International Business and Languages will become more international.
- The study programme International Business and Languages gets a makeover.
- It will become the second English based bachelor programme of Windesheim.
Until now Global Project and Change Management is the only study programme that is completely English based. Starting coming academic year this will also be the case for the updated programme International Business and Languages. “IBL attracts about 100 Dutch first years every year. Exchange students were not our target audience, they were also not able to enrol if they didn’t speak Dutch’’, says study programme manager Pieter van Essen.
“Starting September 2018 the entire programme will be English based. The focus will be on business processes.” The transformation is happening at all comparable IBL study programmes in the Netherlands, that now will be named International Business (IB).
Van Essen is expecting about ten first year students from abroad coming year. In the new study programme students also choose German or French, besides English. Van Essen: “The level of the second language will be higher.” Foreign exchange students have to pick Dutch as second language.
International Business consist of four components: ‘Finance & Accounting’, ‘Marketing & Sales’, ’Organisation & People’ and ‘Supply Chain Management’. The last two are new.
Another change is that students have to go abroad twice during their degree programme: the first time for an internship and the second time to study at a foreign partner University. Is he expecting a big turning point? Van Essen: “In past years our teachers have been taking Cambridge English courses and have been developing themselves in teaching students with a wide range of culture and background.”
For the students the international character will also be a change. “In informal settings there would still have been a lot of Dutch speaking. For some this gradual change to English was pleasant. While others did not have a problem speaking English from day one, if they came from an English speaking vocational education or a bilingual secondary school, for example.”
New for Windesheim is the possibility for IB-students to stay with a host family in Zwolle in exchange for certain costs. Van Essen: “That helps them get used to Dutch culture and to learn the language faster. The students can choose this, but he is also free in choosing his own accommodation.” (EM)
