Master of Science (part-time)

Integrated management systems

With your knowledge, companies optimize their processes - whether in terms of quality, the environment, occupational health and safety or sustainability. During lecture-free periods and during the Master's semester, you will be in the company.

Master's degree program in Integrated Management Systems (part-time)

Integrated Management Systems Master's program dual (KIA)

Faculty:

Natural and Environmental Sciences in cooperation with the Faculties of Electrical Engineering/Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Social Sciences, Economics/Industrial Engineering

Location: Zittau
Degree: Master of Science
Standard period of study: 3 semesters or 4 semesters (with propaedeutic semester)
ECTS credits: 90 / 90+30 (with propaedeutic semester)
Enrollment for: Summer semester
Winter semester (propaedeutic semester)
Admission restriction: None
Accreditation status: accredited
Good to know!

Our KIAdirekt model works like this:

  • The companies delegate their own employees to study at our university. Or: The companies provide us with a student trainee position for the duration of the course. We suggest you for this position.
  • The employees/working students study full-time during the semester with the other students at the university according to the standard curriculum. They work on topics from their companies in defined modules.
  • During the lecture-free periods and during the Master's thesis (3rd semester), students work full-time in their company.

Over the course of the year, there is an approx. 50/50 distribution of study and work time.

After 3 semesters, we have trained specialists and managers whose knowledge and skills are a perfect fit for the KIA company.

We are happy to support you in your search for a suitable practice partner.

Our master's program with a focus on quality, environmental, energy, occupational safety and IT security management systems is unique in Germany!

Today, hardly any company can manufacture and sell products without having proof of a certified quality management system. Depending on customer requirements, legal requirements or internal company objectives, further management systems, such as an environmental, occupational health and safety, IT security or energy management system, are added.

All management systems are characterized by the fact that they follow the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle (PDCA) and require, for example, regular status analyses in the form of audits and checks, planning of targets and measures based on these, and the designation of responsibilities.

On the other hand, management systems refer to different topics and tasks: Quality management systems primarily to the fulfillment of customer requirements, environmental and energy management systems primarily to an improvement of resource efficiency, occupational health and safety management systems primarily to occupational safety and health protection of employees.

Students of the master's program "Integrated Management Systems" deal with the requirements of quality, environmental, energy and occupational health and safety management systems and examine how companies can optimize their processes in these areas through integrated management systems. Related topics, such as accompanying project management, auditing of management systems or reporting on achieved results are considered in the same way as the environmental policy-legal framework and issues of technical environmental protection, especially energy technology.

Our high application orientation is not only given by a project-oriented theory-practice-transfer module, but also by dealing with software applications in project and material flow management and the teaching of soft skills on issues of learning and change processes in organizations.

Course content

What you can expect

In our Master's program, we impart well-founded and practice-oriented knowledge in the following areas:

  • Management systems: These include quality, environment, energy, occupational health and safety, information security and asset management.
  • Methods: We place particular focus on project management, software skills, auditing and management systems integration.
  • Social skills: Learning and change processes in companies are an important part of our degree program to provide you with the necessary skills in dealing with social aspects.
  • Specialist subjects: In addition to the focus areas mentioned above, we offer in-depth insights into specific specialist topics such as renewable energies, bioeconomy, sustainability reporting and work design.

Your course content in the dual Master's degree program in Integrated Management Systems

Propaedeutic semester
  • Project seminar: Environmental protection, occupational safety and energy
  • Lecture series and seminar on topics of ecological, economic and social sustainability
  • Energy systems of the future
  • Environmental, energy and climate protection law
  • Fundamentals of energy and power plant technology
  • Occupational health and safety law, occupational health and safety management systems
1st semester
  • Environmental management systems and operational material flow management

  • Change and learning processes in organizations

  • Quality management systems/
    Quality assurance        

  • Project management: methods and processes
  • Obligations to act in environmental, energy, climate and occupational health and safety law

Compulsory elective modules (at least 1 module):

  • Writing Workshop - Energy Transition and Carbon Cycle Management  
  • Operational Software - SAP        
  • Sustainability management and reporting     
  • Renewable energies  
  • IT Security Management
2nd semester
  • Auditing of management systems              
  • Integration of management systems               
  • Life cycle assessment  
  • Theory-practice transfer: developing and evaluating management systems           
  • Operational energy and climate protection management

Compulsory elective modules (at least 1 module):

  • Work design in the environment of Industry 4.0
  • Pharmaceutical law/GMP               
  • Occupational health and safety law, occupational health and safety management systems          
  • Asset management and technical diagnostics
  • Bioeconomy and biopolymers - Sustainable plastics
3rd semester

Master thesis

Note:

If you can provide evidence of equivalent competencies and skills acquired outside the university sector (e.g. qualifications as a management representative), modules can be recognized up to half of the credit points provided for the degree course.

In many modules, study-related projects with reference to your company are possible! At the beginning of each semester, let us know your wishes and requirements. On this basis, we will jointly determine the content, scope and duration of the accompanying projects.

TÜV-certified expertise

After successfully completing the relevant modules, you will have the opportunity to acquire the following TÜV certificates from our cooperation partners, TÜV-Rheinland Akademie GmbH and TÜV-Rheinland CERT(R) GmbH*, at special conditions:

  • Quality management systems according to ISO 9001*
  • Environmental management systems according to ISO 1400/EMAS
  • Occupational health and safety management systems according to ISO 45001
  • Energy management systems according to ISO 50001
  • Internal auditor*
  • Integrated management systems
  • Project management in theory and practice
  • Sustainability management and reporting

FAQ

Perhaps you are wondering...

