Business Information Technology: Digital Service Development

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.

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.

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.