From MAS to MBA: Building the next chapter of management education at ETH Zurich

27 Aug 2026 · By Evelina Kramer and Johanna Für-Ceylan

When Evelina Kramer joined ETH Zurich two and a half years ago as a Programme Manager, she was given a deceptively simple question: where should the MAS ETH MTEC go next?

The programme had last undergone a major evolution in 2018. Rather than starting with a new curriculum, the team began by listening—to students, alumni and industry.

Here, Evelina reflects on what they learned and how those conversations shaped the development of the MBA ETH MTEC.

 

When you joined the programme, what did you find?

What struck me first was how much people cared about the programme. There is a real passion among the people who deliver it and among the students who choose to be here. You feel it in the classroom, but also in the conversations and relationships that happen outside it.

At the same time, students were telling us they wanted more. The existing structure could also be challenging for people working 80–100%, with courses taking place very frequently.

We could improve individual elements, but at some point we realised that if we really wanted to rethink the experience, we needed the freedom to rethink the structure itself.

 

Was there a moment when you realised the programme needed to become more than an academic experience?

I remember one student focus group particularly well. What came through wasn’t simply a request for different courses. Students wanted more from their time with us—inside and outside the classroom.

They talked about personal leadership. Career development. More opportunities to build relationships with one another and, in some cases, more individual support.

I loved that idea because education should also take you outside your comfort zone. If you spend two years with us, you should leave knowing more, of course. But I also hope you leave having grown into the person and leader you want to become.

That became an important part of how we started thinking about the MBA.

 

What did you want to preserve from the MAS ETH MTEC?

Choice.

One of the defining features of the MAS ETH MTEC has always been the freedom students have to shape their own learning journey. That was something we knew we wanted to preserve.

Many MBA programmes are built predominantly around a fixed core, with a relatively small number of electives. We deliberately wanted to approach this differently and carry the flexibility of the MAS ETH MTEC into the MBA.

Our students will first build a common foundation in the core. From there, they have significant freedom to shape their studies through MBA electives and opportunities to access the wider academic environment at D-MTEC and ETH Zurich.

When you join the MBA ETH MTEC, you are an ETH student. We want you to experience ETH as one.

 

What did you learn from students and alumni?

Again and again, people talked about each other.

They valued learning alongside people with very different backgrounds—technical and non-technical, different industries, different experiences and different ways of looking at a problem.

 

“We want to build a cohort of people who are curious about one another, who are driven, and who ultimately want to make a difference and create impact.”

 

That diversity of perspective can be incredibly powerful. Someone sitting next to you might challenge an assumption you have held for years simply because they see the world differently.

So as we develop the MBA, we want to build a cohort of people who are curious about one another, who are driven, and who ultimately want to make a difference and create impact.

And we want to give them more opportunities to build those relationships throughout the programme.

 

You also asked industry what tomorrow’s managers need. What did they tell you?

We brought together industry representatives and asked them what capabilities they were looking for in people moving into broader management and leadership roles.

Of course, business fundamentals still mattered. But the conversation quickly became much broader.

We heard about resilience and grit. Leadership and interpersonal capabilities. The ability to understand emerging technologies—not necessarily to be the technical expert, but to understand their implications and translate them into action.

We eventually asked the group to rank the capabilities.

They couldn’t.

And perhaps that was one of the most interesting findings. There isn’t one skill that defines the modern leader. You need to develop across many dimensions—or, at the very least, keep working towards them.

Those conversations ultimately became the basis for our Wheel of Skills, which now helps guide the design of the MBA.

 

What will feel different beyond the classroom?

One of the things I care about most is what happens after graduation.

An MBA shouldn’t be a two-year transaction. It should be the beginning of a much longer relationship.

We want to invest more in creating meaningful opportunities for our students and alumni to meet, learn from one another and continue developing. Alongside the opportunities available through the wider ETH Alumni community, we want to create lifelong learning and activities that bring people back together.

Your cohort may be the beginning of your network, but hopefully it becomes much bigger than that over time.

 

What are you personally most looking forward to?

Seeing what happens to the students.

Choosing to do an MBA is a big decision. People are giving us two years of their lives while balancing careers, families and everything else they have going on.

I think about graduation day—seeing people realise, I made it. Seeing their families proud of them. And then, over the years that follow, seeing what they go on to do and the impact they create.

That’s the part that makes this work meaningful to me.

The programme will continue to evolve. But ultimately, its success won’t be measured only by what happens in our classrooms. It will be measured by what our students do with what they learned once they leave them.