In order to study as an exchange student at Mercator School of Management, please apply first through your home university.
If there is no student exchange agreement between your home institution and Mercator School of Management, you can apply as a “freemover”. Please contact our Team for further information.
After the nomination (deadline May 1st/November 1st) please follow the instructions on the website of our global International Office (global IO).
The global IO is the central service office for international contacts of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). To get in touch with the team please use the contact information on their website. The global IO offers support and guidance for international students, post-graduates and other applicants who are interested in our courses of studies at UDE. They especially advise them on matters of application and enrolment, and they are in charge of all matters concerning the admission of international students.
To get in touch with the International Office (academic advisory) team from the Mercator School of Management please follow the link: Team.
Please note that the university itself does not run any halls of residence. The student residence halls in Duisburg and Essen are administered by the Studentenwerk (a student welfare services organisation). The application for the student residences has to be made in advance and can only be made by students who are going to study at the University of Duisburg-Essen for at least one semester. You can find more information here. The global IO assists you for your housing application as well: link.
If you are looking for accommodation for less than one semester, please take a look at the following websites:
- Facebook group "Accommodation in Duisburg and Essen"
- wg-gesucht.de (shared apartments)
- immowelt.de (shared apartments)
- UDE link collection (in German)
Do not make any room reservations until you have received the letter of acceptance.
In some cases the Mercator IO is able to recommend you private accommodation e.g. private room/guest family. Please contact the team.
The Mercator School of Management (MSM) is the Business Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen, situated on Duisburg campus. MSM was founded in 2005 as a successor of the former Faculty of Business Administration and Economics. Based on the model of US-American business schools, MSM strives to operate on an international level by combining profound research practices with a high applicability in the real world. Mercator’s strong focus on research, combined with quality education, guarantees Mercator a rank among the leading Business faculties in Germany. Since 2013, Mercator School of Management is a member of the AACSB.
Beyond the boundaries of Duisburg, the Mercator School of Management (MSM) is renowned for its research-based teaching. The faculty was ranked second among German universities in categories like International Publications and Citations (CHE, Nov 2011), is accredited by the German AQAS and a valid member of AACSB since 2013. Currently, the Mercator School of Management is hosting 25 tenured professors, and 90 full-time research staff. The faculty possesses the right to confer doctoral degrees (PhDs) in Business Administration, as well as professorships.
Currently, a total of 3430 students pursue a bachelor’s or master’s degree at the Mercator School of Management. The most popular study tracks are Accounting & Finance, Management & Marketing, as well as Business & Economics. Further, a variety of tracks with technical emphasis are available at Mercator, such as Business Analytics, Telecommunications Management or Supply Chain Management & Logistics. More than 20 chairs, each one with a different scientific specialization, offer a wide variety of interesting courses for Mercator students.
Regular Semester Exchange
Our Course Catalogue includes a variety of lectures and seminars taught in English language. The courses (Bachelor and Master level) are open to all exchange students visiting Duisburg as guests of the Mercator School of Management.
At Mercator School of Management, the majority of lectures is taught in German and therefore unsuitable for most visiting international students. However, exchange students can attend all lectures (taught in English and German) that are offered by Mercator School of Management. A good command of German is required for attending lectures taught in German langauge.
Graduate Research Studies Program
The Graduate Research Studies Program (GRSP) is a premium program specifically designed for graduate and early-stage postgraduate students. Taught completely in English, it addresses research-interested high potentials from all over the world, who are striving to embark on a scientific or academic career. Participants of the program gain insight into important research methods and learn the principles of scientific work and practice. Aiming especially at graduate (or beginner PhD) students, the program serves as a profound preparation for their consecutive doctoral studies.
In the competitive world of higher education, GRSP not only provides key academic skills, but also gives students a headstart in their future academic careers!
Please find our semester dates here.
In general, there are no tuition fees at the University of Duisburg-Essen - this applies for international students as well. All students are, however, subject to a student body and social contribution fee. The social contribution has to be paid each semester and is used to finance the semesterticket, the student welfare contribution for the student service and the student self-administration.
All students have to pay this so-called “semester contribution” (Sozial- und Studierendenschaftsbeitrag), which amounts ~ 320 € at present. This contribution is not a tuition fee, but is used to support student bodies and the charge for the semester ticket (public transport in Duisburg and Essen and whole NRW).
