Study overview of International Business Administration 

Overview modules

• Year 1EC

  • Module 1 | Technology, Organisation & People15

    This module focuses on the description, analysis and design of organisational structures. You will interview company representatives to collect data to describe and analyse the relationships between the organisation’s effectiveness, environment, strategy, technology and structure. In order to develop recommendations to improve the company’s effectiveness, you rely on social research methods and theories of organisation, operations and behaviour.

  • Module 2 | Business Operations Management15

    This module offers a broad overview of Operations Management. On the basis of assignments, a simulation game (serious gaming) and case studies, you will get familiar with the main theories, tools and techniques applied by modern operations managers in practice. You will also learn how to approach practical problems quantitatively.

  • Module 3 | Finance, Accounting & Information Systems15

    The areas of Finance, Accounting and Information Systems are closely connected in everyday business. The focus of this integrated project is to develop and build an information system which will then be used for decision-making based on both financial and non-financial information. Subsequently, you will analyse the information to prepare real-life (financial) management decisions based on internationally accepted concepts and methods, while taking the (international) context into account.

  • Module 4 | Human Resources, Organisational Behaviour, Law & Information Management15

    As this is the final module of the first year, you will be challenged to apply insights from the previous modules where necessary and relevant for the project. By attending guest lectures, you gain hands-on knowledge from business leaders in the platform economy. You will work in teams to apply insights from different business disciplines to develop a business model for a new online labour platform. Online labour platforms rely on information technology to match supply and demand for on-demand work. Therefore, you are expected to rely on insights from Business (and Labour) Law, Organizational Behaviour, Human Resource Mangement and Information Management to develop a plan for the implementation of a platform value proposition. 
• Year 2EC

  • Module 5 | Strategy, Marketing & Economics15

    In this virtual module, you will function as a board member of a company and compete with other students in a simulation game. Moreover, you will conduct a strategic analysis for one of the participating real-life companies and the market for their products. Based on your analysis, your experiences during the game and the theoretical underpinnings of the project, you will write a strategic report for one of the participating companies in this module.

  • Module 6 | Innovation & Entrepreneurship15

    Innovation tournament project in which students generate ideas (opportunities) that go through multiple phases of screening and evaluation, the best ideas will be developed (in teams) into full-grown business opportunities. 

    This module offers a broad overview of how to manage innovation and entrepreneurship at the corporate, project and individual level. By means of a project, you will experience the approach of hypothesis-driven entrepreneurship. Lectures, case studies, and discussions of papers provide additional input for innovative and entrepreneurial practice irrespective of the organisational context.

  • Module 7 | Elective module15

    You have the option between two courses:

    A) Digital marketing for networked businesses
    The marketing profession is subject to more and more new forces and developments. The most important of these forces over the past twenty years has been the explosive growth of the internet as a commercial platform and the development of information and communication technologies. The widespread adoption of the internet and new digital technologies by organisations, governments and the public has resulted in the increasing digitalisation of people’s lives and in the development of vast social and business digital networks.
    
    B) Supply management
    The main target of the module supply management is to educate students to have the first understanding to take up the job of a commodity buyer in the strategic sourcing department of a firm. Specifically, after the completion of the course and its components tactical buying, strategic sourcing, assignment, experiment and research project, students are able to:

    explain the year cycle of purchasing (taking into consideration the commercial, economic and legal aspects of purchasing)

    Describe how the sourcing process works from demand identification over contracting to performance evaluation.

    describe the tactical and strategic issues at the commodity level.

    advise management on how an integrated purchasing organisation operates, including the skills to apply this knowledge and draft decision memos for management regarding purchasing decisions

    set up and carry out purchasing processes (in a serious game), exceeding those of their non-specialised peers, which provides them with advantages in applying for a job in a purchasing department.

    describe, reflect and apply social interactions between individuals and firms relevant to supply management using behavioural methodologies in academic research, in an experimental setting.

    set up academic research that meets the basic standards in terms of a literature study to identify interesting research questions relevant to both practice and academia. In addition, students will be familiarised with the basics of developing propositions and hypotheses and methodologies. Students write an academic paper.

  • Module 8 | Elective module15

    In this module you have two options

    A) Financing entrepreneurial start-ups and innovative firms

    Financial managers need to make smart decisions that can create value. They communicate with the capital market and raise necessary funds to carry out the required investments; at the same time, they ensure generating sufficient cash to compensate investors who provided the capital. They also make other decisions related to financial planning, financing methods, dividend policy, risk management, mergers, acquisitions and restructurings. Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular are confronted with the option of whether to continue accessing funds from banks or to go for initial public offering and issue new securities in the public capital market.
    
    The module will therefore provide broad coverage of the above-mentioned financial management decisions. It will combine theoretical concepts with institutional & technological contexts and real-life examples.

    B) Business innovation through it project management
    Successful IT projects innovate business functions, transform enterprises and enable organisations to reposition successfully. Unfortunately, about half of all IT projects fail, so there is a clear need to study this vexing topic.

    This module teaches you how IT projects function as vehicles for realising organisational benefits from information technology. You will also be introduced to professional international standard project management methods and techniques. You will focus on both generic and specific project management methods in innovation, transformation and repositioning contexts.
• Year 3EC

  • Modules 9&10 | Electives30

    The first semester of the third year (30 ECs) consists of elective space, in which you can choose different options. We also encourage our students to spend this time abroad. Here are some options:

    Study a semester at another university in the Netherlands or abroad. We encourage our third-year students to study abroad for a semester. UT cooperates with partner universities in a number of European countries, as well as further afield, such as in Mexico, Australia, Indonesia and Taiwan. We are continuously talking to new partners so that we can offer you even more options. 

    Follow the module crossing borders, this module prepares you to work and function in an international environment, both in the public sector and in business. You can gain plenty of international experience in this module.

    Follow a High Tech Human Touch (HTHT) minor, these modules focus on specific societal themes in the field of  High Tech Human Touch. For example, you can choose the modules, New Technology Business Development, Governance of Innovation and Socio-Technical Change, From prototype to society or Cybercrime & Cybersecurity.

    Follow modules from another course at UT or do an International Business Administration Minor.

  • Module 11 | Change Management, Corporate Governance, Business Ethics & Leadership15

    You will gain knowledge and understanding of the key concepts, findings and insights involved in change management, corporate governance, business ethics and leadership. As part of the module, you will be expected to provide a recommendation to improve a specific business process in a context in which all of these aspects are at play.

    The goal of the module is for you to enhance the improvement capacity of the actors involved, along with their innovative capacity and overall level of entrepreneurship, as the case may be. In the module’s final project/paper, you will be asked to analyse a real-world organisational situation of governance and/or ethics, change and leadership.

  • Module 12 | Bachelor's assignment15

    The final part of this Bachelor's integrates your three years of study. This is your opportunity to shine by applying everything you’ve learned as you conduct your Bachelor’s project and write your Bachelor’s thesis.

    Following successful completion of your thesis, you will receive your Bachelor’s degree and the title of Bachelor of Science, qualifying you to start a master's programme.