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Business Information Technology with a Foundation Year - BSc (Hons)

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The BSc (Hons) Business Information Technology (BIT) course will provide you with knowledge and skills that bridge the gap between IT and Business to drive digital transformation, innovation and growth. It aims to provide you with the skills and experience needed to communicate and collaborate effectively with business users in both technical and non-technical industries....

  • Level Foundation
  • Study mode Full Time
  • Location City Centre
  • School School of Computing and Digital Technology
  • Faculty Faculty of Computing, Engineering and The Built Environment

Overview

The BSc (Hons) Business Information Technology (BIT) course will provide you with knowledge and skills that bridge the gap between IT and Business to drive digital transformation, innovation and growth. It aims to provide you with the skills and experience needed to communicate and collaborate effectively with business users in both technical and non-technical industries. While the course contains a broad underpinning of traditional computing skills, it also focuses heavily on the highly sought-after digital transformation skills critical to keeping companies advancing in an information age.

Throughout your computing degree, you will be supported by expert teaching staff, many of whom have worked in the field of computing, are active in transformational research and are continually innovating with industry partners to achieve success.

About the Foundation Year

The Foundation Year course option enables you to study for our BSc (Hons) degree over an extended full-time duration of four years by including a Foundation Certificate (year one of four). The Foundation Certificate provides a comprehensive study course that underpins the follow-on degree. To progress to the next year of your degree, it is necessary to achieve a pass in all of the modules of the Foundation Certificate.

STEAMhouse building exterior

Introducing STEAMhouse

STEAMhouse is a centre for technology, innovation, creative thinking, prototyping and business development. Our brand new £70 million pound building is the new home for the School of Computing and Digital Technology.

Find out more

This course is open to International students.

What's covered in this course?

This course is for you if you want to combine a highly rigorous academic qualification with real life practical work experiences to make IT work for businesses. The course enables you to think like a coder to influence organisations' design, development, and use of information systems and technology. You will also gain an in-depth understanding of how organisations can harness the data to improve decision-making.

You will be based at our City Centre Campus. You will work collaboratively with tutors, researchers and businesses, applying practice-based skills to real-life case studies and live project briefs, which will develop your problem-solving and analytical skills.

The course will help you develop a strategic mindset to address global challenges, leveraging technology to meet business needs. You will have access to virtual learning environments and networking, electronic enterprise systems and business intelligence laboratories.

Studying computing with us puts you at the heart of an exciting, innovative community. Part of your first-year assessment will involve participating in our annual Innovation Fest, where students get together to solve society's problems with sustainable solutions using creative technology.

It is not just about academic and technical knowledge – we'll also help you develop your personal and professional skills so that you can work effectively as a team member to impact many of the challenges facing modern society positively. 

Accredited By

This course is accredited by:

  • Athena Swan Bronze Award

Why Choose Us?

  • Brand new facilities at STEAMhouse - This £70 million state-of-the-art building will become the new home for the School of Computing and Digital Technology from the start of the 2022 academic year. Based at our expanding City Centre Campus, this unique centre will give you access to outstanding facilities and teaching spaces, as well as opportunities to collaborate with people and businesses across multiple sectors and work on real industry-based projects
  • Industry-standard facilities  - You will be based in Millennium Point, at our City Centre Campus, which has recently undergone a £6.5 million investment, including advanced software development and computer programming labs
  • Optional placement year  - We offer the option of a sandwich year, enabling you to undertake valuable work experience - See where our students go on placement
  • Preparation for industry - You will gain experience working in multidisciplinary teams and learn how to apply your skills for industry
  • Highly employable graduates  - Our graduates have gone on to work at companies such as IBM Mercedes Benz and Microsoft
  •  Learn from industry experts  - Our academic staff have a wealth of industry experience and are expertise in their field

Open Days

Join us for an on-campus Open Day where you'll be able to explore our campus and facilities in person. Booking for the next event isn’t open yet. Register your interest below and we’ll email you as soon as booking goes live.

Next Open Day: March 2023

Register your interest

Entry Requirements

These entry requirements apply for entry in 2023/24.

All required qualifications/grades must have been achieved and evidenced at the earliest opportunity after accepting an offer to help confirm admission and allow for on-time enrolment. This can also include other requirements, like a fee status form and relevant documents. Applicants can track their application and outstanding information requests through their BCU mySRS account.

We accept a range of qualifications, the most popular of which are detailed below.

