Master in Responsible Innovation and Strategic Entrepreneurship (RISE)

Our RISE Master is a 60-credit and professionally-oriented Master Degree program designed for recent Bachelor graduates and young professionals seeking a challenge-based launchpad for responsible entrepreneurial careers. It blends responsible management, strategic thinking, ethical leadership, and entrepreneurial execution into a modular curriculum. RISE offers a hands-on, applied learning experience that prepares students to navigate uncertainty, design innovative solutions, and lead with purpose.

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Focus on Responsible Innovation and Strategic Entrepreneurship through the RISE Courses; Create, test, and refine solutions in the RISE Labs through hands-on prototyping and rapid iteration; explore contemporary business cases and challenges through courses from our applied research hubs in Global, Digital, Social and Sustainable Business; strengthen practical business skills throughout the program; and integrate your learning in a RISE Project where you choose between Venture Incubation or a Consulting Mission.

Modular design

Everyone’s professional career is different, and we have always believed that one’s academic career should be too. You can customize your program based on your previous studies, current interests, and future ambitions. Our flexible and American-inspired program structure allows you to choose your courses based on a set of standard program requirements. These requirements are different for each of our programs. The choice of courses and modules will be different for each of our students also, providing for a truly unique and personalized curriculum.

Program requirements

In the standard 60-credit program with a flexible structure, students complete the program requirements on a full-time or part-time basis.

First phase

In the first phase for a total of 48 credits, you complete your coursework. The requirements of this phase can be started and completed in parallel with each other and do not need to be attempted in a certain sequence.

  • Mission Framing & Workplan Lab
  • Insight, Diagnosis & Validation Lab
  • Strategy & Recommendation Lab
  • Delivery, Impact & Portfolio Lab

  • COM5501 – Business Communication Skills (2 EC)
  • HUM5503 – Business Leadership Skills (2 EC)
  • COM5006 – Business Negotiation Skills (2 EC)
  • MAN5506 – Cross-Cultural Skills (2 EC)

Second phase

In the second phase for a total of 12 credits, you complete your Final Project. The requirements of this phase can be started at any time and do not necessarily need to be started only upon completion of the coursework.

The RISE Project is an applied final project whereby students may choose to either execute a business idea developed in the RISE Lab as an entrepreneurship-focused component of the program, or alternatively opt for a strategic consulting assignment as an intrapreneurship-focused component instead. Your project is more than building early work experience—it’s a strategic choice. Students choose between:

  • Venture Incubation Track
    Execute a business idea developed in the RISE Lab. Work on your own startup idea in an applied venture‑building setting, supported by mentors and resources. Turn concepts into viable business models and prepare for launch.
  • Consulting Mission Track
    Deliver strategic recommendations for a client-style mission (live briefs when available). Join a consulting project for a startup, NGO, or corporate innovation team. Deliver actionable insights and strategic recommendations that make an impact.

Both tracks give you hands-on exposure to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and build your professional credibility. This flexibility ensures relevance for students with or without a venture idea.

Your RISE Project’s applied research adds academic depth to your experiential learning. This project allows you to explore topics such as:

  • Market feasibility for your venture
  • Innovation strategy for your consulting client
  • Impact analysis in emerging sectors

The RISE Project is designed for flexible, remote participation and is offered entirely online to accommodate students’ schedules and locations.

Extended program

In the optional extended 90-credit program, students complete additional requirements that can be completed throughout the program and do not necessarily need to be completed only at the end.

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:

  • Analyze complex innovation and entrepreneurship contexts and evaluate strategic options using advanced responsible innovation and strategic entrepreneurship frameworks to justify decisions under uncertainty.
  • Produce consulting firm style deliverables by applying hypothesis-driven experimentation and iteration to synthesize insights into portfolio quality professional artifacts.
  • Apply integrative and cross-functional analysis to complex business cases, evaluate trade-offs under uncertainty, and justify managerial decisions using appropriate evidence, frameworks, and professional judgment.
  • Identify and critically analyze contemporary business challenges and devise coherent strategic responses grounded in integrative business reasoning.
  • Demonstrate insights into personal and professional growth through critical reflection on one’s own thinking and behavior and that of others involved, including leadership-relevant professional communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management in international and cross-cultural environments.
  • Execute and defend an applied research capstone, integrating evidence, contextual analysis, and implementation logic into a portfolio‑ready outcome meeting professional standards.

This curriculum is valid for all students starting in October 2025 or later. While all efforts have been made to ensure that the program requirements and course overviews are complete and accurate at the time of publication, we reserve the right to make changes to the curriculum without prior notice, subject to ongoing internal validation. Some of the courses are subject to availability.

Program options

We provide flexibility because everyone’s preferences are different. Our curated academic options allow you to further customize your program and turn your experience into a truly personalized one. The following options result in slightly different program and/or other requirements and will differ for each student depending on the chosen combinations of options.

Global Master

Students can opt for a truly global educational experience by studying at our campuses in Europe and Japan, as well as with one of our academic partners in the USA. The program requirements typically remain the same in this case. The academic calendar of our academic partner will however influence the study planning. The total study workload remains at a minimum of 60 (or 90) credits, but the workload may end up slightly higher for students in the 60-credit version, depending on the course selection offered by our academic partner, and the number of elective credits in the program. Connect with us to learn more about this option and how it influences your study planning.

