Interdisciplinary Healthcare and Management

Our graduates drive change in their professional settings, take on management and leadership roles, work on research projects, and fulfil organisational, planning and specialist functions in interdisciplinary healthcare delivery settings or in organisations shaping healthcare policy.

Examples of fields our graduates work in beyond their original area of professional practice include:

• Local and public health authorities and services
• Health and consumer advisory services
• Health insurers
• Professional associations
• Higher education and research institutions

This six-semester course builds on its students’ prior professional experience, keeping its classes relatively small to enable them to contribute their specific expertise and recognise its place in an interdisciplinary network of knowledge.

The first two semesters focus on healthcare professions as academic disciplines, public health, interdisciplinary communication and team-centred working, health economics, business administration, organisational principles, social security legislation, reflective practice and understanding specific cases, advice provision, communication and decision-making skills, ethics, and good academic and scientific practice.

Semesters 3 and 4 explore research methods, HR management, health systems and health policy, chronic diseases, and multimorbidity, and students spend a semester on a practical placement.

In their fifth and sixth semesters, students take in-depth courses on health promotion and preventive interventions, interdisciplinary models of healthcare, assessment and intervention, evidence-based practice, and communicating risk, and carry out a specialist project. The course concludes with a Bachelor thesis.

The course’s ultimate aim is to provide students with specific knowledge and skills in:

• science and research
• communication and advice provision
• health promotion and disease prevention
• health systems and health policy decision-making
• business administration

You should be scientifically minded, interested in how health systems work and the political, societal and economic backdrop to those workings, and keen to help shape healthcare delivery processes.

We particularly welcome applications from professionals who aim to take on complex roles in designing and leading on healthcare delivery or support for pregnant women, their partners, and new parents.

Interested – but not quite sure yet whether this is the right course for you? Our self-assessment test can help you make up your mind. Take it here: HAW Navigator.

Higher education entrance qualification 

You can apply directly for this course if you hold one of the following qualifications:

• Fachhochschulreife
• Allgemeine Hochschulreife  
• Fachgebundene Hochschulreife (subject-specific HE entrance qualification)
• Meister*in (vocational qualification – master tradesperson)
• Fachwirt*in (certified specialist)

In the field of nursing, for example, a number of CPD/training courses/certificates may be equivalent to one of these qualifications. Please ask us if you are unsure.

Applicants who do not hold a higher education entrance qualification but have completed vocational training (Berufsausbildung) and at least three years of subsequent work experience can apply under Section 38 of the Hamburg Higher Education Act, which sets out special provisions for these applicants (Besonderer Hochschulzugang für Berufstätige).

Find out more at Admission requirements for a Bachelor's degree.

Prior qualification

In addition to your higher education entrance qualification, a state-accredited qualification in one of the professions in this list is a prerequisite for this course:

International applicants

If you completed your schooling outside Germany and want to study here for a Bachelor’s degree, you need to hold an academic school-leaving qualification which entitles you to admission to higher education; that is, it needs to be comparable to a German Abitur or Fachhochschulreife. The organisation uni assist will check your certificates from school and any degree-level studies to establish comparability. Please note that you are also required to have proof of German at level C1 – for example, in the form of a TestDaF certificate – in order to apply for all Bachelor's degree courses (except Information Engineering).

You can find more information about HAW Hamburg’s application criteria at International applicants.

We only accept online applications. Before applying, applicants must register with www.hochschulstart.de. During the application period (for the winter semester: 1 June–15 July) you can find the online application and detailed information about the application process on the Applying for a Bachelor's degree course page.

You can find information about the selection process and the numerus clausus (NC) from the previous semester here: Applying for a Bachelor's degree course/Selection criteria

International applicants are also required to apply during the application period.
To make the process easier for you, we have compiled a step-by-step checklist: International applicants