Course content

With a sense of purpose, business can be used to provoke changes. A globalised economy of purpose requires a future business professional to become conscious of their potential and responsibility to contribute to the changes in international business. By making conscious connections in the world of international business, you can bring about benefits in terms of all values: people, planet and profit. The International Business programme offers you the opportunity to develop a thorough grasp of global business economics and puts emphasis on developing your personal and professional awareness, cultural readiness and intercultural communication skills.

Saxion has long-standing collaborative partnerships with various organisations such as technological-, services- and trading companies. Since no one knows better what is expected from you as a graduate than your future employer, these businesses provide us with essential input to ensure that our teaching remains relevant and up to date. During your final assignment, you will spend time in a real company to apply the theory and learn directly in the professional field. The School of Finance and International Business will challenge you to further develop your international ambitions and your personal brand.

During your time as a student, you will learn to manage your own (study) career. A study career coach is assigned to every student to help them find their way around, both in the Netherlands and within our school, and to develop an independent and entrepreneurial attitude. Your study career coach will also support you in making the right decisions to be successful in identifying your mission and fulfilling your ambitions. They will help you to choose a suitable company to do your final assignment and will challenge you to explore your future career prospects.

The application of theory during practical assignments is a trademark of our programme. We work inside-out, which means that the talent and ambition of an individual student is the starting point in our competence-oriented programme. Throughout your programme you will work on practical assignments in groups, where you will apply knowledge and skills gained from theory in real-life business situations.

In this subject you will learn (how) to reflect on and analyse how you deal with different situations and people, both familiar and unfamiliar, expected and unexpected. You can describe and illustrate your attitude and behaviour and reflect on them with the goal to learn and grow. You embrace accountability for your own attitude and development, personal as well as professional.

Business research is an integral part of the curriculum. Real-life business cases are the starting point. You learn how to collect, analyse and interpret both primary and secondary data to solve company problems and answer questions, and to judge the validity and reliability of such data critically. You get acquainted with new trends and developments in research and data science, and are also taught to consider the legal and ethical constraints when dealing with data. Furthermore, the curriculum teaches you to choose the appropriate means of communicating conclusions and recommendations to a wide array of target groups.

As a graduate you will be able to work as a business partner in an international business context. Apart from language skills at Business English C1 level, this requires performative language skills such as intercultural cooperation, conducting interviews, complex business correspondence, writing business reports, holding meetings, giving presentations, argumentative writing, negotiating, and debating. In the Business Communication course you will learn all that, in order to not only be able to communicate your messages effectively and persuasively using advanced English to an (un)informed audience, but also to be able to collaborate effectively with different stakeholders in different cultural, organisational, and political landscapes, to contribute to achieving agreed goals.

As a graduate you can analyse the cultural, sustainable and ethical implications of the international context in which you move, react to these appropriately, and effectively bridge cultural differences on an operational and strategic level. You will display a high level of awareness of your own role in this process, have knowledge of intercultural and ethical issues, show intercultural and ethical sensitivity and possess appropriate verbal and non-verbal skills.