Business Information Systems with Foundation BSc Honours

Course summary

Our degree courses with Foundation year offer the opportunity to prepare you for advanced study before you progress onto a full honours degree at the University of Westminster. Whether you do not feel ready for degree-level study, don’t have the right qualifications, want to change your subject specialism or return to study after an absence from education, we aim to encourage a broad range of students to undertake our Foundation year in order to progress onto their full honours degree with us.

The Foundation year is designed to give you the opportunity to explore new ideas, opening up new perspectives on the key debates within your chosen field. During the foundation year you will explore a range of creative disciplines and get a chance to develop in your chosen field, benefiting from workshops in our high end facilities and working with leading academics who will encourage you to become a confident and creative thinker. Core modules accelerate your academic and professional development and you will also take modules within your chosen field, giving you the chance to develop a cross-disciplinary perspective on your course. 

On successful completion of the Foundation year, you'll be able to move on to study for the Business Information Systems BSc Honours over a further three years study.

Working as an IT professional in the world of information systems can be exciting and rewarding as businesses become more and more reliant on information systems and IT qualified managers to support innovation, day to day operations, sound and strategic business planning to address future challenges and opportunities.

Our Business Information Systems BSc will give you a clear perspective of the current nature and practice of digital business and will develop your understanding of the business challenges of an enterprise, and your ability to conceive and manage business solutions, to business problems, which are increasingly ICT dependent.

You’ll integrate your skills of problem solving and be able to consult on, support or develop the technological platforms of a business to achieve competitive advantage, building a career in roles ranging from systems developer, consultant, project manager to business manager.

Our course offers a short-term business-based learning experience that will give you the opportunity to work on a real-world business problem and put your new knowledge and skills into practice within the context of a business ecosystem.

You’ll also have the opportunity to undertake a year in industry (work placement) after completing the second year of your study. This will help you gain work experience and enhance your employability. You’ll be offered help and support to find and secure placement opportunities via the Careers and Employability Service and the course team.

Top reasons to study with us

• Develop the skills and knowledge that will help you play a leading role in using IT and information systems to achieve business goals
• Learn to use IT management skills to help improve business efficiency and sharpen a company’s competitive edge
• Build the skills that will help you lead digital transformation, plan strategically and redesign business secure operations as well as establish business processes and direct digitalization in big and small companies
• You’ll have the opportunity to undertake a work placement year to develop your skills and enhance your employability
• Our course meets business and industry needs and ensures that you, as tomorrow’s business managers, are equipped with important IT, business, project management, personal and interpersonal skills
• You'll qualify for free British Computer Society (BCS) academic membership for the duration of your studies. The BCS supports those working in the IT industry and has a commitment to making IT good for society. The organisation has over 60,000 members in 150 countries, and a wider community of business leaders, educators, practitioners and policy-makers. Membership of the BCS will allow you to continue your professional development and enjoy a range of valuable networking opportunities. For more information, visit the BCS website

Course structure

You’ll learn through a mixture of lectures, practical tutorials, laboratory sessions and independent study.

In Year 1 you will be introduced to business and information systems fundamentals, concepts, components and architectures.

In Years 2 and 3 you will follow the Specialist Themes tha interest you the most.

Specialist Themes

Business Information Systems and Business Management

You'll focus on how value is created in business activities through the use of IT to establish competitive advantage, and how the alignment between business strategy and technology can be managed in an efficient and effective way.

Business Information Systems and Business Analytics

You'll focus on unlocking insights into data to improve business efficiency, financial performance and strategic management. You'll learn to interrogate information needs and transform information into knowledge, and knowledge to decisions and actions.

Business Information Systems and IT/ Cyber Security

You'll understand how to defend IT-based business systems, networks and data from cybercrime and become a cybersecurity professional.

The following subjects are indicative of what you will study on this course. 

• Foundation
• Year 1
• Year 2
• Placement Year
• Year 3

Professional accreditation

This course is CITP (Chartered IT Professional) and partial CEng (Chartered Engineer) accredited by the BCS (British Computer Society).