BSc Business Information Systems with Foundation Year

The foundation year aims to improve your computing knowledge and prepare you for study at undergraduate level.

You'll learn using IT software that is modern and commercially relevant, such as the Microsoft Office suite, including Project, web-based content management systems, database systems such as Oracle, and rapid prototyping software like Balsamiq.

All through the course, you'll experience through hands-on learning from on and off campus and on-line learning. This will develop your practical agile problem-solving approach to create IT solutions to problems. You will undertake group projects, typically sourced from industry or akin to problems in industry. Your groupwork will be supported through the use on-line tools and on-line project management solutions. You'll also develop skills enabling you to:

• work effectively and supportively in diverse and inclusive groups
• communicate effectively in groups and one to one
• apply project management to group-work
• apply principles of commercial management and consideration of wider issues.

During Year 1, you'll develop a strong background in business information systems so that you can move on to more specialist studies in the final two years of the course.

You will have the opportunity to take in your third year, providing you meet the requirements.  If you can identify and secure a placement opportunity, with the support from the computing team.  A placement will provide you with the further opportunity to develop your skills as a practicing computing professional, a personal development plan and evidence of your abilities for your future employers.

This allows you to put your learning into practice within a business setting. There may also be opportunities to apply for paid internships over the summer.

By the end of the degree, you'll be able to analyse business problems and will know how to help businesses solve their own issues using both top-down and bottom-up techniques.

You'll develop a good appreciation of team working: how teams are formed to maximise capability and how they manage workload, schedules and resourcing. You'll also have a good awareness and understanding of other roles in computing - software engineers and developers, infrastructure developers, support technicians and computer security specialists - meaning you'll be well placed to work alongside other computing professionals.