Assessment Year
The Bachelor’s Level at the University of St.Gallen consists of the two-semester Assessment Year and the Bachelor’s Studies, which has a standard period of study of four additional semesters. The Assessment Year provides our students with subject-specific and scientific fundamentals and trains them in the techniques of scientific work. They also begin to engage with issues raised in academic and social discussions across disciplines.
The Assessment Year can be completed in the fields of economics, law, and computer science. The Assessment Year in the economic area of specialisation can be completed entirely in German or English. In order to continue with the Bachelor’s Studies, both the Assessment Year in its entirety and the accounting examination of the University of St.Gallen must be passed.
Graduates of the Assessment Year with a specialisation in economics can enter directly into the Major in Business Administration, Economics, International Affairs, and Law and Economics. The Assessment Year with a specialisation in law enables direct entry into the Major in Law. Individual achievements must be made up in order to transfer to a non-subject related degree course.
Please note that transfer to the Major in Computer Science requires successful completion of the entire Assessment Year in Computer Science.
Bachelor's Studies
The B.A. HSG degree requires completion of 180 ECTS credits, including the Assessment Year (60 ECTS). ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer System. One credit point is equivalent to 30 hours of work at the University of St.Gallen, including lectures, independent studies, semester projects and examinations. Our Bachelor programmes (Majors) have a regular duration of two years. The allowed number of semesters for the Bachelor's Level is limited to 10 semesters.
The Majors in Business Administration, Economics and International Affairs are studied in a flexible mix of German and English, with a minimum number of credits to be completed in the other language. The Majors in Law and Law with Economics as well as the Major in Computer Science are offered in German. In addition to completing the core and contextual studies as well as the compulsory foreign language, a Bachelor’s thesis must be written.
After acquiring all the necessary achievements, our students are awarded the academic degree Bachelor of Arts, or Bachelor of Science for the Major in Computer Science. This academically qualifying degree enables students to enter professional life or to take up a Master’s programme.
Core studies
The core studies at the University of St.Gallen teach the basics of the chosen study programme in the compulsory subjects and are complemented by a wide range of programme-specific compulsory electives. The core studies also offer our students the opportunity to take further electives from the other study programmes and thus to place an additional focus on topics that correspond to their own interests. Thus, our students can develop very individual profiles that support them in realising their professional and personal goals.
Contextual studies
A special feature of our study architecture is that all students take courses in contextual studies in addition to their core studies courses. In the contextual studies, the specialised economic, legal and computer science studies are supplemented and reflected upon from various perspectives in the humanities and social sciences. Our students learn that economic, political, etc. decisions are always embedded in social, cultural and historical conditions and must therefore be considered holistically. They are thus educated to become personalities who are aware of their social responsibility and who will be able to act flexibly, responsibly and sustainably.