Digital Leadership in Information Management (MSc)

The DLI Master’s programme combines three learning tracks into a coherent study framework, which run in parallel throughout the programme and build systematically on one another.

Track 1 - Research Projects: From day one, you’ll tackle a real, complex challenge from an industry partner – not a case study, but genuine impact. The process follows the design-oriented Business Information Systems model: from problem analysis (Understand), through solution design (Design), to evaluation in your Master’s thesis (Transform). Tailored domain modules provide the challenge-specific expertise exactly when you need it.

Track 2 - IT Management: You’ll build the strategic foundation to lead IT organisations – from structural analysis and evidence-based decision-making to shaping digital transformation.

Track 3 - Leadership: You’ll develop into a true leader: mastering self-management, stakeholder communication, and steering complex change processes.

Digital Leadership in Information Management (MSc) combines structured knowledge delivery in management modules with student-centred, needs-based teaching in research projects – knowledge you don’t just understand, but apply immediately.

How is the programme structured?

• The first semester focuses on truly understanding the problem and developing a sound research question.
• The second semester involves design-oriented research, ideally in the context of a partner company.
• In the third semester, you’ll write your Master’s thesis. 

The research modules are complemented by in-depth modules on IT management and leadership. You’ll learn about and how to apply key concepts and tools to lead yourself, others and organisations.

• Winter semester (210 ECTS Bachelor’s degree)
• Summer semester (international students with 180 ECTS Bachelor’s degree)*

*Students with a 180 ECTS Bachelor’s degree must complete an additional semester. This semester comprises 6 modules: German for Academic Studies, Integrated Skills Academic English, Intercultural Skills, Research Skills and two subject-specific modules.
Students with a 180 ECTS Bachelor’s degree from a higher education institution within the Lisbon Convention may alternatively have at least 6 months of relevant professional experience after obtaining their Bachelor’s degree recognised.

Digital Leadership in Information Management is purposefully designed as a Future Skills Accelerator – academic depth and immediate practical impact aren’t opposites, but the core principle. It’s the combination of five distinctive features that sets it apart:

Think in Systems: You won’t learn recipes, but thinking tools. Fundamental mental models and theories help you structure any complex challenge – not just those with ready-made answers.

Learn by Doing Research: Your studies are an applied research project. Across three semesters, you work on a real challenge from an industry partner, developing your skills directly through application.

Decide with Evidence: You learn to base decisions on a solid foundation of theory and empirical evidence – and make their impact measurable. No gut feeling, but reasoned judgement.

Lead from Day One: Leadership at DLI isn’t an add-on programme. Alongside your specialist training, you develop leadership and communication skills – from self-management to steering complex transformations.

Impact by Design: Your results are designed to land in practice. As a bridge-builder between academia and industry, you actively contribute to knowledge transfer in the region.

Together with industry partners, you’ll tackle a current issue from business and society in an 18-month research challenge. It follows the proven Design Science Research approach: you identify real IT challenges (Problem Understanding), develop practical solutions (Solution Design), and validate them empirically under scientific supervision.

Theme for Winter Semester 2026/27: Cyber Resilience in the Age of Agentic AI
You’ll analyse how organisations can strengthen their digital resilience in the era of self-acting AI and develop solutions with measurable impact.

The DLI Master’s is your launchpad into responsible positions at the interface of technology and business – all the way up to Chief Information Officer or comparable top management roles. As an IT Strategy Consultant, you’ll advise companies on complex technological shifts – grounded in scientific evidence, not just experience. As a Digital Transformation Manager or AI Transformation Manager, you’ll become the architect of socio-technical change in organisations. As a Research & Innovation Manager, you’ll lead R&D and innovation departments, securing your company’s technological edge.

If you want to pursue an academic career: the programme’s strong research focus prepares you excellently for a PhD.

The language of instruction in this degree programme is English.