  • How can I combine my studies with my job?

    The following two periods should be planned for the full-time study phases at our university:  
    - mid-March to mid-July (4 months)
    - early October to mid-February (4 months)

    The periods in between and the entire third semester (Master's thesis) are available full-time for practical work in the company.

    There is sufficient and inexpensive accommodation available at the university!

  • What admission requirements do I have to fulfill?

    Applicants with a Bachelor's degree with the following characteristics are eligible for admission:

    • Bachelor's or Diplom degree in natural sciences or engineering, alternatively a degree in economics or social sciences with a focus on management systems
    • Degree with 210 credits
    • Degree with 180 credits and at least one year of relevant professional experience
    • Degree with 180 credits and completion of our preparatory semester (30 credits)

     

    Our preparatory semester always starts in the winter semester. Here you have the opportunity to acquire the remaining 30 ECTS credits via a preparatory semester before the start of the Master's degree program. Further information can be found in the module catalog of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.

    Foreign applicants require the following language certificate: DSH at least level 1, TestDaf in all four parts at least level 3, Telc C1 Hochschule or another adequate certificate. 

    If you do not currently meet the language requirements, you can attend a language course (DSH course, 1 semester) at our Studienkolleg. At the time of application, you must provide proof of German language skills at level B1. You can find all the important information for your application here: Application for full-time studies

    The standard duration of the course is one semester. No course fees are charged. 

  • What career prospects do I have after graduation?

    The Master's degree course in Integrated Management Systems provides students with sound, application-ready specialist knowledge in theory and practice in the fields of management systems and energy management/technology. Graduates of the course are qualified to take up the following positions:

    • as a management representative for an integrated operational quality, environmental, energy and occupational health and safety management system or in sustainability management and reporting,
    • in technical environmental protection, particularly in relation to renewable energies,
    • in the optimization of production processes, material flow and energy management,
    • in planning and approval procedures in the operational and official environmental/energy sector as well as participating in enforcement monitoring activities,
    • advisory, expert and expert activities in technical and operational environmental protection and management.

    Areas of employment after graduation can be found in the following areas:

    • Commercial enterprises in all sectors with requirements in technical-organizational environmental protection and occupational safety, quality, energy and sustainability management,
    • Engineering and expert offices,
    • Federal, state and local licensing and supervisory authorities with responsibilities in environmental protection, occupational safety and energy management, service companies in business, trade or education, research institutions, insurance companies, technical inspection associations, management consultancies, associations, non-governmental organizations in the fields of environment, energy, quality, occupational safety and sustainability.
  • How can a company become a partner for the dual study program (KIA partner)?
    1. Conclusion of the cooperation agreement with the university. This will reserve the desired places for you and includes financial arrangements.
    2. Conclusion of a qualification contract with the student.

Advantages at a glance

Advantages for our partner companies:
  • short study times,
  • limited and easily plannable periods of absence for your employees
  • Future-oriented qualification of your specialists and managers
  • Participation in current and proven specialist and methodological knowledge
  • Access to certified additional qualifications from TÜV-Rheinland Cert(R) GmbH and Akademie GmbH)
  • Direct transfer of knowledge and practical solutions to your company
  • Completion of studies within the standard period of study through intensive and individual support for students
  • Instrument for retaining and appreciating important know-how carriers in your company
Advantages for our students:
  • Imparting up-to-date specialist knowledge on quality, environmental, energy, occupational health and safety, IT security and sustainability management and their integration
  • Additional qualifications as a management representative (TÜV certificates)
  • High application orientation in teaching through project work, guest speakers from the field, excursions,
  • Small, interdisciplinary student groups,
  • Interdisciplinary application projects worked on in teams,
  • intensive supervision by the lecturers,
  • Didactically varied and modern forms of assessment, such as project proposals or learning diaries
This is KIAdirekt!

Practice and theory are far apart? Not with us.

You want specialists and managers whose knowledge and skills fit your company? Then use the KIAdirekt study program to combine your company's know-how with our scientific findings. KIAdirekt is a part-time master's degree program in which your company and our university jointly train specialists and managers for their work in the field of management systems. Students remain employees of your company during their studies and are delegated to the university for their studies. The study program lasts 3 semesters and starts in the summer as well as in the winter semester. If you enroll in the winter semester, you will study the 2nd semester first and then the 1st semester. At KIAdirekt, your employees study in presence at the university during the semesters. During the lecture-free periods as well as during the master's semester, the students pursue their activities in your company.

Do you have specific questions about the management systems in your company? No problem: in many modules we can gear our project work to these.

Photo: Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Jana Brauweiler
Fachstudienberaterin
Prof. Dr. rer. pol.
Jana Brauweiler
Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences
02763 Zittau
Külzufer 2
Building Z VI, Room 07
First floor
+49 3583 612-4752
Kristin Groß
Fachgebietskoordinator KIA
Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. (FH)
Kristin Groß
Rectorate/Head Office University Development and Communication/Department KIA
02763 Zittau
Theodor-Körner-Allee 16
Building Z I, Room 1.48
1st floor
+49 3583 612-4811
Allgemeine Studienberatung
Madeleine Pohl
Department of Studies and International Affairs
02763 Zittau
Th.-Körner-Allee 16
Building Z I, Room 0.21
First floor
+49 3583 612-3055
Chat with us via WhatsApp

We now also offer our student advisory service via WhatsApp. Just send us a message to: +49 173 2086748