MBI requirements

Requirements for MBI admission

Formal prerequisites for admission to the MBI program are:

• Higher secondary school certificate
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent. If your degree is not in business administration or a business-related field please check the options below.
• For non-native speakers: English language certificate (TOEFL or equivalent).

Details, and additional requirements in certain cases, are specified in the admission process. MBI admission is processed in 4 steps (click for details):

• Electronic application
• Document submission
• Admission and payment
• Enrollment

What does "or equivalent" mean?

Since bachelor's degrees were not common in major parts of the world until a few years ago, candidates with different degrees may be admitted if their degrees are considered equivalent to a bachelor's degree (e.g. FH-Diplom).

Which English language certificate do you need?

Students whose mother tongue is not English must provide a TOEFL certificate. Other tests as listed below are also accepted.

If you have not completed the language test when you apply you may submit the certificate up to 6 months later.

What about a non-business degree?

Candidates with degrees in other fields than business can be admitted. However, they need to prove that they possess elementary business administration knowledge. There are several ways to provide this proof:

1. If you have at least two years of working experience in a typical business function (e.g. marketing, controlling, finance; not engineering, software development, etc.) you may submit (a) certificate(s) issued by your employer(s).
2. You participate in the business track of the MBI program and pass the two courses Business I and II. This can be done as part of the MBI program or in addition.
3. Take business courses provided by any higher-education institution (university level) equivalent to at least 15 credit points in the MBI program. You are advised to check with us before registering if a course you are considering to take will satisfy the requirements.

If you are in doubt whether you fulfill the formal requirements please contact the dean's office at dean-sbi(at)vg-u.de.

Technical requirements

Since the MBI program is an online program and all VGU courses are on the Internet you need:

• Access to a reasonably fast Internet connection
• State-of-the-art computing equipment, including a Windows PC, MS Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7, and a Web camera
• MS Office programs, multimedia plug-ins (e.g. Windows Media Player), Web browser, and communications software

Note that you should have at least 56 kbps Internet access or faster to participate in video-based courses. Less speed will do for other courses but will be less convenient in any case.

Required computer knowledge

A minimum level of computer knowledge is required for any SBI course: MS Windows, Excel, Word, Access; navigation in the World Wide Web, downloading files etc.

For the MBI program you need to know programming. If you never learned and used a programming language before you may still enroll; however, the course "Introduction to Programming" will be a compulsory part of your first semester.

Prerequisites for mini programs and for certificate courses are basically the same, i.e. in most cases you will need general PC handling experience and some programming knowledge.