Introduction
Graduate education
in Germany is being
revolutionized. Following the Bologna agreement, traditional 5-year
(‘Diplom’) programs are being replaced by 3-year Bachelor’s programs
followed by two-year Master’s
programs,
nationally and internationally recognized. The Goethe University
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration is among the very few
in Germany to pioneer the transition.
Research
and teaching in the areas of monetary economics, macroeconomics, and
finance in Frankfurt are also being revolutionized by the establishment
of the House of Finance.
Its
establishment is intended to encourage interactions between academic
departments, research institutes, and practitioners, as well as
development of innovative teaching programs that combine the strengths
of its various constituents. Since August 2008, the Departments of
Money and Macroeconomics and of Finance have joined forces with major
research centers and institutes, such as the Center for Financial
Studies (CFS) and the Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability,
as well as with the Goethe Business School and with law faculty working
on the interactions between law and finance to establish the House of
Finance at Goethe University.
The Master’s program in Money and
Finance (MMF)
is an innovative joint venture of the Department of Money and
Macroeconomics and of the Department of Finance in the House of
Finance, and it is taught entirely
in English, the language of the profession. The Faculty of Economics and
Business Administration, within which the Department of
Money and Macroeconomics and the Department of Finance operate, is accredited by AACSB
in the United States. The inaugural 2008 MMF class had 29 students, 22
of whom are international students from 19 different countries. The
program is selective as well as highly international, with a maximum
planned size of 40 students per year.
The
House of Finance occupies impressive newly-built premises on the new
Westend campus of Goethe University, right in the center of Frankfurt,
next to Grueneburg Park and in proximity to the European Central Bank,
the German Bundesbank, and a vast array of banking and financial
industry firms. MMF students attend lectures in modern, fully equipped
lecture halls at the House of Finance and at the newly-build Lecture
Hall Center right opposite the Faculty building.