Part-time MBA: program timeline & courses
Your two-year ESMT Berlin Part-time MBA curriculum gives you the flexibility to work while you study and the networking benefits of an in-person degree program.
75% of the program is online, delivered with our state-of-the-art learning tool. You'll attend online lectures, do group work, and self-guided study – on a timetable that fits around your existing commitments.
25% of the program is in person, on our beautiful, historic campus and abroad. You'll attend residencies with your peers – building on what you learned online, and giving you hands-on experience that you can apply at work the very next week.
I was looking for a program flexible enough to fit around my full-time job in sales, but I wasn't willing to compromise on genuine connection and academic excellence. ESMT’s PTMBA offered the perfect blend.
Online/offline balance
Course content is made up of complementary online and offline components, allowing you to blend academic theory and practical, hands-on application.
On average, you will come to campus twice per module, giving you a chance to put theoretical learning into practice while surrounded by a strong peer network.
In the table below, you can find the exact dates when you are expected in person; allowing you to plan in advance how you will fit the Part-time MBA into your busy career.
Part-time MBA program content
Your Part-time MBA is a general management MBA with a business innovation focus, designed to help you build a strong leadership foundation as you prepare to step into a role with more responsibility.
- Core blocks help you lay the groundwork by exploring topics including data analytics and AI, financial accounting, digital marketing and sales, corporate ethics and responsibility, and leading people and teams
- Electives expand and tailor learning with specialist topics including strategic entrepreneurship, the human factor of innovations, agile leadership, customer centricity, and analytics in the digital age
- Your final project is a deep dive into business innovation, transformation, and new business creation; either for your current employer or with your own business idea
The result is a strong general management bridge that opens the path to confident business leadership.
Please note, exact dates and topics are subject to finalization based on the needs of the cohort. Check back regularly for updates.
Part-time MBA timeline
Block 1: Preparation
Includes residencies 1 & 2
Form the team to help realize your vision and prepare the ground
- Building high performance teams: Get the most from your teams after applying learnings from this immersive course that takes place away from the ESMT campus
- Introduction to general management: Gain insight into three components of the program: 1. the General Manager’s perspective that defines much of the program content; 2. the participant-centered approach to our philosophy of learning; and 3. the collaborative, collegial, and professional culture that will help you succeed throughout your studies.
- Data analytics for managers: Be an intelligent consumer of data by distinguishing good analytics from bad analytics and learn data analytic techniques that will allow you to meaningfully describe your data and build predictive models.
- Business economics: Identify and apply basic economic concepts of practical value to business life.
Residency dates
- Residency 1: October 12–17 2026
- Residency 2: November 12–14 2026
Block 2: Foundation
Includes residencies 3 & 4
Establish the foundations upon which the bridge will be constructed
- Data and decisions: Develop your critical thinking, analysis and creativity skills, with particular focus on the application of quantitative frameworks to specific business settings such as marketing, finance, and human resources.
- People, teams and organizations: Realizing any project or initiative relies on effective relationships and structures between people, teams, and their wider organization. Evaluate managerial options and choices in the context of system, individual, and collective behavior
- Financial accounting: Learn to speak the “language of business” to understand how financial performance is analyzed, forecasted, and used to manage decisions and interactions involving financials more effectively.
Residency dates
- Residency 3: January 14–16 2027
- Residency 4: February 11–13 2027
Block 3: Pillars
Includes residencies 5 & 6
Strengthen the essential pillars that support your bridge
- Operations management: Create value through operational excellence by designing and managing operational processes to support the value proposition, and by seamlessly matching customer demand with supply.
- Financial management: Apply the techniques of compounding and discounting, capital asset pricing model, securities valuation, risk pricing, capital budgeting, and more to complex corporate situations. Identify and isolate the necessary critical information.
- Ethics and responsibility: Decision-making often carries with it ethical and sustainability challenges arising from conflicts of interest between different stakeholders. Learn how great organizations can successfully manage to create value and benefit for multiple stakeholders simultaneously.
Residency dates
- Residency 5: April 15–17 2027
- Residency 6: May 13–15 2027
Block 4: Structure
Includes residencies 7 & 8 + optional Berlin Experience Week
Widen your bridge by moving into marketing, leadership, and decision making
- Marketing and sales in a digital world: Develop an understanding of key concepts and decision areas in marketing and sales.
- Agile leadership: Empower people to innovate and implement - together, fast, and flexibly - in the face of ambiguity.
Residency dates
- Residency 7: July 15–17 2027
- Residency 8: August 19–21 2027
+ optional Berlin Experience Week
Part-time MBAs also have the option to join participants from the Full-time MBA and Global Online MBA for ESMT's Berlin Experience Week, a five-day, on-campus elective that can help you expand your knowledge and network.
- Berlin Experience Week: August, 2027; exact dates to be confirmed
Block 5: Monetization
Includes residencies 9 & 10
Ensure the success of the bridge by developing business models to recoup the investment
- Entrepreneurial strategy: Build a toolkit of strategy tools and frameworks; communicate about strategy using strategy "language".
