According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, more than 35,000 companies in Switzerland operate internationally. All of them require specialists and leaders capable of navigating changing markets and intercultural teams. The ZHAW School of Management and Law, located in the heart of Winterthur close to the Zurich business hub, educates many of these future professionals, through its MSc in International Business.
Four core dimensions, one curriculum
The curriculum is built around four pillars: Global Strategy, Intercultural Management and Leadership, Research and Consulting and Sustainability and Ethics. The fourth pillar runs through the entire programme, from the Business Boot Camp to the final module entitled Capstone: Creating Sustainable Impact, where students apply their knowledge to a real-world business case study.
Petra Youngzie Barthelmess
Head of the MSc in International Business, ZHAW School of Management and Law
“Our Master’s degree programme equips students with the knowledge, skills and mindset they need to thrive in a world where global collaboration is essential. This internationally oriented, interdisciplinary and practice-oriented degree opens up a wide range of career pathways while serving as a platform for both personal and professional development.”
From an elective topic to a cross-cutting principle
Until the autumn semester of 2024, sustainability and ethics were covered by three separate modules, two of which were elective. The Master’s degree programme was subsequently redesigned to incorporate these topics directly into six of its 16 core modules. The transformation was developed jointly by the respective members of the module management team and the ZHAW Center for Corporate Responsibility (now the Zurich Centre for Sustainability Leadership). The process was headed up by Christian Vögtlin and Marco Clemente with support from ZHAW sustainable, which assisted with the development work within the modules.
Since then, the Strategic Management module has systematically incorporated ethical standards into the strategy-formulation process. The Financial Management module complements traditional key performance indicators with models of sustainable finance. In the Global Growth and Innovation module, the SDGs serve as a starting point for identifying new business areas, while the Global Business Environment module incorporates them into the analysis of country and market environments.
Michael Grampp
Chief Economist & Research Director, Deloitte AG
“This MSc in International Business combines academic knowledge with practical experience. It not only educates students, but also empowers them and paves the way for a successful career in the international business world.”
The shift is most evident in the Risk Management module. There, students develop a sustainability risk management framework that balances profit objectives with environmental, social and governance requirements. The learning culminates in the Capstone module, where they apply what they have learned to a real-life case in collaboration with a corporate partner.
Through its Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Fund, the ZHAW continues to support further revamps of modules and degree programmes in order to embed the topic of sustainability more firmly in the university’s teaching.
