is our latest co-operation partner. ESIC is one of the first business and marketing schools in Spain and can look back on a 55-year plus history. In 2019, ESIC was granted university status. It is home to over 5,500 students in the areas of business and marketing, and can regularly be found in leading positions in both national and international university rankings.

At ESIC, we have not one but two partner degree programmes: "Business Administration and Management" and "Marketing". Both programmes are located at the Pozuelo de Alarcón campus ca. 15 km west of Madrid. Pozuelo de Alarcón is a city of 86,000 inhabitants; thanks to its metro connection to Madrid, it can easily be reached by public transport. 

The general university entrance prerequisites according to §18 NHG are applicable. In addition, the following requirements must be met:

Language skills

English language level of at least B2, proven by submission of a valid:

• TOEFL iBT (72 - 94 points), or
• TOEFL ITP (543 - 626 points), or
• IELTS Academic (band 5.5 - 6.5), or
• Cambridge English Qualification B2 First (160 - 179 points), or
• Cambridge English Qualification B2 Business Vantage, or
• telc (Englisch B2), or
• UNIcert (level II)
• Oxford Test of English (111 - 140 points), or
• TOEIC (listening 400 - 489 points, reading 385 - 454 points, speaking 160 - 179 points, writing 150 - 179 points), or
• KMK Fremdsprachenzertifikat (B2)

The certificate must be no older than two years on the day of the application deadline.

The only exception: If you are a native English speaker, you do not have to submit an English language certificate.

Choice of a partner university abroad

The application must be accompanied by a commitment to a partner university abroad. In the event that it is not possible to be considered at the desired partner university, applicants can choose whether they wish to maintain their application for one or more alternatives.

Selection interviews

The selection interviews take place separately for each partner university. A maximum of three times the number of applicants of the places available at a partner university will be invited.

In the selection interviews, points are awarded based on the criteria of personal competence, social competence as well as subject-related and non-subject-related interest.

Invitations to the selection interviews are sent out at short notice. Please make a note of the dates for the selection interviews.

Watch our 20-second video: "Which admission prerequisites must be fulfilled?"

• Our most important tip based on experiences from previous intakes: Be sure to sign up for a language test well in advance. Test spaces are usually not available at short notice, and results won't be available until a few days after the test, either.
• Make use of the TOEFL iBT At Home Test option.

The degree course in International Business Studies (IBS) offers 25 places per year, starting in the winter semester.

Interested students can apply via the Online-Portal of the Hochschule Hannover - University of Applied Sciences and Arts from mid-May. The application deadline is 15th July of each year (cut-off deadline).

Attention: The application deadline for applicants with foreign certificates of education is 15th May.

The degree course in International Business Studies (IBS) is subject to limited admissions. In addition to the university entrance qualification according to § 18 of the NHG, there are further admission prerequisites (see above).

The selection interviews for the 2025 intake will take place from 21st to 25th July 2025.

75 applicants will be invited.

The invitations will probably be sent out at relatively short notice before the selection interviews after all applicants have been reviewed. We therefore ask all applicants to keep the selection interview days (see above) free.

We look forward to meeting you.

Take a look at our video: "What is important in a cover letter and an interview?"

Students at the Hochschule Hannover – University of Applied Sciences and Arts are charged a semester fee, which covers the costs of the student union, the student body and an administrative fee. In addition, students use this fee to purchase a ticket for local public transport (Greater Hanover Transport Authority) and a Lower Saxony ticket from Deutsche Bahn. Both are valid for one semester (six months). The currently applicable semester fee is specified here.

• for the course at SETU, Ireland
• for the course at RGU, United Kingdom
• for the course at SeAMK, Finland
• for the course at ZUST, China
• for the course at ESIC, Spain (Bus Admin and Management)
• for the course at ESIC, Spain (Marketing)

Practical phases and Bachelor's theses: Planning and guidelines

Practical phase regulations 

Module manual, examination regulations and Co. can be viewed here.

Applications, forms and service information of the Business Administration Department can be found here.

