GISMA Business School

GISMA Business School, the German International Graduate School of Management and Administration, was founded on the initiative of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in 1999.

Its purpose is to offer globally recognised management education and give students the opportunity to study in an international setting. The idea for GISMA came from the need to retain management talent in Germany and attract skilled internationals to study and subsequently work in the country.

GISMA was created with the help of the State of Lower Saxony and several organisations around the region including Continental, Georgsmarienhütte, Nord/LB, Siemens, TUI, and Volkswagen.

Until August 2013, the school operated and financed as a public/private partnership, partially by the State of Lower Saxony and by sponsoring companies. GISMA’s founding basis - the combination of its strong location and the international focus of its programmes - has remained the guiding principle and rationale for the school’s existence.

From 1999 to 2013, GISMA offered full-time and executive MBA programmes in cooperation with Purdue University, Indiana, USA; and from 2008-2013, the school also offered MBA programmes with Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH), one of the largest public universities in Northern Germany. A Weekend MBA programme was offered with LUH until 2015.

GISMA’s MBA programmes enjoy accreditation by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), an honour the school has had since 2011.

In August 2013, GISMA was acquired by Global University Systems (GUS) and is now part of the GUS global alliance of institutions of higher education. Founded in 2003 and re-organised in 2012, GUS is an international group aimed at empowering higher education institutions with the tools needed to gain global presence.

With over 40,000 students, GUS’s portfolio ranges from business, finance, and law, to arts and hospitality courses, delivered at vocational, undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive levels across international campuses and online.

From 2014-2017, GISMA offered an MBA programme in cooperation with the AMBA-accredited Maastricht School of Management (MSM). In May 2015, GISMA also partnered with MSM to offer the Master in Management programme.

In January 2016, GISMA and Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) partnered to run the Grenoble MBA, Grenoble MIB, Grenoble MSc Marketing Management, and Grenoble MSc in Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship in Berlin.  

Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) is triple-accredited - an honour shared by less than 1% of the world’s elite business schools. GEM’s triple accreditation include: AMBA (Association of MBA’s), EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System), and AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business).

At the beginning of 2017, GISMA partnered with The University of Law to run MSc International Marketing, MSc Corporate Financial Management, MSc Leadership and Human Resource Management, and MSc Strategic Business Management. The University of Law is the UK's longest-established specialist provider of legal education. It was established in 1876, and was awarded a Gold ranking in the government-led Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2017.

Kingston University has been offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses since the 1940s. In 2019, GISMA announced partnership with Kingston Business School, to deliver the Master's degree in International Business Management. Kingston Business School is an accredited member of the Association of MBAs, AACSB International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and EPAS. It has held EPAS and AMBA accreditation for several years, and a mere five per cent of business schools globally achieve AACSB accreditation, which was secured in 2016.

In June 2018 GISMA Business School announced the opening of its first centre outside Germany, with London being the chosen location to expand its international presence.

Here at GISMA, we are 100 per cent committed to providing high-quality business education to those looking to further their career in various industry sectors.

Successfully combining theory with practice, GISMA fills the gap between conventional university study and the shifting requirements of today’s global marketplace. GISMA’s graduates have aspired to such sectors as: banking, financial services, engineering, mechanical engineering, oil and gas, information technology, consulting, and business services.

Expertise

Our professors are highly devoted professionals, always willing to engage in academic discussion, even outside of the classroom. Our faculty have many years of experience, both academic and industry related, and each faculty member is an expert in their respective field, many with PhDs.

International appeal

All GISMA courses are taught in English – the world’s foremost language when it comes to business, regardless of whether they are delivered in Germany or the UK. International MBA students enrolled in Germany can take the opportunity to attend German language classes as part of their course at no extra cost. Having the necessary language skills will enable them to pursue job opportunities in Germany or elsewhere in Europe. Our alumni come from as many as 60 different countries and our students are taught by faculty from diverse cultural backgrounds.