All HAWK Bachelor students are required to take two courses from the IPS programme (“Personal and Professional Enrichment Programme”) at any time during their studies. They receive 3 ECTS for each course completed with examination. The IPS requirement thus accounts for 6 ECTS out of 180 ECTS of the Bachelor's programme.
For Master students, the IPS programme usually complements elective courses, Out of College, etc., and may also be used for credit.
The IPS programme includes seven profile areas from which you can choose your IPS courses. Each profile area offers courses that address inter-professional skills and provide an opportunity for personal development. The questions you can ask yourself when choosing a course are:
What can be useful to me in my future career?
What have I always wanted to be involved with?
What have I always wanted to be better att?
"In IPS courses, I get to know students from all three HAWK locations, which is just fun, and I've already been able to learn a few things that will help me not only in my professional life."
Certificates
All HAWK students—Bachelor and Master—can acquire certificates. Having a certificate emphasizes your personal interests and strengths and shows your future employer what makes you stand out.
Seven IPS Profile Areas
The person-centred profile area Communication and Individual Competence offers the opportunity to deal with the values that guide your own actions and to strengthen your communicative and personal skills.
Confident, convincing presentation methods and communication styles for successful conflict management are practiced. The communicative toolbox provides useful support in your degree programme and when working in groups and teams.
In the mostly practice-oriented courses, the focus is on individual development.
The profile area of Social Responsibility focuses on relevant social issues and encourages students to look beyond their "professional horizons" and to deal with issues relevant to the future of our society:
- sustainable development
- political education
- interculturality
- social engagement
As a special opportunity for social engagement, we have included the nationwide project "Balu und Du", which is established at various universities, as an IPS-course. Here you can get involved with elementary school children from difficult life situations and make their world bigger as well as enrich your own world.
Students who have been or are involved in charitable causes before or during their studies can turn their invested time into ECTS credit points through the course Ehrenamtliches Engagement (“Volunteer Engagement”).
The profile area of Languages supports students in acquiring and expanding language skills. Language skills are an important part of the HAWK's internationalization concept.
International students often need to improve their German language skills in order to better cope with the demands of a course of study. We offer the appropriate courses—both preparatory to studies and accompanying studies—for this purpose.
Here you can find the page of the HAWK Language Centre.
In the profile area of Leadership, students are given the opportunity to deal with the topic of leadership in a practical way and to practice taking on this role.
In the workplace, there are various situations that are characterized by leadership responsibility or teamwork. Hands-on and experiential courses offer the chance to explore questions such as:
"What do I feel comfortable doing?"
"In what situations do I feel comfortable?"
"What skills do I have or want to develop?"
The profile area of The Digitally Changing World offers students the opportunity to deal with selected aspects of digitalization.
The profile area contains courses on:
- programming
- digital architecture
- data management
- data protection
- impact of digitalization (on the world of work, the economy, society)
The Entrepreneurial Thinking and Acting profile area aims to prepare students for management roles or self-employment.
The focus is on a practical basic knowledge of administrative functions that managers and founders should know.
The profile area includes courses on topics such as:
- marketing
- business management
- strategy
- cost accounting
- sales
Guidance and support for entrepreneurs in the form of IPS courses and consulting is offered by the "Entrepreneurship" department of the HAWK
The profile area of Specific Professionalization addresses requests for topics that are relevant to the faculty or to the study programme but which have an interdisciplinary approach. The result is a correspondingly diverse range of topics.
Students benefit from an interdisciplinary supplement to their specialized studies.
