The range of Master of Business Administration Programmes (MBA) in Austria Germany and Switzerland is extensive. It begins with the „junior MBA“ as an offer to stu-dents who have just graduated from university. The „Executive MBA“ on the other end of the scale is an offer for managers who have mostly up to ten years practical business experience. There are full-time, part-time and distance-learning pro-grammes or modular programmes that enable the student to do either of the three. The fees for most MBA-programmes range from EURO 10.000,-- to EURO 40.000,--. In the late eighties there were only 10 MBA-providers in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, mostly from abroad. Between 1990 and 1995 this number had increased to 35 providers. Today students can choose among 120 providers with 150 Pro-grammes in those three countries.

The number of students in Germany has risen from 500 (1985) to about 3000, about 70 % - 80 % of those students study abroad or as part of joint ventures from abroad. A lot of the MBA-programmes on offer in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, are the result of cooperation . with American or British programmes. 70% of all German MBA-programmes were founded in 1998 – 2001, especially since the German Par-liament has officially approved Bachelor and Master Programmes as part of univer-sity education. In 1998 a Federal law in Germany was enacted (Framework Act for Higher Education (HRG)) which allowed German Universities to offer bachelor and master Programmes.