Master in International Management (MSc)

Kühne Logistics University’s Master in International Management (MSc) is the school’s general-management degree — a fully English-taught, GMAT-free master aimed at fresh graduates, run at a small private business school in the heart of Hamburg.¹ KLU is best known for its logistics and supply-chain research, but the International Management programme is a broad management master with a distinctive sustainability-and-digitalisation slant, offered in two lengths and built around a mandatory internship and an optional semester abroad.¹ ²

Overview

Founded in 2010 and endowed by the logistics entrepreneur Klaus-Michael Kühne (of Kühne + Nagel) through the Kühne Foundation, KLU is a state-recognised private university in Hamburg’s HafenCity.³ ⁴ It is deliberately small and research-intensive: it gained the right to confer its own PhDs in 2017 and, in 2024, earned AACSB accreditation — the seal held by roughly the top 5% of business schools worldwide.³ Its academic centre of gravity is logistics, supply chain and data science, which is where its more specialised master’s degrees sit; the Master in International Management is its general-management offering for students who want a broad business master rather than a logistics one.²

One thing we flag plainly: KLU’s International Management master is not currently ranked in the Financial Times or QS Masters in Management tables, so — unlike most schools we profile — there is no league-table position to quote. That does not make it a weak programme (its AACSB accreditation puts the school in select company), but it does mean you should judge it on fit, cost, structure and accreditation rather than a rank.

Curriculum & structure

The Master in International Management comes in two tracks, both taught in English and both starting in September:¹

• Standard Track — 120 ECTS, two years (four semesters). The full degree, requiring a 180-ECTS bachelor’s to enter. It includes a semester abroad at one of KLU’s 100-plus partner universities worldwide (or the option to stay on the Hamburg campus), a mandatory internship, and a master’s thesis.
• Fast Track — 90 ECTS, 1.5 years (three semesters). A shorter route for applicants who already hold a 210-ECTS bachelor’s and have completed a term or internship abroad; it credits that longer, more international undergraduate degree so you finish sooner, and costs less.

The academic core covers the key areas of business administration, with KLU placing particular weight on sustainability and digitalisation as cross-cutting themes.² KLU does not publish a detailed public module-by-module curriculum for the programme, so we do not reproduce an elective catalogue here — confirm the current course structure on its own page.

Admissions

Admission is decided on your academic record, motivation and English — not a test.¹ The requirements KLU publishes are:

• A recognised bachelor’s degree — 180 ECTS for the Standard Track, or 210 ECTS plus a term or internship abroad for the Fast Track — ideally in business or economics. Other analytical backgrounds are considered if the degree includes at least four business courses.
• Proof of English proficiency (KLU’s TOEFL institutional code is 7373). The test is waived for nationals of — or full-degree graduates from — Canada, the USA, the UK, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand.
• No GMAT or GRE, and no work experience required — a genuine pre-experience master for fresh graduates.

Deadlines run against a single September intake: an early-bird deadline around 15 January carries a 10% tuition discount, after which non-EU/international applicants apply by around 31 May and EU/European applicants by around 15 July.¹ KLU reviews on a rolling basis and places can fill early, so apply sooner rather than later. Confirm the exact current-cycle dates on KLU’s own page.

Fees & cost

As a private university, KLU charges a full programme tuition — €8,200 per semester, the same for all nationalities.² That totals €32,800 for the 120-ECTS Standard Track or €24,600 for the 90-ECTS Fast Track. Applying by the mid-January early-bird deadline earns a 10% discount, and KLU offers merit-based scholarships that can cover part of the fee.² This puts KLU in Germany’s private-school bracket alongside WHU, ESMT Berlin and Frankfurt School, rather than the near-free public universities like Mannheim or TUM — see public vs private MiMs in Europe and how much a MiM costs for where that trade-off lands. Budget separately for Hamburg living costs, which KLU estimates at roughly €16,870 a year, and note that a student-visa blocked account currently requires about €11,904.²

Class profile & careers

KLU does not publish a Financial-Times-style class profile (cohort age, average test scores, nationality counts) or a weighted-salary outcome figure for the International Management programme, so — as with any programme where the numbers aren’t published — we don’t invent one.¹ What is documented is the shape of the school: KLU is small, international and research-led, sitting in Hamburg, one of Germany’s wealthiest cities and a major European hub for logistics, trade, media and the maritime economy — the kind of internationally-facing corporate base the “international management” positioning targets. For what German MiM graduates typically earn and where they land, see our Germany MiM career outcomes analysis and our guide to working in Germany after a European MiM, and confirm current outcomes with KLU’s own career services.

Every hard fact above is sourced to Kühne Logistics University’s own pages (see Sources), retrieved July 2026. Fees, deadlines and admission rules change each cycle — always confirm the current details on KLU’s official programme page before you apply.