What does a study program in economics actually look like?

Anna Sophie Steuber completed her International Business Studies (IBS) degree at Paderborn University eight years ago. During her time in Paderborn, the Hamburg native, who grew up in North Hesse, combined basic business knowledge with the foreign languages English and Spanish and is now at home in Colombia. Anna Sophie told us how her path led her to South America and how the IBS programme helped her.

Franziska successfully completed her degree in teaching at vocational colleges last winter semester. In addition to German, the 26-year-old chose to specialise in economics in order to teach students at vocational colleges about economic issues in the future. Franziska is still pursuing her dream of standing in front of a class as a teacher, but has decided to continue her development at university first.

In September 2013, Kosuke Suto came to Paderborn University for the first time as a student for eleven months as part of a semester abroad. Back at Tohoku University in Japan, however, he realised that he was not able to immerse himself as deeply in the German language and culture during his stay in Paderborn as he had originally hoped. Without further ado, Kosuke decided to return to Paderborn after his bachelor's degree to complete his master's…

Laura already knew at school that she wanted to work in business later on. However, she didn't know in which field. She took advantage of the flexible business degree programme at Paderborn University to get to know all areas of a company's activities before deciding to focus on HR work. Today, she applies her knowledge as an HR manager at WDR in Cologne.

Mathias' path to studying was not quite as direct as that of many other students. He only began his Bachelor's degree at the age of 25 after training as a bank clerk and a total of six years in banking. Today, he is a teacher at a vocational college and shares his knowledge and experience with his students.