Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Organisation
Founded in 1780, the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU) is a university with tradition. 250 courses of study, 15 faculties, 37.000 students, 5.500 graduates every year, a staff of 5.000 including 565 professors – as well as 400 partnership agreements with universities and other academic institutions all over the world.
As one of WWU’s faculties, the Münster School of Business and Economics (MSBE) is one of the largest and most prestigious business schools in Germany. The high prestige of the school is evidenced by the top ratings that are consistently achieved in all university rankings. World-class research, technical competency, international diversity, practice-oriented courses, and a focus on the future are elements that comprise the educational tradition in Münster. One of the faculty’s characteristics is the close interaction and projectoriented cooperation of the centres’ researchers. Across the centres, applied problem solving approaches are developed and examined in theoretical and empirical projects. In addition to focussing on theoretical research, many application-oriented research projects are also secured for evidence-based implementation. The faculty, thus, is appreciated as a cooperation partner in economy, politics and administration.
The Department of Information Systems (IS) as part of the MSBE is considered to be one of the largest and most respectable IS departments in Germany, currently employing 6 full professors, 2 junior professors, 16 post-doctoral researchers, 58 research assistants, and around 100 student assistants. Periodic national rankings attest to the excellent reputation of the Department. The goal of the Department is to offer thorough internationally applicable education at the intersection between Economics and Computer Science. This encompasses a broad variety of basic teaching together with the specific domains ranging from public administration to retail and telecommunication. Every year up to 100 students finish their studies to work in different sectors as consultants, software project managers, information managers, information system and organization designers etc. In application oriented research and development projects, we connect business concepts with modern information and communication techniques to obtain holistic solutions. In cooperation with companies and associations, we implement research results.
For this, the Department developed a Master of Science in Information Systems study programme (MScIS), completely taught in English, as one of the first IS departments in Germany (https://www.wi.uni-muenster.de/prospective-students/master). The MScIS programme is a combination of disciplines such as Computer Science, Statistics, and Business Administration, providing a unique environment for studies and research. Additionally, the Department offers German undergraduate studies (Bachelor of Science in Wirtschaftsinformatik, https://www.wi.uni-muenster.de/prospective-students/bachelor) as well as an executive German Master in Information Management (http://www.wi-muenster.de).
The research aspect of the programme is further strengthened by the international orientation of the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS), bringing together researchers from universities across Europe. The ERCIS connects several hundred scientific assistants conducting international, as well as interdisciplinary, research.
Expertise & People
The Department of Information Systems and its Managing Director, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jörg Becker have experience in both, educating students on undergraduate, graduate, and PhD level, as well as in extra occupational courses. The focal areal of teaching is always Information Systems with its various shades, spanning topics from Computer Science to Business Administration, and Law. Currently seven professors cover many of IS’ diverse areas. Making use of the European Research Center for Information System’s Advisory Board from practice, teaching has a strong practice-oriented focus.
By linking the central focus of the strategic management of both, aspects of process management and aspects of cost effectiveness as well as with the emphasis on front and back office solutions main topics of eGovernment are addressed both in terms of content as well as from a technical perspective. The development of comprehensive concepts and methods to facilitate information, communication and transaction processes between the different actors in the public sector is a central research focus in the field of eGovernment.
The project can benefit from experiences collected during setting up and running the occupational courses in the context of the Executive Masterin Information Management programme. Adapting to the needs of employed people, this programme offers a very flexible structure and provides the participant with the opportunity to conduct a lot of the workload from home. More information about the occupational courses offered by the Department can be found following http://www.wi-muenster.de (in German).
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jörg Becker holds the Chair for Information Systems and Information Management since 1990, and is co-founding professor of the Department of Information Systems. Since 2004, Jörg Becker is also Academic Director of the European Research Center for Information Systems, since 2008 prorector of the WWU. Furthermore, he is the director of the Department of Information Systems. In addition, he serves as pro-rector for strategic planning and quality assurance at WWU. His focal areas of research include information management, information modelling, data management, retail information systems, and eGovernment (Modernizing Processes in Public Administrations). His work has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals and presented on major international conferences. He authored and co-authored several books on information management, business process management, retail information systems, eGovernment, and strategic IT management consulting. Jörg Becker is one of the two founding Editors in Chief of the international journal Information Systems and e-Business Management. He serves regularly on various editorial boards such as for the journal Business Information Systems Engineering, and as a member of the programme committees of leading international information systems conferences. His research is funded by international funding agencies such as the EU as well as by the German Ministry of Research and Education and the German Research Foundation.
Dr. Michael Räckers is a tenured associate professor (Akademischer Rat) and CEO at the Department of Information Systems at the University of Münster and together with his colleague Sara Hofmann leader of the Competence Center EGovernment. He holds a PhD (2010), a master’s degree (2006) and a bachelor’s degree (2005) in information systems from the University of Münster. His main research interests are eGovernment, social network analysis, public sector technology acceptance, semantic business process management, domain specific business process management, and model analysis. Michael Rackers has been the coordinator of several research projects, funded by national and international funding organisations, especially on the topics of eGovernment, public sector technology acceptance, conceptual modelling, domain specific business process modelling and semantic business process modelling in the public sector domain. He teaches, among others, eGovernment, information modelling, business process management, and project management.
Dr. Armin Stein is Managing Director of the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS), connecting currently more than 20 IS research institutions throughout Europe and beyond (http://www.ercis.org). He studied Information Systems at WWU, from which he gained his Dr. rer. pol. in 2010. Armin works on different aspects of conceptual modelling, mostly related to reference information models such as the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model, as well as on the technical aspects of Business Process Implementation. Another stream of interest is dealing with the gender gap in IS. He is responsible for the IS introductory course on an undergraduate level and teaches Workflow Management on a graduate level. Furthermore, he supervises teams of students during international seminars (http://virtual-seminar.ercis.org).