Programme content

Fundamentals of mathematics and the natural sciences

You acquire the necessary basic knowledge of mathematics and the natural sciences, and the corresponding way of thinking, and are thus able to describe and improve complex processes in technical, industrial and business environments.

Subject-specific fundamentals

The subject-specific fundamentals in the first and second years of study comprise the three pillars of management science/business administration, data management/informatics and data analysis/stochastics. Basic studies for your selected specialisation begin in the third semester: operations management is studied if you specialise in industrial engineering, while economics and econometrics are taken if you choose business mathematics.

Subject-specific specialisation

In the third year of studies you continue your subject-specific education in your chosen area of specialisation and become familiar with specific areas of application.
In industrial engineering students choose between production engineering and quality management.
In business mathematics students can specialise in either financial engineering or data analysis and data management.
Further electives enable students to develop their desired professional profile.

General education requirements ("Studium Generale") and project track

In the "studium generale" you expand your communication competence in both German and English. You also acquire the management competences that you will need in the world of work (particularly project management) and engage with issues to do with law, ethics, ecology and social development.
In the "project track" the methodological and subject-specific competences you have acquired are applied in practical contexts. In the first year you work on case studies involving technology and the natural sciences; in the second year you concentrate on economic and social systems and processes.
The degree programme is rounded off with a project assignment and an undergraduate dissertation, the topics for which are mainly derived from the Institute of Data Analysis and Process Design (IDP), a research unit of the ZHAW, and from its industrial partners