Your degree in Business Information Systems is aimed to help you move towards becoming a professional in the business environment with a strong understanding of people, technology, and how to use these to create solutions. Your degree takes place over 3 years (4 if you are also studying a Foundation Year) and each year is split into two semesters. The first semester runs from September to January and the second semester from late January to May.
You will study three modules per semester, where each module covers different areas of Business Information Systems. What makes this course exciting and unique is that the modules are delivered by Computing and Business professionals, giving you the language and understanding to bridge both aspects of modern businesses and organisations.
During the first semester of your first year, you will be introduced to programming; produce small systems using Arduino or Raspberry Pi systems and start to learn about the complexity of modern businesses. In your second semester you will study three further modules covering people management in business and its importance for business success; You will also start to reflect on the impact of computing on society – the benefits and potential drawbacks and what impact you may have in the future on sustainability and think about the skills you need for future employment. Finally, you will take part in a development project – building a system. You will largely be assessed through assignments, and there will be some presentations and class tests to match tasks that are undertaken in industry.
Year 1 Modules:
Semester 1
- Programming Designs and Development (Part 1)
- Deployment Technologies for Computing
- Academic Skills for Business & Management
Semester 2
- Programming Designs and Development (Part 2)
- Managing People in Organisations
- Ethics, Professionalism and Employability in Computing
- Software Lifecycle Group Development Project
In the second and third year you will study increasingly advanced modules to give you a broad understanding of a range of topic areas relevant to a variety of roles in business and information systems.
You will need to attend University, split between on-campus and online taught sessions, on at least three days a week to attend timetabled classes. The timetable will be given to you when it is finalised over the summer. A degree gives you the ability to 'learn how to learn’, a skill that is developed through self-study alongside the taught sessions. There will be times throughout your degree when you will be expected to work with other students outside of the taught sessions face-to-face and remotely via technology.
Before you arrive at the University there are some activities that will help you to ‘hit the ground running. If you have your own computer then we suggest the following website would be a good starting point to understand how computer programming works. This is especially of interest, if you haven’t done any programming before. You can download the software for free and make use of the tutorials to create simple apps for Android phones.
You will need a Google account; it may be worth creating a new one should you wish to use this. Under the ‘Resources’ menu option there are a number of tutorials, at different levels from Basic to Advanced. Try a few basic tutorials before you look at Intermediate or Advanced ones. This will help you learn how the tutorials guide you as well as using the App Inventor Interface before you try more complex tasks.
Alternatively, you could look at Programming in Python using either of the sites below:
Both of these are free.
Other information
We recommend you don’t buy any software as much of what you will need during your degree will be available to you for free or a much-reduced price once you start. You will find having your own computer exceedingly useful. This will help you to do your assessments in your own time and attend any classes that are online. If you are looking to buy a computer then we suggest that you look at reviews of different computers online as we find it hard to recommend a particular product. As a computing student you will find that you will need a computer with an above minimum specification for the chosen operating system (look at what is required for Windows 10 or 11).
We suggest that you look at the recommended specification for Visual Studio Professional as an absolute minimum. Higher specifications will help safeguard you against future increases in minimum requirements, and higher processor speeds will help run multiple programmes at once. For hard disk space, larger capacities are required to fit additional software. A minimum suggested size would be 256GB – particularly important if you plan to use solid state drives. You should note that we use the Windows environment predominantly in the Department of Computing, so if you buy an Apple system then it would benefit from being able to dual boot Windows and MacOS. If you buy a Linux only system then you may find you will need to install a Windows operating system at a later date, and this is generally more expensive than buying a computer with Windows already installed on it.
You may find that if you are doing a lot of studying on your computer, having a web-cam, headphones and possibly even a second monitor really useful. If you use a laptop, do consider a mouse and full-size keyboard to help. We have found that students who are trying to study at home appreciate having a good, stable internet connection, and we have found that changing provider at the moment is taking longer than it has done previously.
Your welcome and induction will be w/c 16 September 2024 - we look forward to meeting you then.
Community
On the social side, the Student Union (CCSU) has a huge range of clubs and societies – all of which have unique social calendars of their own and offer endless opportunities to make lifelong friends and discover new hobbies. And you can always create your own society and cultivate your own community!
CCSU will be hosting their Welcome Fayre on Wednesday 18th September 2024. Make sure you keep checking the CCSU website for further details and how to get involved.
We understand that you may be nervous about your first few weeks on campus but rest assured - you'll be joining a nurturing and supportive environment where diversity, equality and individuality are part of everything we do.
You can find out more about our welcoming community and making friends here.
If you are an International Student joining us then please see our International Student Support pages for further information and guidance.