Essential Requirements

BB or 80 UCAS tariff points from A/AS Level with a minimum of 2 A Levels

Level 2 qualifications
GCSE GCSE English Language or English Literature and GCSE Maths at grade C/4 or above. If you do not have these or are not undertaking them, we accept other Level 2 equivalents, or we may ask you to pass BCU's GCSE equivalency tests.
Irish Leaving Certificate (Ordinary Level) See level 3 entry under Irish Leaving Certificate for full details.
Scottish National 5 English Language or English Literature and Maths at grade C or above. If you do not have these or are not undertaking them, we accept other Level 2 equivalents, or we may ask you to pass BCU's GCSE equivalency tests.
Plus one of the following Level 3 (and above) qualifications

A level and Advanced VCE

  • 80 UCAS points
  • A maximum of 3 subjects are considered. These can be other A-levels or level 3 equivalents.

T Level 

  • 96 UCAS points - grade Pass (C or above on the core)
  • All T Level subjects are accepted for our foundation year degrees in the School of Computing and Digital Technology

Access to HE Diploma

  • Pass with 60 credits overall. At least 45 credits at level 3.
  • Pearson BTEC National Extended Diploma
    (2016 – present)
  • Pearson BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF)
    (2010 - 2016)
  • BTEC Level 3 National Diploma
    (2002 – 2010)
  • MMP
  • Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma
    (2016 – present)
  • Pearson BTEC Diploma (QCF)
    (2010 – 2016)
  • BTEC Level 3 National Certificate
    (2002 – 2010)
  • 80 UCAS points
  • Considered with one A-level or an equivalent level 3 qualification
  • Pearson BTEC National Foundation Diploma (2016 to present)

  • Pearson BTEC 90-Credit Diploma (QCF) (2010 - 2016)

  • 80 UCAS points
  • Considered with one A-level or an equivalent level 3 qualification
  • Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate
    (2016 – present)

  • Pearson BTEC Subsidiary Diploma (QCF)
    (2010 - 2016)

  • BTEC Level 3 National Award
    (2002 - 2010)

  • 80 UCAS points
  • Considered with one A-level or an equivalent level 3 qualification

Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate - Skills Challenge Certificate (first teaching September 2015)

  • 80 UCAS points

Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma – Core (awarded until 2016) ESW/KS Combined component

  • 80 UCAS points

International Baccalaureate Diploma

  • Obtain a minimum of 24 points overall
  • For students who do not already hold a GCSE in Mathematics at Grade C/4 or above, grade 5 in Maths (Standard Level) from the IB Diploma will be accepted
  • For students who do not already hold a GCSE in English Language at Grade C/4 or above, Standard Level English Language (not literature) English A - Grade 4 or above or English B - Grade 5 from the IB will be accepted.

Irish Leaving Certificate (Highers)

  • Pass the Irish Leaving Certificate with a minimum of 80 tariff points, achieved in four Higher level subjects. This must include Maths and English Language taken at either Ordinary level (minimum grade O1-O4 (or A-C/A1-C3)) or Higher level (minimum grade H5/D1)
Other qualifications
If you have a qualification that is not listed in the table please refer to our full entry requirements on UCAS.

Further guidance on tariff points can be found on the UCAS website.
Additional information for EU/International students
Essential

Please see your country page for further details on the equivalent qualifications we accept.

In additional to the academic entry requirements listed above, international and EU students will also require the qualifications detailed in this table.

EU/Non-EU (International) Qualifications  
IELTS

6.0 overall with 5.5 minimum in all bands

If you do not meet the required IELTS score, you may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English courses. Please note that you must have a Secure English Language Test (SELT) to study on the pre-sessional English course. More information.

International Baccalaureate Diploma (or equivalent, including internationally accredited Foundation courses).

1. For students who complete the full IB Diploma: a total of 14 points or above from three Higher Level Subjects.

2. Students who do not complete the IB Diploma will be considered on the basis of their IB Certificates.

Students must have grade 5 in Maths (Standard Level)
AND
English Group A - Grade 4 or above,
OR
English Group B and Ab Initio - Grade 5

Country-specific entry requirements and qualifications.

 

International students who cannot meet the direct entry requirements can begin their degree studies at Birmingham City University International College (BCUIC).

Additional Requirements

As part of the application process you will be invited to attend an applicant visit day where you will undertake a short one-to-one interview with an academic member of staff. This is your chance to show us how passionate you are about the subject and it will help us make a decision on your application.

This will provide you with more information about the School and your course. In addition, it will give you a chance to meet and our staff and students to gain a better understanding of what it is like to be a student here.

