ENGAGE.EU Joint Programme in Digital Transformation
Prepare yourself for a digital future
The world is changing fast. The Joint Programme in Digital Transformation equips you with the latest technology skills and knowledge to understand data, leverage digital disruption, create societal impact, prepare yourself for a digital future that is happening now, and become a digital change maker.
In this programme, you will have the opportunity to work with some of the largest tech and digital companies in innovative case studies
and workshops. As a culmination, the programme ends with an in-person summer seminar at one of the seven partner universities, where you will meet your cohort, practically apply your knowledge from the courses, and expand your network.
Programme Overview & Structure
- Degree: Add-on certificate (honours programme), suitable for advanced Bachelor’s students in their final year as well as Master’s students in their first or second year
- Standard period of study: 1 semester
- ECTS credits: 24 ECTS (3 virtual block courses plus summer seminar in-person)
- Language of instruction: English
- Programme timeline: Application in Fall Semester, Kick off and Courses in Spring Semester from February to May + summer seminar in July
- Universities: University of Mannheim, Luiss University, NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Tilburg University, University of National and World Economy, Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business
The Joint Programme in Digital Transformation addresses the world’s greatest digital transformations, technologies and solutions, offering students the opportunity to enhance their skills and prepare for a digital future through cutting-edge courses.
As a student enrolled in the Joint Programme in Digital Transformation, you can design your studies individually and flexibly in accordance with your ideas and preferences. You can choose three out of seven courses offered by the various partner institutions of ENGAGE.EU: Platform Strategies, Digital Strategy, Competing in the Age of AI, Digital Technologies, Leading in the Digital Age, Cultural and Behavioural Changes, Digital Ethics. All courses are taught as virtual block courses over two weekends.
The Joint Programme in Digital Transformation is topped off by a mandatory in-person summer seminar taking place at the University of Mannheim in Summer 2023.
- The programme will be launched in fall 2022 with an information and marketing campaign, followed by live in-depth information session at each university. The application and selection period will be during the Fall semester 2022.
- The programme will then start at the end of January 2023 with an online kick-off and teambuilding event, followed by seven virtual courses in the Spring semester 2023 (from February to May). Each course will be delivered in a ‚block‘ format, e.g. three whole Fridays or two Friday afternoons / Saturday mornings. As a student in the joint programme, you choose three out of the seven courses to suit your interests as well as to complement rather than duplicate topics that might be included in your own master’s courses.
- Each participating institution offers one virtual block course to the programme participants. Each course is worth 6 credit points (ECTS).
- Within each block course, group work and discussions will be organized in multi-competence teams to make good use of the broad range of backgrounds that students come from. The examination format can be defined flexibly to cater for specific requirements, e.g. online exam, team/individual essay, or team presentation, etc.
- The programme will culminate in a physical summer seminar meeting in July for all students taking part in the certificate programme. This summer seminar is worth 6 additional credit points (ECTS). During the seminar, you will get the opportunity to put your acquired knowledge into practice with digital transformation company case studies. At the end of the seminar, you will be awarded with a certificate and with a transcript for the individual courses.
- As the programme is an independent, add-on certificate there is no automatic recognition of grades into your degree. A recognition might still be possible at the discretion of home universities for individual cases – please check with your home university.
Virtual Information Session
If you missed our info session, you can download the slides from the event here and watch a recording below. Please contact us if you have any further questions.
Course Catalogue
- Teaching institution: NHH Norwegian School of Economics
- Lecturer: Dr. Karen S. Osmundsen
- Date: 3–4 March and 10–11 March 2023
- Contents:
The course consists of four main overarching topics. These are the digital organization, leading the digital transformation, creating the digital organization, and leading a digitally agile organization. Students will analyse how digitalization affects the organization at all levels and areas and discuss the capacities of digital technologies that enable the organization’s digital initiatives. Further, students will understand how digital technologies have changed the expectations of customers, employees, and society, and learn how to develop a responding digital transformation strategy and the capabilities needed. Third, they recognize the key building blocks of digital business success and examine the digital leadership values and create an executive summary for digital maturity.
Lastly, students will recognize which aspects of leadership are changing and analyse why the stakes are rising for leaders. Students will understand what fostering an agile culture of collaboration, innovation, co-creation and learning means.
- Learning outcomes:
The course provides students with the relevant knowledge, perspectives, and practical skills needed to lead in the digital age. Second, students will learn which aspects of leadership are changing and why and understand how digital technologies have changed the expectations of employees, customers, and society. After this course, students can demonstrate knowledge of the most recent research in the field of leadership and digitalization.
- Teaching institution: University of Mannheim
- Lecturer: Maximilian Beichert
- Date: 21–22 April and 28–29 April 2023
- Contents:
Companies around the world are facing a fundamental shift in the way customers and businesses interact. Customers are now customer networks, they expect more from companies and brands, and information reaches them faster than ever before. At the same time, companies must develop new business model innovations and disrupt markets. Examples of digital disruption include platforms, AI, and blockchain technology. The rise of digital technologies has fundamentally changed the way companies develop digital strategies. In addition, data is being used as a strategic asset by many companies, and companies also need to develop a thriving data strategy. The ultimate goal of this course is to provide insight into the digital strategies that companies can employ to position themselves for success in the age of social, digital, and mobile for digital business models.
