Make the world your workplace by becoming an all-rounder in IT.
As a prospective IT professional, you are open to new developments and can accurately assess clients' wishes and needs. If you are interested in programming, app design, digital security, big data or artificial intelligence, this programme is for you.
The four-year Information Technology degree combines theory with practice. You will collaborate in years 3 & 4 with IT companies and work on real business assignments during your minors. Discover more about the Information Technology courses, minors, internships and the programme structure below.
The Information Technology programme features a wide range of courses, taught by lecturers with various areas of expertise such as software development, interaction design, cloud, security, big data & AI as well as communication and research skills. We aim to ensure that our education ties in closely with professional practice, allowing you to build a solid foundation for multiple roles in the IT sector.
As we prioritise personal attention and individual supervision, it is not surprising that students regard the involvement and helpfulness of the lecturers as one of the best aspects of the degree programme.
Phases
The programme is divided into three phases: the first-year phase, the core phase and the graduation phase. During the first year, you will lay the foundations for your development as a software developer and IT specialist. In the core phase (second year and first half of the third year), you will be faced with complex tasks. You will conclude the core phase with a professional orientation work placement in the third year. In the second half of the third and first half of the fourth year, you will choose from various elective modules. To conclude your studies, you will carry out an individual graduation project at a company in which you conduct practice-oriented research and develop an IT product.
Terms
A year is divided into four terms in which education is structured according to themes from professional IT practices. The lessons and educational activities in a particular term relate to a specific theme, e.g. web design or programming. The theme usually involves an assignment that has to be resolved using Agile / Scrum.
Teaching methods
• You attend lectures and seminars and take part in practical sessions.
• You attend guest lectures and participate in excursions.
• You participate in a work placement.
• You take part in assignments that involve working in an Agile team with fellow students, tackling a concrete practical assignment.
Still have doubts?
Do you like technology and the way it is implemented but are you not quite sure whether Information Technology is the best programme for you? Then it would be a good idea to look at related courses with a different focus, such as:
The first year is divided into four terms, which are organised around central themes, such as web creation or application building. In this way, you become acquainted with the broad IT field of software development. You take Information Technology-related courses, but also mathematics and English to strengthen your basic skills. You will immediately put what you've learned to practical use.
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In the second year, we dive deeper into the subject matter, and you learn how to program for the Web and in JAVA. The projects focus on NoSQL, web applications and API programming, and you complete a code generation project that integrates both front-end and back-end. In addition to technical subjects, communication skills, English, social-ethical, privacy aspects and desk research also come into play.
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During your third year of Information Technology, you do an internship at a company or organisation of your choice. This internship will enable you to become familiar with the day-to-day work and opportunities of an IT professional. If you wish, you can also do the internship abroad.
After the work placement, you enter the graduation phase in which you begin to specialise. In the second half of the third year and the first half of the fourth year, you can choose between various minors. For a maximum of six months, you may take a minor at a different university of applied sciences in the Netherlands or a university of applied sciences or university abroad.
The following options exist:
UX Design (February - April)
Within the fast-growing digital world, new software is released every day. A lot of these desktop and ever-growing mobile applications are targeted to specific user groups as tooling for a specific problem they might encounter.
These applications range from E-health tools for supporting specific therapies for people at home to software that stimulates people to choose environment-friendly routes by avoiding schools and densely populated areas while travelling by car. To make these tools truly useful their operation should be flawless, and their interface should be clear and understandable.
A great design finds its base in researching the human angle, considering the people’s perspectives, daily lives and struggles. Meeting them, interviewing them, and talking about their processes, needs and experiences with (perhaps) other tools. All this knowledge is then combined into a design offering a fitting user experience (UX) for the intended audience.
In this course, we try to emulate real-life conditions by offering a methodology for students to find and sort information to be able to come up with the best design solutions. Students will work on real-life issues from real clients. Their solutions should be based on research and visualised in a feasible and testable prototype using Figma.
Security (April - June)
Nearly every day, the news informs us of incidents where the government or companies are dealing with cyber-attacks from hackers. Today’s software engineering professionals must understand the basic discipline of building secure software. Not because “it’s a good idea”, but because the nature of the internet mandates it.
This minor is highly practical and is divided into a number of courses.
Big Data & AI (February - June)
The “Big Data & AI” minor is about discovering patterns in large amounts of data and creating artificial intelligence applications. Is there, for example, a connection between traffic incidents and the weather and can we use this to make better predictions? You will develop an application that enables you to present the results of your research on a map or a graph.
Within the minor ‘Big Data & AI’ you will work with big data technologies like Hadoop, Hive and Spark. The assignments have a practical emphasis and are designed to get students acquainted with the concepts of machine learning, deep learning and applied artificial intelligence in general.
In the fourth year, you will first take various minors for six months. You can choose between Mobile development or Cloud Computing. The minors are followed by the individual graduation phase which almost always involves an independent research and development process commissioned by a company. For example, you might develop a proof-of-concept for a mobile application. During your graduation thesis, you will report on the project.
Mobile Development (September – January)
The vast adoption of mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets has rapidly changed the landscape of stand-alone application development for consumer applications. Mobile devices provide various application design challenges, due to their modest screen sizes, and provide innovative application opportunities. This minor focuses on teaching you how to design and develop native applications for iOS and Android, with an authentic platform-specific look and feel.
Designing a mobile application is covered in Mobile UX workshops. Hands-on development experience with iOS and Android is obtained in workshops covering these platforms. Preparation for using the applicable programming languages (Swift and Kotlin) is provided in separate workshops. A course consisting of classes and workshops provides you with insights into security and communication best practices. You also get to experience a glimpse of the development of server-side software through a crash course workshop on Azure.
The core of the minor consists of a group project for an external client (not-for-profit), which provides you with the opportunity to see your mobile application being applied in practice.
Cloud Computing (September - January)
Over the past decade, server-side software deployment models have rapidly changed, and the availability of cloud services has greatly increased. Thorough knowledge of IaaS and PaaS solutions is vital to software developers specialising in backend software development.
This minor addresses these topics in a hands-on manner and teaches you how to develop cloud-based serverless solutions. It consists of various classes and workshops with topics ranging from obtaining hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure to cloud database models, REST API design and testing, Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) and DevOps.
A general overview of the scope of the concepts of cloud computing is provided by this course.
The core of the minor is a team project for an external client (not for profit), which provides you with the opportunity to see your backend being applied in practice.
Bachelor of Science
Once you have successfully completed the Information Technology programme, you have earned a Bachelor of Science degree!
It is important that you quickly feel at home at Inholland University of Applied Sciences. That you know how your programme is set up and how you can study effectively. Our Study Coaches are here to get you off to a good start and will introduce you to your study group. Should you have specific study-related problems, your mentor is happy to provide advice.
The IT sector is very international. Apart from operating globally, companies also provide services to customers abroad and you meet people from all corners of the world. An internship or study abroad is therefore certainly encouraged. We have partnerships with, for example, universities and companies in China or South Africa.