Academics

The Program

During the first two days all students take part in the course "Intercultural Communication". The aim of the course is to provide students with an overview of the most important themes of intercultural communication such as cultural awareness; cultural clashes and culture shock; integration; verbal and non-verbal communication styles; attitudes to time; different value systems in interpersonal relationships. We deal with numerous case studies in order to understand how intercultural communication works in practice. By the end of the course, students will have substantially increased their cultural awareness and intercultural competence.

The remaining days of the first week are devoted to an introduction in the seminar programs. Participants of the European Studies course learn about History of European Integration, participants of the Finance program start with a lecture on Money and Macroeconomics.

The seminars are divided into a lecture part and an interactive exercise session. All seminars are taught by university teachers and professionals from European or German institutions.
Depending on the study track you chose you will take the following courses:

Both Tracks

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION (Mark Bramwell) - BOTH TRACKS

The aim of the course Intercultural Communication is to provide students with an overview of the most important themes of Intercultural communication. These include: cultural awareness; cultural clashes and culture shock; integration; verbal and non-verbal communication styles; attitudes to time; different value systems in interpersonal relationships. We profile selected national cultures and study different management styles. We deal with numerous case studies in order to understand how intercultural communication works in practice. A range of media and types of exercises are employed to give students a varied and interesting introduction to the subject. By the end of the course, students will have substantially increased their cultural awareness and intercultural competence.

European Studies Track

HISTORY OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION (Manuel Wörsdörfer)

The course aims at analysing the history of European Integration as one major example of regional integration. It will familiarize students with the key concepts of politico-economic integration in general and the milestones of the development of the European Union in particular. In addition, it will develop students' skills in understanding current topics related to European integration - i.e. the Lisbon Treaty, the European Monetary Union and the European debt crisis (Euro-crisis). The first part will provide students with an historical overview of the evolution of the European Union starting at the early post-war period and lasting until the signing of the Lisbon Treaty at the end of 2009. The following intergovernmental assignments will be analysed at great length: the Treaty of Rome, the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty and the Lisbon treaty. The second part will analyze the 'Big Five' European institutions primarily focusing on the structure, legislation and decision-making process of the European Union. The last part will focus on current topics related to European integration - e.g. EU enlargement, the financial market and the European debt crisis. Moreover, this session will elaborate the question whether the European Union can be regarded as a role-model compared to the USA and China?

EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POLICY (Pierre Boulanger)

This seminar aims at analysing modalities, impacts and expectations of market globalization within a European perspective. On the one hand, it will familiarize students with international economic theory and European political economy. On the other hand, it will develop students' skills in understanding current issues related to European, regional and multilateral integration - i.e. non-agricultural market access (NAMA), agriculture, services, intellectual property rights, environmental and social norms, food security, pro-growth and development agenda, etc. The first session will provide to students a theoretical background in European market integration -gains from trade in goods and services, welfare outcomes induced by protectionist instruments, benefits from multilateral and regional agreements. The second session will analyze the European trade policy -current European protectionism political economy and impact assessment, European bilateral and multilateral agreements, relations with developing countries. The third session will focus on the agricultural liberalization process, a sensitive issue among European member States, a major knock with trade partners -distortions induced by farm support, rural development, environmental policy, food security, European budget review. The last session will consider the multilateral trading system and the European stances within the current round of negotiations -World Trade Organization structure and regulation, Doha Round agenda, actors and outcome simulations.

EUROPEAN LAW (Alexander Lorz)

The course will give a brief overview regarding the legal foundations, fundamental structural elements and pivotal substantive rights of European Union law. The first two units (Monday and Tuesday) will be devoted to explaining the legal construction of the Union, the main features of its most important institutions and the law-making instruments employed by them. In the second part (Thursday and Friday) the course will focus on the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Union's legal order, in particular the freedoms that serve as cornerstones of the Common or Internal Market. A case study at the end will demonstrate how they work in practice.

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANKING (Alexander Karpf)

The seminar on European Central Banking will deal with the main tasks central bank have in the European context, but also compared to other major economies, including monetary policy and price stability, foreign exchange, payments systems issue of legal tender and financial market stability. Moreover, the organisation and decision-making processes in field of central banking in the European Union (and with particular emphasis on the European Central Bank) will be discussed and contrasted with other central banks, also from a legal perspective. Furthermore, the participants will be invited to discuss the work of central banks in relation to the financial crisis and the changes introduced in the light of this crisis.

Finance Track

MONEY AND MACROECONOMICS (Anne Jurkat)

The first part of the seminar deals with the macroeconomics of the open economy. Keywords are balance of payments, capital mobility and exchange rates. The Mundell-Fleming model with fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes will be investigated in detail in order to analyze the effects of fiscal and monetary policy. The second part of the seminar applies the theory to reality: The course examines the European Monetary Union as a potential example for an optimal currency area, provides an overview of the road to a single currency in Europe and assesses the challenges for the future stability of the Euro in view of the Greek debt crisis. The course then concludes by discussing the macroeconomic causes and consequences of the financial crisis of 2008.

FINANCIAL MARKETS (Jens Fürhoff)

The course will include recent European developments such as the Financial Services Action Plan (integrated financial markets in Europe). The European Directive on Insider Dealing and Market Manipulation (Market Abuse) increased standards for market integrity in the securities field. This contributes to the harmonization of the rules for market abuse throughout Europe. The European Directive on Prospectuses (A European Passport for Issuers) simplified capital raising procedures across Europe. Furthermore, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) will be covered. The European Commissions recently published legislative proposals to transform the European Committees of supervisors into supervisory authorities with real teeth will be discussed. The second part of the course will reflect national developments in Germany in the light of the financial crisis.

BEHAVIORAL FINANCE (t.b.a.)

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EUROPEAN LAW (Alexander Lorz)

The course will give a brief overview regarding the legal foundations, fundamental structural elements and pivotal substantive rights of European Union law. The first two units (Monday and Tuesday) will be devoted to explaining the legal construction of the Union, the main features of its most important institutions and the law-making instruments employed by them. In the second part (Thursday and Friday) the course will focus on the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Union's legal order, in particular the freedoms that serve as cornerstones of the Common or Internal Market. A case study at the end will demonstrate how they work in practice.

FINANCING OF AN ENTITY - from term sheet to documentation (Jörg Kupjetz)

For most entities it is essential to be provided with debt financing. However, it is sometimes a long way from first discussions with the bank about financing needed to the final set of documentation. In this course you will learn the essentials of a term-sheet and how its terms will be integrated into the respective documentation. Jörg Kupjetz will show you both the entity's and the bank's perpective in this process.