- Learning outcomes:
The course provides students with the relevant knowledge, perspectives, and practical skills needed to develop digital strategies that leverage the power of digital technologies such as blockchain and AI to achieve business and marketing goals. Second, students will learn how to leverage and optimize data to continuously create value as data has become key to competitive advantage. After this course, students will understand the customer journey from start to finish and be able to uncover the series of channels customers use to make a purchase.
- Teaching institution: WU Vienna University of Economics and Business
- Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Martin Kornberger
- Date: 5–6 May and 26–27 May 2023
- Contents:
This course explores the ethical issues associated with digital transformation across business and society. The course will address a range of current questions and issues by applying key ethical theories and foundations of ethics in philosophy. The course will apply ethics in digital spheres and introduce moral principles and associated values to be respected in the development, implementation and use of AI systems and other new technologies. Finally, the course shows how your businesses can and must practice ethics digitally.
- Learning outcomes:
The course provides important theoretical tools for understanding how moral decisions are made in the digital world. Students will become familiar with digital ethics and theories of moral action. At the end of the course, students will understand the regulations around data collection and usage and the ethical questions that emerge.
- Teaching institution: Tilburg University
- Lecturer: Dr. Shiva Shekhar
- Date: 17–18 March and 24–25 March 2023
- Contents:
Digital transformation can greatly improve the way companies are creating and capturing value, including the way they develop new products and services. This course introduces the multi-sided platform business model and the importance of platform orchestration and governance strategies. Further, it provides insights on the best practices to successfully interact with existing platforms and optimize a symbiotic relationship. Finally, the evolution of new technologies into potential platforms will be discussed. In this course, students will have an opportunity to apply concepts from platform economics and organization using game theoretical tools and case studies to real world problems.
- Learning outcomes:
The course provides students with the relevant knowledge, perspectives, and practical skills needed to develop multisided platform strategies that leverage the power of digital technologies. Second, students will learn how to turn products into platforms to compete in digital marketplaces. After this course, students will understand challenges associated with platforms and are able to develop strategies to deal with such challenges.
- Teaching institution: University of National and World Economy
- Lecturer: Dr. Sabrina Kalinkova
- Date: 31 March – 1 April and 12 – 13 May 2023
- Contents:
This course is designed for students in master’s degree and helps them to understand, communicate, and adapt to a digital world as it impacts their personal life, society, and the business world. Students will not only understand the concepts, but apply their knowledge to situations and defend their actions/decisions/choices through the knowledge and skills acquired in this course. Employability skills are integrated into activities, tasks, and projects throughout the course standards to demonstrate the skills required by business and industry. Various forms of technologies will be highlighted to expose students to the emerging technologies impacting the digital world. Professional communication skills and practices, problem-solving, ethical, and legal issues, and the impact of effective presentation skills are taught in this course as a foundational knowledge to prepare students to be career ready.
- Learning outcomes:
The main topics that will be covered in the course are related to the theory and methods of using the descriptive, predictive, and perspective modelling, as well as the assessment of different sources of data. The nature and essence of big data analytics will be discussed in the course, as a bridge to the topic related to sources of value in the digital world. More practical will be the topics of FinTech and Blockchain, as well as, these focused on the nature of clouds, their use, and the importance of mobile devices.
- Teaching institution: Université Toulouse 1 Capitole
- Lecturer: Dr. Jamal Azzam and Dr. Nicola Mirc
- Date: 3–4 February and 10–11 February 2023
- Contents:
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the challenges of corporate growth in modern digital economies, in particular regarding accessing and developing digital assets and intellectual property. The course is organized in two parts.
A first part focuses on the recent developments of the strategic management of patents in modern digital economies. Participants will discover the emergence and the role of the patent system in modern economies and how technological companies try to protect their innovations and to use their patent portfolios in service of their business strategies in a digital era. It covers internal strategies and ways to organize for managing patent and licensing strategies as well as patenting in collaborative arrangements.
A second part addresses then more specifically external growth strategies to access patents but also more generally digital solutions and assets. It addresses in particular the strong increase in technology acquisitions and alliances in past years and introduces students to the particular strategic and organizational challenges that external digital growth induces (i.e. integrating and leveraging acquired intellectual property, transferring knowledge between companies and teams of engineers, implementing co-innovative practices between R&D departments from merging companies, etc.).
- Teaching institution: Luiss University
- Lecturer: Giorgio Piccardo
- Date: 17–18 February and 24–25 February 2023
- Contents:
Artificial intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adapt to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. Most AI examples that you hear about today – from chess-playing computers to self-driving cars – heavily rely on deep learning and natural language processing. Using these technologies, computers can be trained to accomplish specific tasks by processing large amounts of data and recognizing patterns in the data. The aim of the course is to introduce the most important topics both from a technological and a business point of view.
