Berlin, Germany’s capital, has a population of over 3.5 million citizens, making it the largest city in Germany as well as one of the ten largest metropolises in Europe. It is a multicultural city with some 425,000 foreigners from 184 countries and draws on a long cosmopolitan tradition. Berlin is the most important academic centre in Germany with a large concentration of universities and research facilities. There are currently around 135,000 students enrolled at 15 universities. HTW is Berlin’s most recently founded and largest university of applied sciences. It has over 13,355 students in 70 degree programmes in the areas of business administration, economics and management, engineering, informatics and design. The Master’s in International and Development Economics (MIDE) is an 18-month, full-time programme in the Faculty of Economics. The course, which was first offered in 2003, begins in April each year at the start of the summer semester. It consists of two semesters with lectures and seminars of around 20 hours per week and a third semester dedicated principally to researching and writing a master’s thesis.