Now the EBS finally has a coat of arms. On the redesigned homepage of the private university, it is written under the lettering "EBS Universität": a sign with three horizontal lines and an attachment that makes you think of a crown at a cursory glance. The new website is also classy in other respects: muted colours, fine lettering, plus portraits of good-looking young people, of course appropriately diverse.
Sascha Zoske
Blattmacher in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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The word "elite", which some EBS presidents used to be reluctant to use, is no longer shy. She is to be trained in Wiesbaden and Oestrich-Winkel: "An elite that will make the difference in the world tomorrow", as it says on the homepage. When asked, EBS Rector Martin Böhm affirmed that he had no problem with the concept of elite as long as it meant a "responsible elite".
Frankfurt School's down-to-earth appearance
Compared to the EBS design, the web presence of the other private university based in the Rhine-Main area with the right to award doctorates seems sober and down-to-earth, not to say staid. Nils Stieglitz, President of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, has also noted that the competition in the West is now more elegant. Of course, he doesn't say a bad word about the competitor.
But Stieglitz is currently saying next to nothing negative when he talks about the education business, and he has that in common with his colleague Böhm. Both EBS and Frankfurt School are on the road to recovery, if their annual reports and the words of their leaders are to be believed. And this despite the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
By 2024, the black zero is targeted
While Frankfurt School closed the 2021 financial year with a plus of three million euros, EBS reported a deficit of around 727,000 euros in the same year – which Rector Böhm sees as progress, as the previous year the deficit was 2.25 million euros. In 2022, the EBS probably generated a six-digit deficit, but the plan remains to write a black zero by 2024 at the latest.
Its Frankfurt counterpart expects a six-digit surplus for 2022, which is to be invested primarily in the campus. While Frankfurt School is already occupying a new building, EBS is constructing further buildings at Schloss Reichartshausen.
No big crowds at the Faculty of Law
Stieglitz and Böhm are also largely satisfied with the development of student numbers in the academic programs. The Frankfurt School President puts it at more than 2022 by the end of 3300; a year earlier, there were around 3000,1700. The EBS has about 600, about 110 of them attend the Law School in Wiesbaden. Every year, about <> beginners start their law studies there; a figure that Böhm looks at with restrained joy: The share of private universities in legal education in Germany is still "negligible".
The training business has apparently developed well. Both university directors report positive developments here. Contrary to what might be assumed, the pandemic has probably not led to companies rationalizing away supposedly dispensable programs for their employees on a large scale. Rather, according to Böhm and Stieglitz, well-trained personnel are important to companies, and such offers are also demanded from applicants who can choose their employers.
The goal is European excellence
In order to attract working people and first-year students in even greater numbers, both universities are striving to increase their reputation. Stieglitz wants Frankfurt School to make it into the top 2026 of the Financial Times European Business School ranking by 15. At his inauguration in 2021, Böhm had already formulated the claim to catch up with the European top group of business schools with the EBS and declared it possible to achieve this goal within five years.
The EBS has now taken a step in this direction: On Tuesday, the university announced that it had received the seal of approval from the non-profit accreditation organization AACSB. EBS Business School is the twelfth business administration faculty in Germany to be honoured in this way. The reviewers particularly praised the strong cohesion of students and teachers, the high practical relevance of the study and the offers for personal development. According to Böhm, recognition by EQUIS, the European Quality Improvement System, will also be pursued. With both accreditations and that of the British Association of MBA, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management has been able to advertise on its homepage for some time now. As its president points out, it is one of around 100 "triple crown institutions" worldwide.
"Europa-Institut" planned at EBS
Both universities are united by the ambition to teach their students not only to read balance sheets or paragraphs. EBS and Frankfurt School want to impart knowledge about sustainability, the latter has a "Computational Science & Philosophy Department" that deals with ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, among other things. The EBS, in turn, is expanding research and teaching in the direction of political science: in 2023 or 2024, a bachelor's degree programme called "Law, Politics and Economics" is to be launched; According to Böhm, a "Europa-Institut" is also being planned, for the establishment of which the university expects help from its president, former EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger.
Frankfurt School is currently not aiming for comparable start-ups. Its president, who will begin his second term in office in April, is counting on a "very successful business as usual". However, an innovation is in sight: "This year or next," says Stieglitz, "we will revise the website."