• A completed university degree with at least 210 ECTS credits in the fields of business informatics, computer science, business administration, or information management (university degree does not total 210 ECTS credits)
• Applicants holding a bachelor’s degree with 180 ECTS credits must complete the four-semester programme (120 ECTS credits). The first semester comprises 6 modules: German for Academic Studies,, Integrated Skills Academic English, Intercultural Skills, Research Skills and two subject-specific modules.
• Applicants holding a Bachelor’s degree with 180 ECTS credits from a higher education institution within the Lisbon Convention must, as an alternative, make up the existing qualification gap of 30 ECTS credits by providing evidence of, or successfully completing, one of the following prerequisites:
  - Co-authorship of a research publication in English (research paper)
  - At least 6 months’ verifiable full-time professional experience following the award of the Bachelor’s degree in a role relevant to the programme’s subject matter (evidenced by an employment contract and/or employment references)
  - Evidence of additional modules totalling 30 ECTS credits from a previous degree programme.
• Minimum grade: 2.5 or better
• Language level: English B2 minimum
• For international applicants: German A2 (Proof of language proficiency must be submitted by the time of enrollment.)
• Applicants with a Bachelor’s degree from an institution outside the Lisbon Convention must provide a Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test. Applicants must achieve a minimum score of 153 in both Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning, and a score of 4.0 in Analytical Writing.

Winter semester: 02.05. – 31.08. with a 210 ECTS Bachelor's degree
For non-EU applicants:
Winter semester: 02.05. - 15.07.

Summer semester: 15.11. - 15.01. for non-EU applicants with a 180 ECTS Bachelor's degree

If you acquired your university entrance qualification outside of the German school system, you will need to have your transcript evaluated via uni-assist (opens in a new window).

To ensure a swift and smooth procedure, we recommend registering with uni-assist at least 6 weeks prior to the end of the application period.

Please apply via uni-assist e.V. (opens in a new window) and at the same time apply for your degree programme via the regular application procedure. The uni-assist evaluation does not replace the HNU application process!

Click here for further information.

For the programmes offered in English, you will need to submit evidence of B2 level English language skills with your application. This can be done in the following ways:

• corresponding results from a recognised language test (e.g. a 90-point minimum TOEFL-IBT, a 6.5-point minimum Cambridge IELTS, a 3-point minimum Cambridge BEC Vantage)
• evidence of adequate language skills from school or university transcripts
• completion of a degree programme that was verifiably taught entirely in English
• evidence that English is your native language

Non-native speakers of German are also required to provide evidence of German language skills at level A2 when enrolling.

SIM and the new DLI address the same target group but differ substantially in didactic approach and structure:

SIM followed a classic module-based design, often with only indirect links between modules, an implicit progression, and a number of compromises resulting from the shared core with other Master's programmes of the faculty.

DLI, by contrast, is built around an 18-month Research Challenge at its core. Three tracks run through all three semesters, follow a progressive structure, and are tightly interwoven: Research Projects, IT Management, and Leadership. The research modules follow the design-oriented model in information systems: moving from Understand through Design to Transform, with the Master's thesis completing the Transform phase. The Challenge is accompanied by industry partners and operates at the frontier of current knowledge; it is therefore neither a consulting project nor a case study aimed at applying existing knowledge, but is instead designed to generate new, design-relevant knowledge.

SIM targeted the relatively broad field of "managing digital technologies, processes, and business models," with a focus on conveying and applying existing knowledge. DLI, in contrast, explicitly focuses on future-oriented competencies in IT management and positions itself as a launchpad toward roles such as CIO, IT Strategy Consultant, Digital Transformation Manager, AI Transformation Manager, or Research & Innovation Manager. Its emphasis on applied research not only prepares graduates to address unstructured real-world problems in an evidence- and theory-based manner, but also opens the path to pursuing a PhD.

Yes, the programme is designed for this. Classes are concentrated on a few fixed days – ideal for combining work and study.