- New business creation (entrepreneurship): Develop your ability to apply knowledge, frameworks and techniques from many disciplines to translates ideas into new businesses.
Residency dates
- Residency 9: October 7–9, 2027
- Residency 10: November 25–27, 2027
Block 6: Connections
Includes residencies 11-13 + optional international exchange
Maximize the utility of the bridge by customizing the path
This is the start of the elective period, and is an entirely residency-based block.
The electives offered are not a fixed list, as they are updated constantly, and chosen with the input of the Part-time MBA cohort.
Below are some examples of past electives:
- Customer centricity: This advanced marketing course uses case studies to learn approaches to providing great customer experience at the point of sale and after the sale for competitive advantage.
- Matchmakers in the digital economy: Achieve a sophisticated understanding of what makes multi-sided platforms in technology-intensive businesses (also known as "matchmakers", such as eBay, amazon, Uber, Spotify) distinctive with respect to their business models, pricing and investment strategies.
- Customer analytics in the digital age: Gain an understanding of, and ability to segment, customers through the use of advanced quantitative methods.
Residency dates
- Residency 11: February 24–26, 2028
- Residency 12: April 6–8, 2028
- Residency 13: May 11–13, 2028
+ optional international exchange week
GNAM Week: Step beyond ESMT and into the classrooms of our international partners within the Global Network for Advanced Management. Take part in a one-week exchange with another leading business school and grow your network across borders.
- Access more information on the Network Week, including a complete list of dates, participating schools, and sample exchange curricula.
- Short exchanges through the network are available at no additional tuition cost. Students should budget enough for travel and housing during the exchange. Please note that places at certain exchange partners are limited.
Block 7: Customization
Includes final residency: International Field Seminar
In this final phase, adapt the bridge to ensure it meets your needs
The bridge is nearly complete and you want to make it distinctive with online-only electives.
The electives offered are updated constantly, with input from the Part-time MBA cohort, and the list is not fixed.
Below are some examples of past online electives:
- The human factor of innovation: Managing innovation has often centered on the company, here you will address the human dimension and management challenges arising from seizing the opportunities presented by technological innovation.
- Embracing Technological Change: Familiarize yourself with techniques to leverage data for insights that drive innovation.
- Negotiations: Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties with different preferences and motives. Gain an understanding of negotiations and be equipped to more effectively negotiate with range of different partners - in business and private life.
International Field Seminar dates
International field seminar (IFS): June 2028, exact dates to be confirmed.
The IFS is a mandatory one-week trip focused on business innovation in a different country with a strong business focus. The location is chosen with input from the Part-time MBA cohort.
Past locations have included:
- Tokyo, Japan
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Shanghai, China
Block 8: Capstone
+ plus on-campus graduation, Nov 4, 2028
Lay the final bridge piece – the capstone – and get ready to cross over to your future
The Part-time MBA program concludes with an opportunity to apply what you have learned to a business issue currently facing your employer.
By combining academic theory and practical fieldwork, you will help your company solve a pressing business issue and tangibly demonstrate your progression.
The capstone project is a great opportunity to initiate change, gain visibility, and grow your personal network while creating value for your organization.
Graduation
Congratulations, you've reached your graduation day!
Graduation for the Part-time MBA, Class of 2028 will be held November 4, 2028
The biggest benefit of the MBA for me has been the shift in my mindset and the expansion of my horizons.
It has made me more focused on framework thinking, not just for technical issues but also for management issues—understanding the problem structure first, then developing an action plan.
Now, when facing complex business, organizational, and technical problems, I can analyze the environment and relationships more clearly and am no longer easily swayed by emotions or external changes.
Online learning
During the the online component of the Part-time MBA you will be expected to spend around 15 hours a week on lectures and course participation.
Discover Canvas
Watch the video for a preview of Canvas, our state-of-the-art learning platform that smoothly integrates your online learning with your in-person residencies. Or, access our demo to experience Canvas for yourself.
We have this great, state-of-the-art learning platform. And the Part-time MBA is perfectly designed for working professionals (and, of course, parents!).
That means you can basically work from anywhere, any time. For instance, I often sit down to work on the materials after i have put my son to bed. The decision to join the program was therefore the right one!
In-person learning
Your residencies have been planned to help you maximize the value of in-person learning, while minimizing time away from the office.
Explore residencies
You will attend 14 in-person residencies with your cohort: approximately two residencies for every module. Including all full- and half-day residencies, these total to 42 days over the two-year program – with only 28 days scheduled during the working week.
Walking into ESMT for the first time as an actual student, meeting the cohort I'd only seen on screens, and finally feeling like the journey had begun is a memory that's hard to top.
More broadly, residency Thursdays are always something to look forward to: that buzz of everyone coming back to campus, catching up over coffee, and settling in for an intense weekend of learning together.
