Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Business Information Systems with a Year in Industry University of East Anglia, UK

This course will ensure you’re fully equipped for a career in business information systems and are totally up to date on what the industry needs right now.

This programme combines in-depth teaching on the capabilities of business systems and a thorough grounding in the operations of contemporary businesses. By studying these crucial and exciting subjects you will also develop skills applicable to the wider employment sector, such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, organisation, and time keeping.

The relatively recent move to more iterative computer systems development methods has had a knock on effect on the skills and knowledge required from developers. As a developer, you are now expected to be able to work in small multi-skilled teams alongside your business users. That means you don’t just need technical competence but also the ability to be flexible, creative and a good communicator.

Above all you need to be able to speak your customer’s language – with an understanding of businesses and how they operate. Our external visiting speakers emphasise this point again and again – so we ensure that our business information systems courses give you this important mix of skills.

In your first year you will get a thorough grounding in systems development, programming and databases, while also learning about business and organisational behaviour. Over the next two years you’ll explore systems analysis, operations strategy and management, systems engineering and organisational information systems.

You will also be able to select from a wide range of optional modules, allowing you to tailor your own degree to concentrate on your computing expertise or your business knowledge – or more often than not, a valuable balance between the two.

Popular options include project management, software engineering, consulting, marketing, and information retrieval.

In your year in industry you’ll put what you’ve learnt to practice, gaining new skills and building links with potential employers such as Aviva, Bloomberg and IBM. Another benefit is that you’ll pay a much reduced tuition fee for your placement year and you’ll be paid – a great way to help fund your studies.

In your final year you’ll complete a final year project pulling together the business and computing aspects of your degree. You also have the option to work together with an external company on this project.