Start or continue at our campuses in Europe or Japan, and finish with one of our academic partners in the USA:

  • University of California at Berkeley
  • University of California at Irvine

Dual Master

Students have the option to complete a Dual Master Degree program, in which case advanced program requirements apply. This option lets students effectively combine two programs and results in a combination of program requirements. The total study workload changes to 90 credits. The difference with the 90-credit version is that in case of the 90-credit Master Degree program, the qualification mentions 90 credits, whereas the two qualifications in case of a Dual Master mention 60 credits only. Connect with us to learn more about this option and how it influences your program requirements.

Other options

Options available in our other Master’s programs also include a course-based Master and Master-level concentrations.

Academic support

We want our students to optimally be prepared for, progress in and succeed after the program. This is why we introduced the following support options. They do not change the program or other requirements of the program, and are available upon request.

Before starting the program, you can register for a customized Pre-Master Foundation program designed for Bachelor-qualified students who previously studied something other than business and management, or for one or more Pre-Master Seminars designed as a refresher for those who did study business and management.

During the program, you can register for distance learning per course.

During the program, you can register for private tutoring per hour or per course.

Accreditation and ranking

Upon successful completion of the program, students receive an international private Master in Responsible Innovation and Strategic Entrepreneurship degree awarded by United Institute (Switzerland). The degree is awarded based on the recommendation of our faculty members and Examination Committee (where applicable).

We are institutionally accredited by the UK-based and EQAR-registered British Accreditation Council (BAC). This institutional accreditation supports all our local campuses, study programs, dependent schools and awarding units.

We were awarded a 5-star rating for business and management studies as part of our overall 4-star rating in 2024 by QS.

UIBS was ranked in the Global Top 200 and the European Top 60 in the 2019 QS MBA ranking, as a Tier One program in the 2020 CEO Magazine Global MBA ranking, 41st in the 2019 CEO Magazine Global Executive MBA ranking, and 4th in the 2020 CEO Magazine Global Online MBA ranking.

In addition to the traditional paper-based award and school-branded cover, our academic and professional qualifications are also blockchain-verifiable on the Ethereum blockchain. This cutting-edge technology lets us add a whole new dimension to qualification verification. One major benefit of such secure documents is the instant verification by employers during the recruitment process.

More information

We organize 8 starting dates per year. Our academic calendar is based on a quarter system with four 10-week quarters per year that consist of two 5-week terms each. We refer to these quarters as Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer, and to these terms simply as A and B. Our program’s flexible structure and modular design allows you to optimally plan your studies and choose from among multiple starting dates in October, November, January, February, April, May, July, and August.

Master

You can complete the program in a full-time format within 1 academic year of 9 to 12 months. Alternatively, you can complete the program in a part-time format within up to 3 academic years, depending on our course planning and your course selection. Completing half of the typical workload of a full-time format will equal twice the typical duration. The more flexible you are with your professional or other activities, the more courses you may be able to join in order to complete the program faster.

Graduate Diploma

You can complete the program in a part-time format within 6 to 12 months, depending on our course planning and your course selection.

Graduate Certificate

You can complete the program in a part-time format within 3 to 12 months, depending on our course planning and your course selection.

We schedule most courses on weekdays throughout the day, typically in blocks of 3 hours between 8.30 and 18.30, but there may be several evening courses between 19.00 and 22.00, weekend courses on Saturdays, and/or seminar courses with visiting faculty in two or more consecutive days. Some courses may be scheduled in a hybrid format, partially on-campus and partially virtual, or in a fully virtual format. When students combine on-campus and virtual courses, we refer to that as a blended program.

  • a Bachelor Degree or its equivalent for a solid foundation
  • fluency in English for effective communication and interaction

We work with a rolling admissions process and do not set specific deadlines to apply because of our multiple starting dates. Applications are welcomed and reviewed on a rolling basis. We do advise students to apply early and formally accept their application so that everyone can plan ahead. We also advise students to allow sufficient time from the moment of their formal acceptance to plan their stay abroad (where applicable). Refer to the Admission Information section for more details.

Our LinkedIn page highlights where our alumni work and the roles they hold with one of our professionally-oriented qualifications. Graduates pursue a variety of positions in small, medium, large and multinational companies across numerous industries.

Connect with us

We believe in personal attention from the start. Our team members are available to answer your questions and support you with your application. Everything starts with the first step.

Student interviews

Upcoming events

  • LIVE Info Session

    March 11 @ 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

  • LIVE Info Session

    April 15 @ 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Our Graduate-level programs

Achieve academic mastery with a 60-credit or 90-credit Master’s Degree program, paving the way for professional leadership opportunities and applied research.

Advance with a 24-credit Graduate Diploma program and progress towards a comprehensive Degree program. We also refer to this program as a Mini Master.

Start with a 12-credit Graduate Certificate program and seamlessly transition to a Diploma or Degree program. We also refer to this program as a Micro Master.

Personalize your studies with our optional Master’s-level concentrations, catering to your interests and ensuring industry-readiness.

Expand your horizons with our Global Master’s option, offering international perspectives and opportunities for global leadership.

Start of advance your career quicker with our Course-based Master’s option, focusing on broader skills and knowledge for immediate application.

Maximize your career perspectives with our optional Dual Master’s combinations, integrating two programs for a comprehensive educational experience.