Fees & How to Apply

Please select your student status to view fees and apply
  • UK Student
  • International Student

UK students

Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.

Award: BSc (Hons)

Starting: Sep 2023

  • Mode
  • Duration
  • Fees

International students

Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.

Award: BSc (Hons)

Starting: Sep 2023

  • Mode
  • Duration
  • Fees
  • Full Time
  • 4 years
  • £13,980 in 2023/24

Access to computer equipment

You will require use of a laptop, and most students do prefer to have their own. However, you can borrow a laptop from the university or use one of our shared computer rooms.

Printing

You will receive £5 print credit in each year of your course, available after enrolment.

Field trips

All essential field trips and associated travel costs will be included in your course fees.

Access to Microsoft Office 365

Every student at the University can download a free copy of Microsoft Office 365 to use whilst at university and for 18 months after graduation.

Key Software

You will be able to download SPSS and Nvivo to your home computer to support with your studies and research.

Key subscriptions

Subscriptions to key journals and websites are available through our library.

Microsoft Certifications (optional)

The exams required to gain Microsoft Office (MOS), Microsoft Technical Certification (MTC) and Microsoft Technical Associate (MTA) certifications are currently free for our students. We also provide free self-paced resources and access to practice exams via dedicated Moodle pages. Find out more about the exams available, and the objectives covered.

Certification training (optional)

Training is provided by the University to prepare you for the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) and CISCO Certifications without any extra costs. For certification costs, please see information below.

Project materials (mandatory)

This course includes project work that requires you to develop and produce a portfolio or collection. You'll be expected to provide the materials for use in your individual major projects; costs will vary depending on the materials selected.

Excess printing (optional)

Once you have spent your £5 credit, additional printing on campus costs from 5p per sheet.

Books (optional)

Some modules may suggest that you purchase a key textbook. All module key texts will be in the University library, but in limited numbers. Many students choose to purchase a copy.

Placement expenses (optional)

If you choose to undertake a placement, you'll need to budget for accommodation and any travel costs you may incur whilst living or working away from home.

Linux Professional Institute (LPI) Certification (optional)

Students wishing to gain certification will need to purchase an exam voucher in order to sit the exam required for certification. The cost of a voucher for students at the University is normally around £50 (around 50% of the normal price). The exam is sat on campus.

CISCO Certification (optional)

If you wish to take the exam required for CISCO certification, you will need to pay to take the exam(s) required. Currently, students who achieve over 70% in the Cisco CCNA 3, or CCNA Security finals (depending upon which degree you study) will receive a 50% discount from Cisco for the cost of the exams. The CCNA Routing and Switching exam currently costs $325-$330. The CCNA Security is currently around $465.

Accommodation and living costs

The cost of accommodation and other living costs are not included within your course fees. More information on the cost of accommodation can be found in our accommodation pages.

Guidance for UK students

UK students applying for most undergraduate degree courses in the UK will need to apply through UCAS.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is a UK organisation responsible for managing applications to university and college.

Applying through UCAS

  1. Register with UCAS
  2. Login to UCAS and complete your details
  3. Select your course and write a personal statement
  4. Get a reference
  5. Pay your application fee and submit your application

Course in Depth

Foundation Year

In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 120 credits).

Year One

In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 120 credits).

Year Two

In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 120 credits).

Professional Placement Year (optional)

In order to qualify for the award of Bachelor of Science with Honours Business Information Technology with Professional Placement, a student must successfully complete all of the Level 6 modules listed below as well as the following Level 5 module:

Year Three

In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 120 credits).

Download course specification

Download now

You will experience a wide variety of subjects and methods, all reinforced by practical, hands-on learning activities. You will be encouraged to undertake self-directed study, enhancing your organisational and management skills.

Our teaching philosophy revolves around you both learning by doing and transferring acquired knowledge to others by teaching others. Activities will occur both individually and in teams, with tutors providing leadership and mentoring aimed at supporting your transition into independent learners. In this partnership we will be encouraging you to become proactive, so that you can develop your confidence to undertake a range of progressively complex and challenging tasks.

You will demonstrate acquisition of these work-related skills by using an assessment strategy that is reflective of industry needs. Assessments will be varied and include knowledge and skills tests. However, the focus will predominantly be on the use of coursework. Here you will learn to present your ideas and showcase your work to a variety of audiences, both as members of a team or individually. You will also learn to present your ideas through written pieces of work for example by formulating proposals and reports.

Attendance requirements

For more information on attendance requirements, course contact time and suggested self-study hours, download the course specification.

