Die Fakultät

The researchers of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences participate in core research areas and emerging fields. In addition, some of them are currently working in six profile initiatives. Profile initiatives distinguish themselves by cross-faculty research on subjects, which could become emerging fields through the attraction of third-party funded projects in the coming years.

Important research areas in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences are e.g.:

• social and economic climate research
• aspects of sustainability (social, economic, and reflexive dimensions), e.g. Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies "Futures of Sustainability"
• Health economics (in the inter-faculty Hamburg Center for Health Economics (HCHE))

Additional participation

Research in these areas is also conducted by our scientists in the

• Cluster of Excellence CLICCS,
• Sustainability Office (German only)
• DFG Graduate Program "Collective Decision Making"
• DFG Graduate Program Managerial and economic dimensions of health care quality
• Knowledge Exchange Agency

The Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences is divided into three departments:

• Department of Socioeconomics
• Department of Social Sciences
• Department of Economics

The Faculty conducts teaching in the three departments in the subjects

• Business Administration
• Economics
• Economics at the department of Socioeconomics
• Journalism and Communication Studies
• Law Section at the department of Socioeconomics
• Political Science
• Sociology at the department of Social Sciences
• Sociologie at the department of Socioeconomics

Our work is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach to socially relevant current affairs.

Interdisciplinary, research oriented master’s degree programs

These interdisciplinary, research oriented master’s degree programs ensure a link between research and teaching:

• Politics, Economics and Philosophy (MSc),
• Health Economics and Health Care Management (MSc) (in German only),
• Innovation, Business and Sustainability (MSc),
• Interdisciplinary Public and Nonprofit Studies (MSc) (in German only)

See the departments’ websites for further research research areas.

The Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences combines high-profile research with an open approach to new educational pathways: With its BA in Socioeconomics, the Department of Socioeconomics offers an interdisciplinary program in economics and social sciences that provides students that have a professional qualification but no German secondary school leaving certificate (Abitur) or hold a university of applied sciences entrance qualification, with the opportunity to obtain a university qualification.

Via joint appointments and close cooperation in research and the promotion of young researchers, our faculty is also linked to the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Furthermore, the faculty cooperates with the Hans Bredow Institute, Leibniz Institute for Media Research and the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

The faculty library offers a wide range of scientific information for researchers, teachers and students.

The Graduate School provides support for early career researchers in the Faculty. By coordinating the process for doctoral candidates within the Faculty’s established structured doctoral degree programs, it provides doctoral students not only with a systematic education, but also creates close links between the Faculty disciplines and interdisciplinary research. The Graduate School thus provides optimal support for early career researchers.

The Faculty also has a number of services to assist Faculty members in their studies, teaching, and research.

Researchers and students involved in basic research have access to the Research Laboratory, which is fitted with modern equipment for conducting a range of experiments and surveys.

The Faculty has 3 academic offices and an International Office to provide students with comprehensive service.

The Office for Digitalization in Teaching provides information, advice, and support for teachers in the Faculties of Business, Economics and Social Sciences and Business Administration on integrating digital media into their teaching.

The ROSI (Research Office for Social Innovation) is the central institution for transfer-related research and teaching within the WiSo faculty. As an interface between science and society, the Research Office facilitates and mediates cooperation projects in which actors from Hamburg's (civil) society, administration and politics work together with researchers and students to tackle (civil) societal challenges.

The Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences is one of the larger of the University of Hamburg’s 8 faculties. It is also one of the largest of its kind in Germany.

Academics

The Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences currently employs around 80 professors (15 of whom are junior professors) and more than 250 research associates (corresponding to 160 FTE) in research and teaching.

Students and doctoral candidates

Every year, 50 to 60 doctoral candidates complete their doctoral studies at the faculty’s Graduate School.

Around 6,100 students are enrolled in the 5 bachelor’s and 13 master’s degree majors of the faculty. Of these, nearly 4,500 are bachelor’s students, at least 1,500 are master’s students. Every year, more than 1,500 new students enroll in the faculty’s degree programs (around 1,100 bachelor’s students and 450 master’s students). They are joined by more than 240 first-year students in the teacher training degrees in the social sciences and business administration.

Additional information:

• More than 150 of the 450 places available to first-year master’s students at the faculty are in the international master’s degree programs Master of Science in Economics, Master of Arts in International Business and Sustainability, Master of Arts in Journalism, Media and Globalisation (Erasmus Mundus), and Master of Science in Politics, Economics and Philosophy. These programs are taught exclusively in English.
• The interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Socioeconomics is one of the University of Hamburg’s largest degree programs with more than 2,400 students and 600 first-year places. Up to 40 percent of places available to first-year students are reserved for applicants without standard qualifications.
  (last updated: March 2018)