The Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (German: Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg, DHBW) is a higher education institution with campuses throughout the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It provides dual-education (or cooperative education) bachelor's degree programs in business administration, engineering, and social services in collaboration with industry and non-profit institutions. It began a limited master's program in 2011.
The Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) is Germany's first higher education institution to combine academic studies with on-the-job training. DHBW was founded on March 1, 2009, and its origins can be traced back to the Berufsakademie Baden-Wurttemberg. Today, the university continues the tradition of phenomenally successful and cooperative education.
Throughout its nine locations and three campuses, the university offers a broad range of undergraduate study programmes in the field of business, engineering, and social work. All degree programmes are both nationally and internationally accredited, count as intensive study programmes and are worth 210 ECTS credits. In addition, DHBW offers postgraduate degree programmes with integrated on-the-job training.
The unique combination of theory and practice is a distinguishing feature of cooperative (work-integrated) education. The curriculum of the university combines higher education and on-the-job training at numerous partner companies, with the goal of providing both academic skills and work-related expertise. In this regard, classroom content is supplemented with workplace experience, so that real-life scenarios immediately test the effectiveness of classroom theory and vice versa.
Internationalization is a critical component of modern world education and is critical for a successful career start. DHBW promotes collaboration with numerous companies, social institutions, and renowned universities all over the world through an increasingly international curriculum.