We were very happy to welcome back our third semester students after the long summer break and at the same time take in our new first semester students. 
After the official welcome session for all “newies” at Pforzheim University, followed by a campus tour to their new alma mater, the new MBA students from China, Vietnam, India and Tanzania, who had arrived over the last weeks, gathered for the first time in the MBA classroom. They were joined online by candidates from Nepal, India and Kenya, who – due to visa delays – will shortly join the program in person.  MBA program director Prof. Harald Strotmann introduced the new MBA students to their first semester by having a closer look at the curriculum. The first semester concentrates mainly on the business foundation classes in Accounting & Finance, Marketing, Business Functions, Economics, Research Methods and Management Skills, that will all be addressed in individual classes taught by professors from Pforzheim University, guest lecturers as well as international guest professors from the USA and South Africa. Besides those lectures an exciting program of “guest in classroom” talks with key professionals from the industry as well as a two-day field trip with visits to well-known companies is awaiting the first semester students.
An exciting semester also lies ahead of the third semester students, who just returned from a three-day excursion to companies in the region. Besides the mandatory courses in Innovation & Digital Business, Sustainable Globalization and Consulting & Business Dynamics, the third semester offers a variety of elective classes in the fields of Accounting & Finance, Marketing, Big Data & AI and Recent Developments in Management & Business Transformation, which the students were able to choose from, in order to specialize. The Company Project, which is also one of the electives, is a great opportunity to work closely together with a German firm. Divided into project groups, supported by company representatives and supervised by a professor from Pforzheim University, this semester the students get the chance to work on real business projects for well-known companies such as Bosch and SAP. 
After the individual launch of the first and third semester, the two batches gathered on the university grounds to better get to know each other. There the first semester students got a chance to finally meet their buddies from the third semester, who had supported them even before their arrival in Pforzheim. 

To make the new MBA students really feel at home in Pforzheim, they also joined the Goldstadtwalk, a guided city tour with lots of tipps and information on the city and its history. Now they are all ready for the winter semester to begin.

text and photos: MBA