Overall, the University of Applied Sciences Mainz (Hochschule Mainz; UASM) comprises the three schools of technology, design and business. In April 2014 the business school of UASM celebrated its 50th anniversary. While the name of the school has changed various times, the main principles always stayed the same: The students are at the center, with small groups, a close connection to practice in and around the Rhine-Main-Area, and a modern campus in the attractive student city of Mainz.
The school of business has about 3000 students, thereof more than 1,800 studying full-time and almost 1,100 part-time. UASM has been participating in the ERASMUS program for several years. During the winter semester 2014/2015 there were 365 foreign exchange students enrolled at UASM. From 2013 to 2014 there were 108 students (business: 70) outgoing and 104 students (business: 82) incoming in the ERASMUS program. 70 professors and about 115 visiting lecturers from companies achieve a balanced mix between theory and practice.
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Business administration, business law and business information systems: The business school offers 17 programs in these three specializations. The business programs can be followed full-time or part-time and as first or consecutive studies. Part-time programs have been offered for more than 35 years now and the professional work of the students is highly integrated with the programs, e.g. for projects, as well as bachelor and master theses. Among the 400 cooperation partners there are global players like the big four auditing companies, Boehringer Ingelheim, Schott and Opel side to side with many small and medium-sized companies (SMEs).
Thanks to the 50 partnerships with universities on each continent, the business school can offer its students a broad selection of exchange programs. Therefore, a broad variety of languages is offered: Apart from English, French, Spanish and Chinese, the students in Mainz can also learn Russian, Polish and Turkish. Apart from that there is an evaluation center at the business school which offers language tests (TOEFL, TOEIC) as well as an SAP certification (SAP TERP10).
Teaching basics in Purchasing/Logistics/Production is part of the business administration Bachelor Programs already (with 5 ECTS credits). Also, since 2014 two elective courses are offered in these Bachelor Programs in that topic area of which one specifically covers purchasing topics (another 5 ECTS credits). The latter directly became one of the most elected new courses, as many of the part-time students actually work in this field and they and their employers would favor even more specialization in it. Moreover, more advanced Purchasing topics get covered as part of Supply Chain Management in the business administration Master Programs (with 6 ECTS credits) already at the moment. Due to the high demand for this specialization from the employers and respective students in this topic area, a Pan-European curriculum would significantly increase the ability to let the students elect more courses (e.g. during their exchange semesters).
Contact:
Lydia Bals
Prof. Dr.
Tel.: 06131/628-3293
E-Mail: lydia.bals@hs-mainz.de
Lydia Bals is Professor of Supply Chain & Operations Management at the University of Applied Sciences Mainz, Germany and a Visiting Professor at the Department for Strategic Management & Globalization at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. In 2008 she was a Visiting Scholar at Wharton and Columbia Business School, United States.
One of her main research areas is Procurement Organization and she has published in the Journal of Supply Chain Management, Journal of International Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management and other academic outlets. She is an editorial review board member of the Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management and a member of several international associations, such as IPSERA (International Purchasing Science, Education and Research Association) and the Academy of Management (AOM); the latter with a focus on the Operations Management Division and International Management Division.
From 2008 to 2013 she worked in the industry full-time, maintaining a research affiliation to Copenhagen Business School. Her last position at Bayer was head of the global department of Procurement Solutions (e.g. Benchmarking and Excellence; Sustainability, Methods, Tools & Systems) at Bayer CropScience AG, also steering the international Procurement Solutions network in Germany, North America, France, India, China and Brazil.
In that function she was responsible for the design of a global purchasing training curriculum, development of the related contents as well as coordinating its rollout across Bayer CropScience AG, Bayer HealthCare AG and Bayer MaterialScience AG.
Prior to that she worked as a Project Manager at Bayer Business Consulting, leading projects in various functional areas and countries (e.g. Spain, Mexico, Turkey), with most projects in the Purchasing & Supply Management field.