Professional Accreditation

Some of the course modules will provide the taught element of professional accreditations like SAS (business intelligence), Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco and CompTIA. This preparation will allow you to extend the learning outside the classroom, to a possible qualification.

Student stories

IRaver app

Jaspreet Phagura

Our students also use their skills to develop commercial applications. Jaspreet Phagura launched a new application that allowed users to buy tickets to local events via their mobile phone.

The ‘iRaver’ application was designed to save students time when searching for upcoming events in their local area. Once registered, users can book tickets for events in a few simple steps, use the ‘call a taxi’ function, which instantly identifies local taxi companies in the surrounding area, and identify public houses, bars and nightclubs in a specified area via its ‘near me’ function.

Jenny Powell

Dedicated student Jenny Powell has surprised herself with her own success. She didn’t expect to find herself at university – now she’s planning her postgraduate studies! Jenny’s “thoroughly enjoying” her time here, making use of the great support on offer to give her studies everything she’s got.

Jenny’s aiming high – and putting in the hard work to achieve her goals, alongside 21 hours a week of part-time work. "I am shocked, as I wouldn't have expected to get here when I was at school, “ she admits. Now, she’s aiming for a first. “I love learning and studying,” she says. “I would like to get a job at the end as a business analyst or web development.”

Trips and Visits

We continually organise student trips to various external events and organisations. In the past, trips have been organised for our students to careers events, to help engage our students with their future employers and increase their employability.

Trips have included a visit to ‘The Gadget Show’, a television series which focuses on consumer technology which is broadcast on Channel 5, and Bletchley Park, the home of British code breaking and the birthplace of modern IT.

International Opportunities

You are able to apply to undertake part of your studies abroad, allowing you to experience life and studying in another country at one of our exchange partner universities.

This offers a unique opportunity to enhance your CV and experience new cultures.

Athena Swan Bronze Award
Athena Swan Bronze Award

We have successfully secured the Athena SWAN Departmental Bronze Award recognising a commitment to gender equality.

The Athena Swan Charter is a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research.

Employability

Enhancing your employability skills

You will be given the practical, technical and academic skills that will help you to stand out when you step onto the job ladder.

When you study with us you’ll learn all the key aspects of business information technology that will help you to get a job, from underlying concepts and principles to the relationship between theory and practice.

You’ll use advanced software development and computer programming labs, as well as dedicated facilities for systems analysis, database design and development, e-commerce, and business intelligence.

You will also benefit from our strong links with companies such as SAS, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Samsung and IBM, which keep your course relevant, real-life, and respected by employers.

We ensure that you’ll graduate with the skills, creativity and experience needed to succeed in employment.

Placements

We aim to have you employer-ready by the time you graduate and as part of this commitment we encourage you to further enhance your career prospects by including an industrial placement in your course.

You will do your placement after the second year of study, which will extend the duration of your course to four years.

Thanks to our excellent partnerships and strong relationships with industry, you could join the ranks of our students who have gained exceptionally high quality work experience at companies including Cisco Systems, IBM, 3M, and Airbus.

Placements provide the workplace experience that many employers look for and give you an invaluable opportunity to develop your practical expertise, earn money and try out a potential career path.

The Faculty's placements team will give you every support throughout the placement process.

International

Birmingham City University is a vibrant and multicultural university in the heart of a modern and diverse city. We welcome many international students every year – there are currently students from more than 80 countries among our student community.

The University is conveniently placed, with Birmingham International Airport nearby and first-rate transport connections to London and the rest of the UK.

Our international pages contain a wealth of information for international students who are considering applying to study here, including:

Facilities & Staff

Our Facilities

We are constantly investing in our estate and are currently in the process of spending £260 million on new learning facilities. This course will be taught at Millennium Point at the City Centre Campus.

The course is supported with a wide range of cutting-edge facilities in the City Centre Campus. We have a state-of-the-art computer games technology lab which contains high-performance PCs, Sony PlayStation development kits and a range of industry standard software including Unity, Unreal and a suite of professional Microsoft development tools.

We also have many open access areas where students can study together and even hire out laptops for use in these spaces and others within the university.

Within the University there are many internationally recognised research teams giving you the opportunity to collaborate with them on exciting interdisciplinary projects.

Computer networking

The laboratories are well-equipped for all our computer networking courses, as well as specialist areas for practical work such as voice-over internet protocol (VoIP), forensic and ethical hacking technologies, wireless and mobile technologies and radio frequency identification technologies to name but a few.