The course is divided into five modules: the age of AI, the AI first company, automation and AI, disruption from AI and blockchain technologies and overcoming AI challenges.
Issues related to cybersecurity and privacy will be discussed, we will talk about the impact that AI and automation will have on future jobs, we will examine what makes an industry ready for transformation from either AI or blockchain technology and we will talk about the overcoming challenges of developing strategy in today’s AI landscape.
Artificial Intelligence has transformed the way people think, learn, and work in various areas, with every company seeking to introduce Artificial Intelligence in their domain, studying AI and Machine Learning opens up a world of opportunities to create cutting-edge technologies in diverse sectors.
- Learning Outcomes:
- Introduction to Artificial Intelligent systems and techniques
- Impact of Artificial Intelligence in business, leadership, and future jobs
- Success and failures of Artificial Intelligence: How to avoid data science traps?
- Introduction to the blockchain technology
- Digital transformation and Industry 4.0: Is your company ready for AI and blockchain?
- Hosting institution: University of Mannheim
- Date: 3–7 July 2023
- Content:
The summer seminar takes the content taught in courses throughout the semester, combines it, and takes it to the next level through real-world case studies with our international corporate partner SAP. SAP is one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world, helping companies of all sizes and industries run better. Together as a cohort, you will spend exciting days at the SAP AppHaus applying design thinking techniques to solve exciting digital cases. This will allow you to directly apply what you have learned and gain valuable insights into the practice of the respective business area. In addition, a great social program awaits you and you get to know the area around Mannheim and the metropolitan region.
Corporate Partners
SAP has been a trusted partner of businesses and the enterprise software leader for 50 years. Working alongside our customers and partners, we led each and every evolutionary stage of their business, helping them to stay ahead of their competition and drive digital transformation. As the market leader in enterprise application software, we’re helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run better by redefining ERP and creating networks of intelligent enterprises that provide transparency, resiliency, and sustainability across supply chains. SAP’s end-to-end suite of applications and services enables our customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference worldwide.
Today, SAP solutions are running the most mission-critical systems at businesses and organizations around the globe. SAP focuses on providing its customers with the innovations they need to achieve their goals. SAP enables its customers to become an Intelligent, Sustainable Enterprise by having connected business processes spanning the enterprise including areas such as record to report, design to operate, hire to retire, order to cash, and many more. SAP University Alliances program is happy to work together with one of the leading universities in Germany.
Required Interests and Skills: Your Profile
- The ENGAGE.EU Joint Programme in Digital Transformation is targeted toward students of any citizenship who are enrolled in a bachelor’s (advanced students) or master’s programme at an ENGAGE.EU alliance university (University of Mannheim, Luiss University, NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Tilburg University, University of National and World Economy, Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, Vienna University of Economics and Business).
- There are no prerequisites for this interdisciplinary programme, and students from diverse backgrounds (such as business, economics, law, social sciences) are encouraged to apply, as long as they have a significant interest in:
- Exploring digital transformation as a major driver of societal change in Europe
- Analysing the impact of this transformation in the areas of business, law, and political society
- Gaining new skills and tools pertinent the digital paradigm shift
- Developing solution approaches for complex issues arising from digital transformation.
Application
- To apply for the ENGAGE.EU Joint Programme in Digital Transformation, applicants should provide the following:
- A digital file (this could be a text document, video, presentation, visualisation or other format) explaining what you see as the central challenges in digital transformation facing society today. The file should be short, e.g. no longer than 500 words, 3-minute video or 10 slide presentation. We will look for good, coherent argumentation/content, irrespective of the format you choose.
- Curriculum vitae (education, work experience, language skills, study/work abroad, other relevant skills and experiences)
- Academic record (transcript of records incl. list of courses; first year master’s students should upload their bachelor’s transcript)
- You will need to choose (in order of priority) at least four courses out of the seven on offer. When choosing the courses, remember to decide not only based on the course content, but also on your availability on the course dates. We will aim to assign you to your top three priorities but require a fourth choice to have some flexibility in distribution. If you would like to participate in more than three courses, please indicate this by ticking the box in the application form.
Selection and Application Form
- Selection:
Submitted applications are evaluated by a selection committee made up of academic and administrative staff from the ENGAGE.EU partner universities. Candidates will be evaluated on the basis of their digital file on digital challenges, their CV and their academic record. In order to ensure equal participation among students from the different partner universities, the selection committee will aim at choosing a maximum of five students from each partner university. Final decisions also consider a range of criteria for cohort composition, including but not limited to disciplinary balance, institutional diversity, and demographic diversity.
- Additional details:
In order to complete your application you will have to fill in the application form below and upload a file on digital challenges, CV and academic record (in PDF or video format). Applications must be submitted by 28 October 2022 at 13:00 CET. All documents have to be in English. Results will be communicated by 21 November 2022.