Business Information Technology (BIT) programme gives you the chance to develop skills in IT and business management. Along with the digital service business, you will learn the basics of requirement analysis, application design, -implementation and -testing. As work is becoming more digital, companies need skilled application developers who are familiar with all the phases of software development life cycle. This programme is designed to fill those needs.

Programme content

This degree programme offers you the opportunity to specialize in Digital Service Development. The programme is suitable for anyone that is interested in studying IT, as well as for career changers or people who are already working in the IT-domain. Studying in this programme deepens your competence in Digital Services Development including Design of Applications, Applications Development and Testing & Quality Assurance. The programme is composed of compulsory core competencies, complementary competencies, job placements and final project/thesis.

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.

Core competence

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

Complementary competence

Complementary competencies give you the possibility to focus your specialization on specific fields of BIT that you find interesting and useful. The complementary competencies consist of following study modules:

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

Job placements will allow you to get 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

Studies in the Business Information Technology programme are online. 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. Even though you will study remotely, you can interact with teachers, staff, and other students by using modern interactive online learning and communication platforms.

This programme is particularly suitable for students who want to study independently, efficiently, and flexibly. Studies require good personal time management skills and target oriented mindset.

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. In practice, studies require daily work. Teachers support your learning process in individual study units and your personal tutor teacher helps you for planning your studies.

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.

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 a possibility to compensate part of the programme with credit transfers or competence demonstrations, effectively allowing you to speed-up your study time.

Students may choose the development projects around Industry 4.0 topics, e.g. service robots, robotic process automation, Internet of Things, data analytics, virtual reality or digital content production.

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 Business Information Technology programme, we cooperate with Efecte, PwC, Nixu, Digi and Eduix.

Employment and work placements

The studies include practical training (approximately five months), which can be completed in one or two parts. Work placements are an important step towards employment, helping you further enhance your competence in an area of your interest. A work placement can take place in Finland or abroad.
The BIT programme provides you with a broad range of possibilities for employment. These include jobs requiring profound technical skills as well as jobs in which more general business expertise is required.

Our graduates typically work as:

• IT consultants
• application/web/mobile developers
• IT specialists
• data analyst
• ecommerce specialists
• agile product owner/scrum master
• project managers

Upon graduation you will have a good set of competences needed in Digital Service Development in the modern working environment. Laurea’s BIT students have found employment particularly in web and mobile application development.

If you are planning to build your future career in Finland, you have an opportunity to study Finnish -language, and utilize personal tutoring for career planning.

Internationality in studies

In IT field you will typically work in multicultural organizations. During studies, students work in multicultural student teams which promote collaboration, cocreation, communication and presentation skills, much valued by the employers. You can also accomplish part of your studies in international hackathons, design sprints and RDI projects. Students may choose the development projects around Industry 4.0 topics, e.g. service robots, robotic process automation, Internet of Things, data analytics, virtual reality or digital content production.

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 their 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.