Software development and computer programming

There are a number of open access, software development and computer programming laboratories that can be used to develop systems and programmes, including database management systems such as MySQL, to name but a few.

Systems laboratories

Our embedded systems laboratories are used to develop real-time systems, such as specialist hardware training and development resources, and industrial-standard software development and simulation tools. These include microcontroller software and robotics design and development, to name but a few.

Electronic systems

To underpin the basic principles of electronic systems, we have a well-equipped laboratory of general and specialist test and measurement kits, including powered prototyping development boards, dual power supplies, frequency generators and counters and digital multi-meters to name but a few.

Forensic computing

Our successful development of forensic computing has led to a specialist forensics laboratory that is fully equipped with essential hardware and software for this sensitive area of study. The laboratory includes high-spec PCs with built-in multi interface Tableau write blockers, EnCase and FTK computer forensic software and steganography detection and analysis software, to name but a few.

More on our facilities

Our staff

Professor Sharon Cox

Professor of Information Systems

Professor Sharon Cox’s research in information systems and information management is based on her industrial experience. While developing the corporate data model at Jaguar Cars, Sharon was offered a fully funded studentship from Aston University to embark on doctoral research. Her research focused on developing models to explore the information...

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Deborah Evans

Associate Professor

Deb Evans is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Digital Transformation at Birmingham City University. She is the Academic Lead for the Digital Systems and Change Team within the Centre for Digital Transformation. She teaches Strategic Information Systems Planning, Enterprise Systems, IT Innovation, Business intelligence and Technology...

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George Squires

Associate Professor

George is an Associate Professor in the School of Computing and Digital Technology. From 2009 until 2015, George was the Associate Head of the School of Digital Media Technology (DMT), responsible for academic matters.  His responsibilities included managing the student experience for the School and new curriculum development. In...

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Ash Mahmood

Programme Leader

Ash Mahmood has been the Programme Leader for a group of postgraduate courses in the School of Computing and Digital Technology. He has also been involved with the delivery and project management of industry based projects through the whole lifecycle from initiation to closure. He works with web technologies which include web standards and...

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Dr Jagdev Bhogal

Acting Head of Computing & Data Science Department; Associate Professor Database Systems

Jagdev is an experienced lecturer whose main teaching area is Database Systems. She is the Course Leader for MSc Business Intelligence and the MSc Big Data Analytics courses. Jagdev has published conference and journal papers on relational/object/nosql database systems,  ontologies, text mining and cloud computing...

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Fiaz Afsar

Programme Leader / Senior Lecturer (Business Information Technology)

Fiaz has worked in the HE for past 20 years. He initially spent 7 years working in industry as a Technology Transfer Consultant providing IT/Network based solutions to SME’s within West Midlands. He then moved to Birmingham City University teaching network technologies/ infrastructure and more recently Business Systems Solutions and Enterprise...

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Dr Gerald Feldman

Senior Lecturer in Information Systems

Gerald is a senior lecturer, researcher and Information Systems practitioner at Birmingham City University in the School of Computing and Digital Technology. He has practical and industrial experience gained working on managing, designing, and implementing information systems. His research focuses on business systems analysis, technological change...

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Dr Waldo Cervantes-Solis

Senior Lecturer

Dr Waldo Cervantes has over 20 years of experience in tech, industry, and academia. He has led and collaborated in a variety of projects ranging from start-up development, Internet of Things, Energy, Transport and Enterprise. He holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Birmingham and is currently a Lecturer in Distributed at...

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Dr Jason Hockman

Associate Professor

Jason Hockman is Associate Professor of Audio Engineering at Birmingham City University. He is a member of the Digital Media Technology Laboratory (DMT Lab), in which he leads the Sound and Music (SoMA) Group for computational analysis of sound and music and digital audio processing.  

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Dr Martyn Ratcliffe

Senior Lecturer

Martyn graduated with a physics degree and started his career at British Aerospace. After several changes of department and the completion of an M.Sc. in Digital Systems he settled in the software department, designing real-time software for weapon systems.

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Michael Bickerton

Lecturer

Michael has been producing and teaching film for over twenty years. He has international production experience and has taught on prestige courses (such as the UK Film Council’s Introduction to Screenwriting). He is a member of BECTU, GTC, and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

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Wil Vincent

Assistant Lecturer

Wil Vincent is an Assistant Lecturer in the Built Environment, having graduated from both our undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Planning at Birmingham City University. He is Programme Leader for the Faculty’s Generalist Degree programmes, offering remedial support to student to maximise their chance for successes on their degree programme....

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