St. Gallen MBA-HSG
The St. Gallen MBA-HSG is a Masters of Business Administration program offered at St. Gallen University, a public research university located in St. Gallen, Switzerland. While the main university is known for its business school, its MBA program was only begun in 2005 and quickly achieved international recognition. It was ranked as the top business school in Europe by Wirtschaftswoche and number 13 worldwide by the Wall Street Journal for its accelerated MBA program. The university has built a reputation for Executive Education, with its International MBA recognized as one of Europe's leading programs. BusinessWeek included the program in its survey of the best in Europe, writing that it "offers the best of both worlds" because it is both highly selective and has strong ties to international corporations such as Deutsche Bank and Unilever.
History
The MBA and executive education programs were begun in 2005 and are run by the St. Gallen University Executive School of Management, Technology and Law (ES-HSG), which has the status of an Institut mit besonderen gesamtuniversitären Aufgaben.
The MBA program partnered with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore to allow both Nanyang and St. Gallen MBA participants to enroll in a "double MBA degree" program. NTU's MBA program is ranked 27th in the world by the Financial Times. The program runs 14 months and is taught in both Switzerland and Singapore, where at least two trimesters must be taken.
In January 2012 Credit Suisse became a founding sponsor of Project Firefly, a program started by St. Gallen students and faculty where MBA participants and recent graduates can submit essays and have them reviewed by academic experts from Harvard University, London School of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, University of Sydney Business School and Seoul National University, including a Nobel Laureate.
The school partnered with the Financial Times in May 2012 for students to undertake case students where they pick content from the paper and then engage in a 70 minute oral examination in front of a panel of experts and academics.
Structure
The full-time program is structured in the first year around four core blocks of modules from September to January. From February to May students may choose electives from four areas of concentration: Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, Finance and Banking, Marketing and International Management, and Advanced General Management. Then, from June to August students complete the MBA Project and the Capstone Course. For the project, the students review a company over 10-12 weeks and then prepare reports with recommendations for particular management issues based upon insights from their coursework. The Capstone Course is a four day module devoted to the subjects of business transformation and management theory and technique.
The part-time program can be completed in 24-36 months and is meant to have a flexible schedule with the expectation that the student is working either a part-time or full-time job.
Programme for Leadership Development
The Programme for Leadership Development offers a Diploma in Executive Education (Diplom der Weiterbildung), a joint program with Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ESADE) in Barcelona, Spain.
The Financial Times ranked the executive education 36th globally and the business school 7th within Europe.