Intercultural Relations and Behaviour (BA) Program at a Glance

With increasing globalization, dealing successfully with cultural diversity in values, thinking, and behavior patterns is becoming a key competence in business and administration as well as a major topic for research. Students in the program »Intercultural Relations and Behavior« (IRB) learn how to analyze and understand how human thinking and behavior is culturally embedded and shaped. A microlevel analysis is advanced by Social Psychology: How do individuals think, feel, and act and how is their thinking, feeling, and behavior influenced by the social environment? A macro-level perspective is advanced by comparative courses from various social sciences (e.g., Sociology, Political Science, Mass Communication, as well as Economics), asking how societies, political systems and their public discourse differ from one another. While the courses of this program put a strong emphasis on basic research, students will also get some first practical experience in training intercultural competence.

The tables show the precise program of study for each student in a specific major. Students can refer to this information for an overarching timetable of study over the six semesters of bachelor study. Naturally home school electives and transdisciplinary courses are not listed.

Course Requirements for Students matriculated in the year: 2011 |2010 | 2009 | 2008

Organisation of the Coursework

Each course lasts one semester (14 weeks). Students usually meet twice a week for sessions of 75 minutes. Intercultural Relations and Behavior courses, which are offered annually, consist of a maximum 28 sessions. Lab classes constitute an integral element of the Statistics and Methods component of IRB

Prof. Dr. Matthijs Bogaards
Professor of Political Science

Prof. Dr. Jan Delhey
Professor of Sociology

Prof. Dr. Arvid Kappas
Professor of Psychology

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kühnen
Professor of Psychology

Prof. Dr. Peter Ludes
Professor of Mass Communication

Prof. Dr. Marion G. Müller
Professor of Mass Communication

Prof. Dr. Welf Werner
Professor of International Economics

Dr. Song Yan
University Lecturer for Social Cultural Change and the Individual

Social Science Methods

The methods component is taught by additional faculty:

- Prof. Dr. Klaus Boehnke, Professor of Social Science Methodology

- Dr. Karina De Santis, Lecturer in Statistics and Methods

- Dr. Özen Odag , University Lecturer in Methods

- Prof. Dr. Margrit Schreier, Professor of Empirical Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences

- Prof. Dr. Colin Vance, Adjunct Professor of Quantitative Methods

- Prof. Dr. Adalbert Wilhelm, Professor of Statistics



Jacobs University aims at an overall professor/student ratio of 1:12. At present, the ratio is even smaller but is expected to approximate the desired ratio as student numbers increased.

The broad perspective of the curriculum makes students experts in fields where people from various cultural backgrounds interact with one another and where the following expertise is demanded: managing diversity, communicating effectively, improving intercultural competence and interaction, preventing stereotyping, analyzing social, economic and political systems. We provide our students with skills and capabilities that make them competitive candidates for careers in various fields, including survey, market or consumer research, business, politics, administration and academia.