Bachelor of Science in Business Economics

The Business Economics programme trains students to deal with business in an integrated way: How does a company become profitable? How to optimally finance an investment? How to set up market research for mapping out customers? From inception to setting up a new business: how to assess the economic viability in advance? All this and more is covered in the Business Economics programme. As a student of Business Administration, you become specialized in the fields of accounting, corporate finance and marketing. A concise description of these domains would be: how to report operating results (accounting), how to raise enough money for the company (corporate financing) and – based on the customer needs – how to create value by offering the right products and services (marketing). In addition, our programme offers an analytical basis with an emphasis on quantitative skills and research skills. There is also room for general economic principles, but the focus is on decision-making within the company.

• Bachelor

Our programme shares its first-year curriculum with the Economics and Business Engineering programmes. This ensures that students make an informed choice in subsequent years. The first year gives you a thorough basis of general economics and business economics, and in a number of supporting and related fields. From the second year onwards, the emphasis in the Business Economics programme shifts to acquiring academic insight into the functional domains of Accounting, Corporate Finance and Marketing. In addition, the programme boosts your general business knowledge with course units on management, legal issues and entrepreneurship. The curriculum also contains course units on quantitative skills and research skills. You conclude the third year with a Bachelor’s dissertation, in which you research a number of business issues individually.

• Master

Our one-year Master’s programme contains three areas of specialization (Accountancy, Corporate Finance, Marketing) and is as of now English-taught. In line with your choice of specialization in the Bachelor’s curriculum, you can tailor your Master’s curriculum further to your own interests and acquire an in-depth knowledge of that domain. In addition, there is room for at least one elective course unit, which you can also replace with a work placement in the business world. The Master’s programme is concluded with a Master’s dissertation, in which you research a specific problem from all dimensions, under the supervision of a professor.

In addition to the (domain) Master’s programme described above, you can also choose a Master’s Programme in Teaching (in Dutch: Educatieve Master). (90 ECTS-credits).

Business Economics graduates are found in all possible positions within the business and education sectors. Business Economics graduates with main subject Accounting can e.g. start their career at an international audit firm, where you assess whether large businesses’ annual accounts are true to reality. After a few years, then, you gradually take on greater responsibilities, or you make the transition to a position as an internal auditor or controller (i.e. cost price expert), and then advance into the position of financial director within a company. Business Economics graduates with main subject Corporate Finance can e.g. start their career in the banking-consulting sector, helping companies realize their acquisition plans (with or without an Initial Public Offering (IPO)), and may then progress to the position of bank manager. As a Business Economics graduate with main subject Marketing, you can e.g. start as a ‘brand or product manager’, guiding companies in drawing up a promotion policy and then making the transition to marketing manager at a company. In short, many of our graduates progress over time to general management positions. A number of specific jobs in which our graduates find themselves are: auditor, cost price expert (controller), financial director, financial consultant (IPOs, company takeovers), marketing manager and market researcher.