Three new master’s programmes for School of Business

At the School of Business, teaching for degrees is arranged in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programmes. In addition, our professors are strongly involved in further education at Aalto University Executive Education (Aalto EE).

New master's programmes have been under preparation for several years, and the changes are now in their final stretches. Preparations for the programmes have been made at the departments, and at the Learning Steering Group LESG. President of the Aalto University Ilkka Niemelä has decided on the establishment of new programmes in early summer (6 June 2021).

The new master's programmes are: People Management and Organizational Development, Strategic Management in a Changing World and Business Analytics. In addition, the Global Management (CEMS) programme will undergo a complete renewal. Applications for the new programmes may be submitted at the turn of the year 2021–2022, and the first students will start in the programmes in September 2022.

In addition to these new programmes, and those up for renewal, the following master's programmes will continue to be available: Accounting, Finance, Economics, Marketing, Information and Service Management and Business Law. Also, Creative Sustainability (a programme shared with the School of Arts, Design and Architecture and the School of Chemical Engineering) and IDBM (International Design Business Management, which is a programme shared by all Aalto schools, with the School of Business taking responsibility for coordination) will continue to be a part of the portfolio.

The master's programmes are in English, except for Business Law with Finnish as its language of instruction. The master's programmes take two years and they are arranged at our Otaniemi campus.

With the changes in the programme portfolio, the Management and International Business and Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management master's programmes will be discontinued. Also, Corporate Communication and Strategy programmes will be discontinued, but that decision had been made already a few years ago. Those who are currently studying in these programmes can graduate from these programmes according to a schedule given separately.

Tomas Falk, Associate Dean of Teaching and Education at the School of Business, has led the development work on the master's programme portfolio.

‘Changes are certainly not made frivolously. We have a strong desire to continue to offer interesting programmes and high-quality teaching. We hope that other programmes can also be experienced as such and that by offering them we can significantly raise the number of students we have in the coming years. Our goal is also to continue to increase our societal effectiveness and our interaction with the business community. At the School of Business, we also aim at promoting diversity, so we hope that our programme portfolio will be seen as diverse and that it will attract a variety of different applicants,’ Tomas Falk says.

Development of bachelor's programmes to continue

The School of Business has three bachelor's programmes: BSc programme in Economics and Business Administration (in Finnish), BSc programme in Economics (English) and BSc programme in International Business (English). The first two are organized in Otaniemi and the BSc programme in International Business at the Mikkeli campus. The bachelor's programmes are three years in duration.

BSc programme in Economics and Business Administration and the BSc programme in International Business are currently under renewal. The new curricula are planned for the academic year of 2022–2023.

‘At the School of Business, we wish to offer challenging teaching and to involve our students in the teaching. The bachelor's programme is the first touch that students have with the teaching and courses of the School of Business, and it is also the most popular application target for bachelor's programmes at any Finnish university. For that reason, we also want to plan and arrange our teaching as well as possible using the strength of our entire community. In addition to the programme's Management Team, participants in the development work of the programme include teachers and representatives of the KY student organisation.’

After bachelor's and master's degree studies, it is possible to apply for the Doctoral Programme. Doctoral studies at the School of Business are arranged as a four-year English-language doctoral programme with three possible areas of specialisation: Business, Economics, and Finance.

In addition to training for degrees, plenty of courses have been compiled this spring for Lifewide Learning. These courses are open to all.