Business Information Technology, Cyber Security

Programme content

In this programme you will deepen your expertise in Cybersecurity with business management perspective. Programme content is connected to cybersecurity frameworks provided by the most prominent associations including Comptia, ISC2 and ISACA.

All teachers have a professional background from business and IT industries. Laurea continuously co-operates with industry partners (AWS, FISC, Hoxhunt, Insta, Loihde, Microsoft, Nixu, Nokia, Palo Alto Networks, PwC and Splunk) to bring in the latest competencies and technologies into our courses. Workplace collaboration has a very important role at Laurea, and the BIT programme was developed in close cooperation with our partners in the business world.

The programme is composed of compulsory core competencies, complementary competencies, job placements and final project/thesis.

Core competence

The compulsory core competencies contain modules that will give you fundamental skills and competencies on the following areas:

Complementary competence

complementary competencies (60 ECTS) consist of following study modules:

The final project/thesis is normally completed at the end of the studies in connection with an organization of the working-life and your IT specialization area.

Job placements will give you working life experience and extend your skills. We recommend that you complete the job placements in a company of your choice connected with your IT specialization area.

See the curriculum

Studying in the Business Information Technology programme

This programme utilizes online studies associated with a possibility for campus-based counselling sessions or seminars. Studies are designed to meet the needs of students who prefer distance learning or want to achieve BBA degree while working. This programme is particularly suitable for students who want to study independently, efficiently, and independent of time or place. Despite the independence in studies and flexibility, studies require daily work.

You will have clear contact points during your studies. The study unit responsible teachers support your learning process in individual study units and your personal tutor teacher helps you plan your studies. The support and counselling processes apply modern asynchronous and synchronous online communication tools depending on the issue or topic being discussed. Additionally, you can have special support (e.g. health care or career services) if the issue cannot be solved with the study unit teachers or your personal tutor teacher.

You will study remotely with the opportunity to interact with teachers, staff, and other students by using modern interactive online learning and communication platforms. Online webinars, workshops and possible campus-based counselling sessions are typically organized at the evenings Finnish time (GMT+2) between 15:00 and 18:00 o’clock

You can become a student regardless where you live: in Finland, EU, or any other country in the world. Note, that if you are admitted, you will need to participate in a mandatory 3-day kick-off period on our campus in Espoo, Finland. If you’re not able to participate on our campus in Espoo, we offer the possibility to join the orientation virtually (using zoom / teams). We still highly recommend everyone to join the orientation on our campus since this is a good opportunity to meet and network with other students.

Estimated workload is about 25 hours per week at minimum. During studies, you will get to apply diverse learning methods including videos, e-books, articles, webinars, discussions, multiple choice questions, essays, hands-on training and project work.

The programme is designed to be completed in three to three and a half years. However, it is possible to speed up the studies and graduate in two years.

Laurea has flexible RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) procedures in place. In practice, if you already have a degree, previous work-experience on BBA level jobs or IT related certificates, you will have the chance of compensating part of the programme with credit transfers or competence demonstrations, effectively allowing you to speed-up your study time.

Our key partners

One major part of studies is working in close cooperation with the working life. Our students work with companies in the IT sector in projects and our working life partners participate in lectures, providing our students with the most up-to-date information from the field.

One part of this cooperation are our key partners. In the Cyber Security programme, we cooperate with Nixu and PwC.

Employment and work placements

The studies include practical training (approximately five months), which can be taken in one or two parts. The work placements are an important step towards employment, helping you further enhance your competence in an area of your interest. A work placement can be taken in Finland or abroad. Laurea has networked well with the cybersecurity domain and the students are informed timely when new working opportunities are available. In addition, Laurea offers Finnish language courses for the non-Finnish speakers and well-organized career support services for the students who would like to settle in Finland for longer time or permanently.

The BIT Cyber programme provides you with a broad range of possibilities for employment. These include jobs requiring technical skills as well as jobs in which more general business expertise is required.

As a graduate you have a possibility to work in different roles:

• Security Consultant
• Technical Support Specialist
• Network Operations Specialist
• System Administrator
• Systems Security Analyst
• IT Project Manager

Internationality in studies

In addition to technical competences, studying in an international group promotes cooperation, interaction, and communication skills, much valued by employers.  At the beginning of the studies students are divided to peer support groups (size 3-5 students) where a student is integrated into the intercultural group naturally. The students have also possibility apply to Erasmus exchange programs, take job placement abroad or participate to international research projects. Laurea offers Finnish language courses if a student wants to advance his or her Finnish skills.

Tuition fees and scholarships

Non-EU/EEA area students in degree programmes taught in English are charged tuition fees.

Tuition fee: €8 000/ academic year for non EU/EEA students.

Read more about the tuition fees and scholarships

Opportunities for further studies

After completing the bachelor’s degree, students can apply for master’s degree programmes in Finland and abroad. You can for example complete a master’s degree in a university of applied sciences after two years of working experience following your bachelor’s graduation. We offer two suitable master’s degree programmes for graduates of Business Information Technology programme:

• Master’s Degree Programme in Leading Transformational Change
• Master’s Degree programme in Service Innovation and Design

In addition, you apply to a university to complete a Master’s degree in Information systems, Cognitive Computing and Collective Intelligence or other IT related programmes.