The general university entrance requirements according to §18 NHG are applicable. In addition, the following requirements must be met:

• English language level of at least B2, proven by submission of a valid
  • TOEFL iBT (72 - 94 points), or
  • TOEFL ITP (543 - 626 points), or
  • IELTS Academic (band 5.5 - 6.5), or
  • Cambridge English Qualification B2 First (160 - 179 points), or
  • Cambridge English Qualification B2 Business Vantage, or
  • telc (Englisch B2), or
  • UNIcert (level II), or
  • Oxford Test of English (111 - 140 points), or
  • TOEIC (listening 400 - 489 points, reading 385 - 454 points, speaking 160 - 179 points, writing 150 - 179 points), or
  • KMK Fremdsprachenzertifikat (B2)
• Choice of partner university abroad
• Selection interviews

Further details on the individual points can be found under the “Admission prerequisites” heading in the “Further Information” menu item.

You can view our admission regulations here.

The prospect of an IBS study place depends on various factors. In addition to the grade of your university entrance qualification, these include our impression of you in the interview, the number of applicants and your preferred overseas partner university, or your flexibility in this selection. For example, there are only a few places available for Scotland, but there are usually many applications. Thus, in the selection rounds so far, we have mostly awarded these places in the A-grade range. For other countries, the prospects have been better so far - although our partners there are just as committed and of the same high quality. Either way, you should not be deterred.

We ask that you submit one of the officially recognised English language certificates listed in the admission requirements.

The only exception: If you are a native English speaker, you do not have to submit an English test.

A tip from the experience of the last application rounds: Please prepare for the English test in good time. Usually, test places are not available at short notice, and test results are only available a few days after the test.

In this case, proof of language test registration is sufficient. However, the test result must be available by the time of the selection interview at the latest.

Very occasionally, a place in a subject-related semester may become available. In these cases, we are also happy to receive "lateral applications". However, these are only possible up to the fourth subject-related semester, since the application deadlines for the year abroad expire after that. Whether it is possible to enter a higher IBS semester must be checked in each individual case. Please arrange a personal appointment with the Course Director Prof. Dr. Henning Austmann.

No, unfortunately for IBS it is only possible to start in the respective winter semester.

The dates for the selection interviews are set very early and published on our website. We therefore expect our applicants to keep these days free. Only for the applicants, who are abroad (weltwärts (world wards), work and travel, language school, internships, etc. - not because of holidays), we can alternatively offer a Skype interview. However, the prerequisite is that both a good sound and a solid image transmission are guaranteed.

The interview will be conducted by two representatives of the university and recorded by a student assistant. However, the selection interview does not have the character of an examination. Rather, both the university and the applicants should have the opportunity to get to know each other better and to ask questions. The interviewers at the Hochschule Hannover – University of Applied Sciences and Arts are primarily interested in the applicants' previous careers and their motivation for studying IBS in Hanover.

The selection decision of the university within the framework of the special selection procedure is made according to the average grade of the higher education entrance qualification in combination with the grade achieved in the selection interview. The average grade of the higher education entrance qualification, weighted with 60%, and the grade of the selection interview, weighted with 40%, are used to form a ranking list of the applicants after the selection interview.

You can apply for internships in the commercial field at almost any organisation - ideally it should be an internationally operating organisation. Our current IBS students have internships in and around Hanover, Germany and also abroad (e.g. in the USA, Australia, Japan or China).

No, the choice of partner universities is limited to the existing cooperations, as the curricula are closely coordinated with each other through painstaking work in order to actually be able to award a double degree at the end of the eight semesters.

It is generally not possible to change the partner university of your choice at a later date, as we only have a certain number of places available for each partner university. Usually all these places are filled.

The costs of the stay abroad must be met by the students. However, our co-operation agreements allow you to continue paying the normal fees in Hanover in exchange for not having to pay any additional tuition fees abroad. We have also been very successful in working with our IBS students to obtain scholarships for travel and accommodation costs.

Our partner universities award the following degrees to our students:

• University of Applied Sciences in Seinäjoki (SeAMK): Bachelor of Business Administration (IB)
• Zhejiang University of Science and Technology (ZUST): BA International Economics and Trade
• The Robert Gordon University (RGU): BA International Business Management
• South East Technological University: Bachelor of Business (Honours) in International Business
• Escuela Superior de Ingenieros Comerciales (ESIC): BA Business Administration and Management/BA Marketing

There is no difference between a college and a university with regard to a subsequent Master's degree. Thanks to uniform degrees, students can switch between university and college. Both types of higher education institutions have been formally put on an equal footing by the Bologna reforms. So you should make your decision primarily based on the attractiveness of the degree course (according to your interests) and your type. For this purpose, see here.

It is not possible to study IBS as an in-work combined study course. However, due to the two practical phases integrated into the degree course, our IBS students still gain extensive practical experience.