Please note that we can only accept students for the regular semester exchange on a tuition waiver basis.
Interested students from our partner institutions are invited to contact us for further information about the exchange conditions and agreements.
Please find our arrival guide here.
Getting used to living in a foreign country and studying at another university can be difficult sometimes and it might bring some challenges! Therefore, you will get a student buddy who can provide one-to-one support, particularly in the first weeks after your arrival.
Studying abroad can be considered as a toilsome issue and I should admit that this is true! At the same time it is the unique experience to discover other cultures deeply as a student and gain important benefits!
First of all, I would like to talk about the UDE and my lectures because I spent the biggest part of my exchange period at the university.
When I was preparing my Learning Agreement, I was quite surprised because there were a lot of Asian lectures on the course catalog and they were not quite related with my own major and I had no prior knowledge about east Asia studies. However, I took some Asia classes here and my all perspectives have changed a lot and now I am quite interested in Asian culture.
The classes at the Mercator School of Management will challenge you; in a good sense of education. You have to think out of the box and you will gain so much knowledge from cognate disciplines as well.
I took business and language lectures and they did not give me boring or only theoretical, but very practical information. I learned many important things about business and strategies.
I was living in a dormitory which was within walking distance to the university, main train station and the city centre. I believe that living in the dormitory is the best option for an exchange student to get in contact with others. Since most of exchange students are living in the dorms it is super easy to get together, and to get a chance to make close friendships.
During my exchange I met many international students and we had so much fun together! We were able to have dorm parties and all of them were so much fun! We were preparing some traditional meals from our home countries and cultures; we were playing some games and trying to learn traditional dances! I definitely felt the real souls of those cultures, besides I was able to ask the questions about foods, dances, eating habits in person.. I am pretty sure that we will always keep in touch because we shared thousands of good memories together.
Plus, in Germany, there are lots of carnivals you can attend and have fun with your friends. Cologne Festival was my favourite one for instance! People wear costumes, drink beer and have lots of fun! You will see how German people are creative to design costumes. I should admit it was one of the best day I have had in Germany.
My favorite one and the best thing about the Europe and especially Germany is the Christmas Market where you can get some delicious foods and drinks like this awesome Glühwein! Each city has its own Christmas Market. I went to those wonderful shiny squares with decorated Christmas trees so many times, and I will definitely come back to visit one of the markets again!
During my exchange, I traveled a lot! Germany is perfectly located and surrounded by many European countries you must see. It is easy and cheap to travel to other countries and I can definitely recommend France, Netherlands, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. When you are enrolled to the UDE, you get a semester transportation ticket which you can use all around the North-Rhein Westfalen state. NRW is one of the biggest states of Germany and it consists of many big cities such as Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Aachen, Münster, Duisburg, Essen.. If you would like to go to Belgium you can use your semester ticket until the border station, and you can buy a ticket from that station! That way, the distance will become narrow and you will pay less! Let me give an example, if you use your ticket’s advantages it costs around 8 euro to go to Brussels from Aachen Bahnhof.
As a conclusion, I discovered new strengths and challenges and they helped me to develop my personal skills. My coordinator and my buddy always supported me, they tried to solve my problems immediately and I owe them lots of thanks.
Germany has been sehr gut to me! I even met my best friend here; a Korean girl from Chung-Ang University. She has already visited me in my home country and I will visit her in Seoul one day!
At first when I came to Germany, I was a representative of my home country but now I will represent Germany as best as I can do. I feel so lucky about my exchange in Germany. I know that was a turning point in my life. I got incomparable opportunities which have changed all my perspectives. A bee needs a rich forest to make honey and for an exchange student, Germany is a rich forest I can say!
This is written by Esra Yılmaz.
Dear Future Summer School Students,… My experience as an American student- Summer School 2017
“You will go on many adventures, and sometimes you will be tired, but you must press on. You might think, I can skip this one activity…don’t. Every trip planned by the IO staff added to the overall experience and you will not regret it.”
Future Summer School Students,
Below you will find a reflection of my experience as an American student in the Summer School program.
