Hi respected members and mentors hope all are keeping safe from COVID.

 I have applied to some MBA programs (Winter-22) all are non GMAT English taught ones. Kindly throw some light on my MBA rational and thought process of career progression.


1). Experience 7.5 Years

2). Industries worked: FMCG (3 .5 years) and Pharmaceutical (4 years)

3). Current Industry: Pharmaceutical

4). Domain: Change management/Continuous Improvement /Operational Excellence/ Six sigma.


I have not planned to take GMAT as I did not want to go for a high cost MBA (already paying a home loan) another loan of a higher amount wont be feasible. The only program that suits my budget for an accredited MBA is the GISMA but I wonder how it fetched this reputed accreditation.

I got admit from IGC MBA European Asian Management.

 Other Programs I applied are


1). MSc International Business - HWR Berlin

2). Frutwangen- MBA International Buss. Schwenningen

3). HTW Berlin - MBA&E

4). Kempten Univ - IBM & Leadership

5). Offenberg - MBA IBC


Also applied for some programs asking for GMAT Optionally. Another option will be to apply to HOF University after getting my A1 certificate Please let me know what institutes I should go so that I can find job in my domain based on location. I plan to utilize next 7 months in India for learning German upto A2/B1 level and then during the study in Germany Upto B2/C1 level. I can not reach Germany before Sept-22.


Goal: To get International (German) exposure on Digitization/Digital Manufacturing / Project Management/Operations Management. My currnet job is not in the field I did my graduation so looking forward to gain theoretical understanding of the management concepts through a Masters. Wish to continue to work in Germany or return may be after 8-10 years with another MBA from (IIM/ISB).

[Edited by abhi2710s on Jan 16, 2022]

Hi respected members and mentors hope all are keeping safe from COVID.

 I have applied to some MBA programs (Winter-22) all are non GMAT English taught ones. Kindly throw some light on my MBA rational and thought process of career progression.


1). Experience 7.5 Years

2). Industries worked: FMCG (3 .5 years) and Pharmaceutical (4 years)

3). Current Industry: Pharmaceutical

4). Domain: Change management/Continuous Improvement /Operational Excellence/ Six sigma.


I have not planned to take GMAT as I did not want to go for a high cost MBA (already paying a home loan) another loan of a higher amount wont be feasible. The only program that suits my budget for an accredited MBA is the GISMA but I wonder how it fetched this reputed accreditation.

I got admit from IGC MBA European Asian Management.

 Other Programs I applied are


1). MSc International Business - HWR Berlin

2). Frutwangen- MBA International Buss. Schwenningen

3). HTW Berlin - MBA&E

4). Kempten Univ - IBM & Leadership

5). Offenberg - MBA IBC


Also applied for some programs asking for GMAT Optionally. Another option will be to apply to HOF University after getting my A1 certificate Please let me know what institutes I should go so that I can find job in my domain based on location. I plan to utilize next 7 months in India for learning German upto A2/B1 level and then during the study in Germany Upto B2/C1 level. I can not reach Germany before Sept-22.


Goal: To get International (German) exposure on Digitization/Digital Manufacturing / Project Management/Operations Management. My currnet job is not in the field I did my graduation so looking forward to gain theoretical understanding of the management concepts through a Masters. Wish to continue to work in Germany or return may be after 8-10 years with another MBA from (IIM/ISB).

These are not great programmes at all. Why not take a German language course and the  a free MSc taught in German? 

See: https://find-mba.com/board/gmat/why-you-should-take-the-gmat-33542 

[Edited by Duncan on Jan 16, 2022]

Also: Best MBAs for international students' placement http://www.find-mba.com/board/41143 
Do you need to speak the local language? www.find-mba.com/board/34713 

Also: Best MBAs for international students' placement http://www.find-mba.com/board/41143 
Do you need to speak the local language? www.find-mba.com/board/34713 

The German government does not control higher education. That's funded by the individual states. I think the fees paid by international students are generally higher than the marginal cost. 

The German government does not control higher education. That's funded by the individual states. I think the fees paid by international students are generally higher than the marginal cost. 

At the state level, they don't care. The UAS have a lot of freedom, and it helps them to have more courses where local students can speak English with foreigners. 

At the state level, they don't care. The UAS have a lot of freedom, and it helps them to have more courses where local students can speak English with foreigners. 

Germany as a whole doesn't have an opinion on these courses. But they help the UAS by generating a financial contribution,  employing staff, helping German staff and students with acculturation, bringing revenue to localities etc. 

Ok Duncan. Just to mention again I am very tight on budget and I am not eligible for another higher amount loan for highly priced MBAs. Also I can't get a Visa for language course.

Help me prioritize the MBAs I mentioned previously. Also what is your view of CBS and RWTH MBA?

As you might gather from the post on learning the language, I am unconvinced that you will get to the language standards you describe by the time you hope. I am not an expert in visas, but there are visa for people taking language courses. See https://www.studying-in-germany.org/german-student-visa/  My recommendation is that people in your position apply for an MSc taught in German and on that basis attend a language course leading to the DSH at a language school linked to the university you apply to. 

CBS and RWTH offer good degrees for people with other plans, who want to return to their home country. But to work in Germany, I don't think these are effective options for you. 

Right, actually while searching on LinkedIn I cannot find a good number of Indians employed in Germany after these programs. The only program which I am able to see with Indians employeed in Germany are HTW - MBAE and HWR MSc.

I will re-think on taking the courses that I have applied for. Also do you think if I learn a good level of german there is going to be a need for Masters degree to find a job in Germany? since, I already have a good experience of about 8 years.

Thanks for all your time Duncan.

A high level of professional German is more important than a German degree, but the degree makes the visa so much easier. I'm sure it's the case in your country, if I arrived speaking German rather than the languages used in the workplace. 

Agree. There are hardly any 1 year German MSc programs for people with non-business related Bachelors. Even after learning German the competition for these program is going to be tough.

Given the choice between a short course that doesn't meet your goal and a long one that does, then the long one is better. There are certainly more four-semester MSc options than there are 2- or 3-semester options, and it's laborious to find them. However, it's easier to enter some German-speaking degrees because they actively welcome foreign talent into the classroom: the foreign students add a lot, especially at schools that don't have a lot of English-language degrees. I'm not recommending it, but for example someone I know did this three-semester program: https://www.hs-harz.de/business-consulting-ma and that worked well for them. 

[Edited by Duncan on Jan 17, 2022]

The other thing to mention are that there are many more options these days for part-time study in German, including online studies. Again, not a recommendation but I belive that some schools like HOM and the Euro-HF offer online degrees in both English and German. e.g https://www.fom.de/international/incoming-students/international-study-programmes.html 

Duncan, these MSc programs or either the online ones are missing something called peer learning and the diversity of cohort. I believe that this aspect of peer to peer learning is better in the MBAs even the ones I mentioned previously as the batch/cohort is usually more diverse.

According to the Furtwangen (HFU) International Business Management MBA website the average experience is 4.5 years which is not the case with MSc programs.

[Edited by abhi2710s on Jan 17, 2022]

These MBA programmes in English are missing something called developing the capacity to work managerially in the German language. I believe that the ability to work in German fluidly is more important than diversity in the cohort.