During the programme

Important topics in the study programme are marketing, cultural diversity, consumer behaviour, creativity, humanity, technology, business models, branding, culture, media, entrepreneurship, professional identity, multiple electives (such as Artificial Intelligence, Circular innovation and Growth hacking), various research approaches and a graduation project.

In your first year, you explore the foundations of international creative business together with your fellow students. You focus on marketing, professional onboarding, research skills and innovations in the creative business field. Important approaches such as agile working and design thinking are introduced, you learn the basics of collaboration and get acquainted with project work.

• Block A & B: Innovations of Creative Business, Creative Lab, Collaborative Studio, Effective Communications, Professional Onboarding
  
• Block C & D: Marketing Playground, Challenging Human Biases, Research Design, Media Culture, Professional Onboarding

In the second year, you learn to think and work like a creative professional. You'll get many reality checks in the form of real projects, guest lectures, and introductions to the professional field. This year, you get a taste of what it means to work like a creative problem-solver and pioneer. You choose the elective courses that are most interesting and relevant to you, thus constructing your ideal learning path. In year two you will follow four important courses of 10 ECTS each, building on the knowledge and skills you gained in your 1, to a higher level:

• Block A & B: Innovation Leadership - Research-based prototyping + Electives
• Block C & D: Tech4Good - Media Strategy + Electives

In year two you will follow four important courses of 10 ECTS each, building on the knowledge and skills you gained in your 1, to a higher level:

• Innovation Leadership
• Research-based Prototyping
• Tech4Good
• Media Strategy

Next that that, you can follow your own interests and choose 4 elective courses out of a very broad offer, such as: 

• Effective Value Capturing
• Better Business Better Planet
• Coding Community
• Participatory Cultures   
• Framing in the media
• The Power of sound 
• Data Visualisations 
• Immersive Experience Design
• Brand Strategy
• Influencing your Audience 
• Content Marketing
• Wild Card

In the third year you can start “My Internship” or your Profiling Space in the semester of your choice. We encourage students to spend a part of this year in a non-native environment, to develop your global mindset and intercultural skills.

One semester is devoted to your minor. You may study at one of our 70+ foreign partner universities or any Dutch university, including Hogeschool Utrecht. Whatever you choose to do, this year, you experience new cultures and truly learn what it's like to work in international creative business.

In your final year you will learn to deal with complex problems independently, by using all the competences you developed throughout your CB journey. In the first block you will practice this in smaller courses. After that, you will work on your Graduation Project. In this project you will analyse a real business case, identify the real problem, design a research methodology to develop a prototype-based solution which you will pitch to your client and examiner. By year 4, you will be able to build your own professional profile, and ready to transition to your professional life.

Mandatory courses

• Digital Circularity
• Professional Identity
• Graduation Journey

Electives

• Decentralising the Creator Economy
• On-Brand Experience Design
• Navigating Wicked Problems
• The Power of Ethical Advertising

You will have about 15 hours of lesson time per week, and will spend about 25 hours on group work and individual study. Our teaching methods vary depending on the module, but the focus is always on student participation. You build up your own professional experience through workshops, incubators, assignments for companies, games, e-learning and labs. We think reflection, self-evaluation and critical thinking are as important as hands-on skills.

Courses in Creative Business are assessed primarily through assignments, which include essays, marketing plans, business concepts, portfolios and pitches. Our assessment methods reflect what students do in the professional field. For many assessments, we work with challenges or briefs of clients or tackle real problems that a certain sector is facing. 

We are moving to competence-based assessment, where the growth of the student in specific learning outcomes is central. For this purpose, we focus on larger assessment units (e.g. 10 ECTS) and assignments that have space for the individual student’s own ideas and output. Our assessment is student-driven, challenge-based and focuses on concrete projects.

Are you keen to follow an expanded and more intensive version of the standard programme, or accumulate Honours Stars during your regular studies? Our Honours Programme could be for you! If you collect five stars in total, you graduate with honours.

Your tuition fee at HU depends on a number of factors, for example your nationality. Want to know which fee applies to you? Are you an international student? Check the tuition fee calculator. Or if you have a Dutch nationality? Check this tuition fee calculator.

LinkUP is a dedicated team organising a wide range of social activities for their fellow CB students: trips abroad, arts and music festivals, educational events and regular parties, as well as the introduction camp.

From day one, you are allocated a personal Academic Advisor, who supports you during your time with us. Your Academic Advisor helps you with all study-related issues, from time management to study methods and career planning, your professional profile and personal brand.

In the third year you can start the work placement (My Internship) or your Profiling Space in the semester of your choice. We now strongly encourage students to spend a part of this year in a non-native environment, to develop your global mindset and intercultural skills.