Multichannel Trade Management in Textile Business

The degree course is based on a collaboration, initiated in 2008, between HAW Hamburg and Otto Group, a multi-channel retail organisation active worldwide; as such, it provides students with ideal and one-of-a-kind opportunities to apply their theoretical learning in real-world contexts from an early stage. The participating Otto Group companies allow our students to access internships and practical experience across Germany. Our graduates leave us with a top-quality academic education enhanced by a range of hands-on experiences, and strong performers have the chance to continue their association with Otto Group by taking up an exciting role in one of its companies.

This Master’s degree course is highly interdisciplinary in nature; we accordingly welcome graduates from a variety of academic backgrounds. We’re looking forward to your application if you have a good first degree in business or economics, clothing technology, textiles management or fashion design.

This three-semester Master’s degree course is focused on practical application and does not build directly on a particular Bachelor’s degree course. In the course’s first semester, we teach the fundamentals of retail buying, marketing and supply chain management alongside issues in CSR and clothing assessment procedures. Further modules seek to provide students with a grasp of international trade and business and train their intercultural competencies and language proficiency; examples are our modules on international trade and globalisation, intercultural management skills and international business and commercial law.

Second-semester students advance their learning in classes on the textile life cycle, product management and collection development, and management accounting, with an interdisciplinary module on multichannel trade management bringing these diverse themes together. We invite a variety of experts with strong track records in the field to give talks and elucidate case studies so that you’ll see how the theory you are learning translates into day-to-day, on-the-job realities.

You’ll complete two practical work experience phases during your three-semester course, which concludes with your Master's thesis, a substantial piece of academic work which in the ideal case you’ll complete in cooperation with one of the participating Otto Group companies.

Essential:

• A successfully completed first degree, including a Bachelor’s degree (7 semesters) (or non-German equivalent) or a German Diplom (or non-German equivalent), including at least one semester’s/six months' practical experience (your degree should be at least 3.5 years in duration; with a minimum grade of 2.59 or ‘good’ according to the German system)
• or a six-semester Bachelor’s degree plus an industrial internship, studied in the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, Department of Business, at HAW Hamburg. Please submit your Diploma Supplement and a list of all modules taken, with all grades and credit points attained (= transcripts). We will assess whether this degree has a business, textile engineering or fashion design emphasis.
• Diploma Supplement/Transcript of Records
• International applicants are required to demonstrate proficiency in the German language via a recognised language test, which should be one of the following: Goethe Institute C1, TestDaF 4, telc C1 Hochschule, DSH2, Deutsches Sprachdiplom issued by the KMK (Kultusministerkonferenz), or Kleines or Großes Sprachdiplom issued by the Goethe Institute.
• All applicants are required to provide proof of proficiency in English at the B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference as stipulated in section 7, paragraph 2 of the General Admissions Regulations [HAWAZO]).

Additional documents you may submit to enhance your application (optional):

• Letter of motivation
• CV

N.B.: Applicants whose Bachelor’s degrees are equivalent to 180 credit points are required to attain a further 30 credit points in order to enrol fully in this Master’s degree course. The department will tell you which courses and examinations you will be required to undertake. If this applies to you and your application is successful, you will be enrolled for an initial fixed period of one semester and a decision on full enrolment will be taken at the end of this semester.