Business Computing BSc (Hons)

Course overview

You can still apply to BU (including through UCAS Extra). Please apply through UCAS as soon as possible; your application can only be assessed once we have received it from UCAS.

This course is accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS)*

This course forms part of our Computing Framework. When applying through UCAS you should use the course code G505.

Students have the opportunity of completing Cisco CCNA certification courses during this degree course at the BU Cisco Certified Local Networking Academy.

The course will appeal to those applicants who like the idea of combining business and computing, but who wish to pursue a more technology- based computing course. Graduates still have the knowledge of business process, which is where the greatest use of computing is found, and combine it with depth in computing, to be creators of business software and systems.

This course forms part of the Bournemouth University Computing Framework of courses, allowing you to change your choice of course within the Framework to best suit your needs.

The richness of careers in the IT industry means that students are not always clear about which area they wish to specialise in before they join us. Some do not decide until they reach the final year. With this in mind, we have designed this Framework to have a common first year and a second year which is largely common. This design gives you exposure to a variety of modern technologies and techniques, before you make your final decision. The first two years cover those areas we know to be foundational for all professionals in this field, in addition year two enables a measure of specialism. In the final year, you have the opportunity to specialise further or to keep your education broader and more general.

Placement Experience

You can take any courses in the framework either as a four year sandwich course, with a 40 week industrial placement in the third year, or as a full-time three year course. We strongly encourage school and college leavers to do the placement, it helps in a number of ways for example: It has been shown to improve students' final degree classification. Having a chance to put theory into practice and see how real businesses operate makes a real difference to your outlook. The one year experience greatly improves student employment prospects - because of that real world experience. Some students are offered jobs after they graduate by their placement company. Some companies even help with fees for the final year. It can help with final career choice. For example some students want to be programmers or marketers but after a year in industry they sometimes say that doing it eight hours a day for five days a week has taken the fun out of it. Alternatively people who 'hated' systems analysis sometimes come back from placement saying they really enjoyed doing it on placement and want to specialise in that area. However we understand that some people want to complete their degree in three years and we are more than happy to help them achieve their aims.

*It is a general condition of the BCS that for Chartered IT Professional registration it will be necessary for students undertaking a Bachelors Honours degree programme to complete a year of further learning beyond graduation.