Does my bachelor’s degree qualify me?

The DLI Master’s programme is aimed at graduates of:

• Business Administration with a focus on digitalisation
• Computer Science, Business Informatics, Applied Informatics
• Information Management
• Related degree programmes with management and digitalisation components

Requirements:

A bachelor’s degree with 180 or 210 ECTS credits. Here is how you enter the programme:

• 210 ECTS: You start directly in the Master’s programme.
• 180 ECTS: You complete an additional preparatory semester comprising six modules: German B1, English C1, Intercultural Skills, Research Skills and two subject-specific modules.
• Alternative for 180 ECTS: Graduates from a university within the Lisbon Convention area can alternatively have at least six months of relevant professional experience after their bachelor’s degree recognised instead.

The Research Projects combine academic work with current challenges from business practice. You identify a research question yourself within the challenge, investigate it using scientific methods and develop new, practice-relevant knowledge.

Important: These are not consulting or implementation projects.

No, it is the core of the programme and a fixed part of the curriculum. In the first and second semesters, 15 ECTS each are allocated to the research project, plus 5 ECTS for accompanying content (Domain Fundamentals). In the third semester, 20 ECTS are allocated to the master’s thesis.

This is one of the first challenges in the programme. Based on input from industry partners, your own research and our coaching, you develop an overarching research question in the first semester that is relevant to at least one of the participating companies. Topics are therefore not pre-defined.

Yes, the challenge is deliberately designed to be broad. Cyber resilience affects virtually every industry. Healthcare, for example, is a key part of critical infrastructure, and accordingly the challenge includes questions with a clear link to this area. The same applies to production, logistics, financial services or the public sector.

In the first and second semesters, you work in pairs, or individually if preferred. You write the master’s thesis in the third semester on your own.

In two modes:

• Push: We provide formats, inputs and guest lectures that we know you need.
• Pull: You communicate your needs and we organise what fits.

A dedicated room is expected to be available one day per week for project work. The other modules run weekly in seminar-style classes.

Yes. At the start of the semester, partner companies provide thematic input, are available for follow-up questions, and in the second semester offer the context for your design-oriented research. How closely you collaborate also depends on how directly your topic affects the companies.

No. Through your research question, you indirectly decide yourself with whom you collaborate more closely. The more relevant your question is for a company, the greater its interest in your results.

Each semester includes around three fixed points of contact: an input session from the partners at the start of the semester in October, at least one coffee check-in during the semester, and the final presentation in January in the HNU Innovation Space, combined with a networking evening.

No. The partners are part of a research consortium, not clients ordering a solution. The focus is on insights that go beyond individual cases.

12 SWS (semester weekly hours), divided into 6 + 2 + 2 + 2 hours per week across the semesters. We concentrate the classes on a maximum of three days.

We do not yet have empirical data for DLI, as the programme will start for the first time in the winter semester 2026/27. As a guideline, the usual calculation applies: one ECTS credit corresponds to 25 to 30 working hours.

Yes, many of our master’s students work in parallel. Ideally, you find a working student position with one of our industry partners. It works best if your working hours are flexible enough to adapt to the workload of the programme. We distribute the workload as evenly as possible across the semester.

Research Projects are assessed via a portfolio, i.e. through coursework submitted during the semester. The remaining modules have assessment tasks that are due closer to the end of the semester, such as presentations and seminar papers. Written examinations are scheduled during the examination weeks after the lecture period.

A portfolio brings together several smaller pieces of work across the semester instead of one major final exam. Typical components include a learning journal, an interim literature review, a mid-term presentation, and final presentations. The exact composition is adjusted each semester to reflect the current stage of the research process. While this may sound demanding, it provides structure and regular feedback rather than a single examination date.

The definitive overview is set out in the Study and Examination Regulations (opens in a new window). Within the options defined there, the respective module lecturer decides on the concrete form of assessment.