You will stay at the Hotel Rheinischer Hof in Duisburg. Upon arrival, you may find that what you consider to be a hotel in the United States looks more like a ‘bed and breakfast’ and is a family owned establishment. The hotel staff is extremely kind and excited to help you in any way possible. Their English is not as good as the German University students, but they will for the most part still understand your requests.
Your roommate will most likely be someone from your home university, and I hope for your sake that you get along with them because you may be sharing a bed with them for the next five weeks. This was one of the major shocks I believe that some students from the US experience, your hotel room might have just one bed in it. I was one of the lucky ones that had two, but I was not the majority. If you have neck issues, you should consider bringing your pillow or purchasing one when you arrive because the pillows have very little stuffing and are not very comfortable. The rooms are very clean, and each has its bathroom. There are no refrigerators in any of the rooms which are a major drawback, especially when there is no AC (anywhere in Germany) and the weather is very warm.
You have access to a small mini fridge on the second floor, but it was always packed with stuff because it was shared between 20+ students and was not a reliable way of storing food. Looking back, I would have split the cost of a Mini Fridge with my roommate the first week we got there because kitchen access is limited. I would have saved a ton of money being able to store grocery items instead of eating out every day. Breakfast is served every morning by the hotel owner Mrs. Kummel and is very good. You can expect eggs, fruit, cereal, milk, juice, meats and cheeses. Even if you are not a big breakfast eater I would suggest going to breakfast and participating in the morning conversations with your fellow students; you will learn a lot about them, yourself and your surroundings.
When I was reading about the summer school accommodations, it stated there was a laundry service. In the states, if a hotel has laundry service it means they do your laundry for you, and I was surprised when I read this as this is considered a luxury that is not common. There is no laundry service at the hotel. Just up the street, there is a very nice laundromat, and this is most likely where you will do your laundry.
The WIFI at the hotel is good, and I had no issues connecting at any point in my stay. I should mention it is floor specific, so if you are connected on your floor and go to breakfast on another floor you may not be connected anymore, and you will have to reconnect to that specific floor.
The hotel is a 15-minute walk to the University so be sure and bring your walking shoes (Germans love to walk whenever possible). The hotel is centrally located, and a shuttle/train/bus that runs throughout Duisburg passes the hotel many times an hour.
You will take seven exams in your five weeks of study. 3 for Business, 3 for Economics and 1 for the German language. Each business exam is worth one credit, each Economics exam is worth one credit and the German language exam is worth three credits. Some are easy; some are challenging.
Your instructors are German University Professors who are very highly respected and hold difficult positions to obtain in Germany. You should understand that it is a privilege to have them teach such a small class as yours. Unlike in the United States, just having a Ph.D. and teaching at a university does not make you a Professor. To achieve Professor status, they must continue after their Ph.D. and complete even more research and publications. To put this in perspective, our German Language teacher had a Ph.D., and on our first day of class I addressed her as Professor Fehse, and she quickly corrected me. She was merely a Ph.D., and it would be incorrect to refer to her as a professor. All of the instruction (besides German class) are taught in English, but there is still a slight language barrier especially when discussing academic topics such as Financial Markets, European Economic Integration, Governance and Auditing…I think you get the point. More complex vocabulary can get lost in translation which will make understanding things that you thought you already knew more difficult. Ask lots of questions and engage with the Professors whenever possible.
You will have an hour for lunch every day, and I suggest going to the Cafeteria below the classroom because the food is decent and extremely cheap (subsidized by the government) and you will have plenty of time to eat, interact with other student and make it back to class in time. Germans are very punctual, and you should be as well while in their country, five minutes early is on time.
You will go on many adventures, and sometimes you will be very tired, but you must press on. You might think, I can skip this one activity…don’t. Every trip planned by the IO staff added to the overall experience and even though you might be tired or homesick, tough it out and you will not regret it. A few highlights for me were the Deutsche Bundesbank, Landschafts Park, Aldi company visit and Berlin.
I would suggest going to Amsterdam one weekend. It is only a few hours by train or bus and a very fun experience.
Cologne is also another great weekend trip. Many students that went to Paris were disappointed and said it was very dirty and an over populated tourist trap so consider this advice before spending the extra money going to Paris. I went to Nice, France after the program was over and it was amazing so if you can make it that far south after the program then I would recommend it.
This is written by John Grieco.
