Work together with students from different backgrounds and contribute to solutions for complex problems

Master
Full-time
1 year

Student sitting at table explaining something to other student, using hands.

Interdisciplinary Business Professional

Level: master
Form: full-time
Duration: 1 year
Language: English
Locations: Groningen
Degree: Master of Science
Credits: 60 ECTS
Startmonths: Start: September

Business and Economics
International Business School

Do you wish to work in interdisciplinary teams with people from different backgrounds and contribute your expertise and creativity to achieve a common goal? Are you able to think out of the box, accept new, exciting challenges and study problems from all possible angles? Then the English-taught Master Interdisciplinary Business Professional is the right programme for you.

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Projects with impact

During your master’s, you will be involved with projects that combine working in research, education and industry. Through applied research you come up with innovative solutions for genuine societal issues. Below, you can find some examples of projects our master’s students engage in.

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What will you be studying?

Within the Master Interdisciplinary Business Professional, we work mostly with concepts and theories instead of subjects. The interdisciplinary aspects are then explored by different disciplines, such as Marketing, Finance, HRM and IT (business side). Our professorships are part of the five schools involved in the master's programme which gives you the opportunity to conduct research on real-life cases.

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Student met oranje post its met hierop vraagtekens

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Patrícia Duarte de Almeida

Head of Education IBS Masters
Danielle Hendrikse

Coordinator & Lecturer
Jornt Holtman

Lecturer
Klaske Veth

Professor Sustainable HRM
Noëmi Huberts

Educational Support Master Interdisciplinary Business Professional

About this programme

The Master Interdisciplinary Business Professional is an intensive, ground-breaking one-year international master programme in the domain of business studies, designed for ambitious students who are eager to make a difference. You will contribute to solutions and innovations for complex problems that organisations are facing. These problems are interdisciplinary issues that require innovative and diverse answers for organisations that add value to both people and our planet.

The Master Interdisciplinary Business Professional is also offered in Dutch, as a part-time programme for professionals with at least 3 years of work experience. Find out more at www.hanze.nl/ibp.

In this video, a student, alumnus and a lecturer explain more about the content of the programme and what makes this master unique. In addition, a business partner from NICE (Noordelijk Innovatielab Circulaire Economie) explains how they work together with students from the master on real-life business cases through the Innovation Assignment.

Course overview

Semester 1

The master’s programme kicks off with an intensive week where you will meet fellow students and focus on a case study based on a real business issue. In the following weeks you will work in interdisciplinary teams on an assignment centered around one of the themes of the master’s programme. During these weeks you will receive intensive training on your research skills.

Innovation Assignment

Via the Networking Event at the start of the Innovation Assignment (INA) module, you are enabled to do your research project acquisition. In the following weeks you work in interdisciplinary teams on complex issues from the professional field. This module provides a dynamic combination of co-creation with fellow students and the professional field, academic depth provided by (guest) lectures and professorships, and an evidence-based approach with insights from different disciplinary perspectives.

Semester 2

In the second semester of the master's programme, you will work on your master thesis. Your master thesis is the centrepiece of the programme. You will demonstrate that you can execute an applied research project independently in an interdisciplinary professional context. You will complete the full research cycle and prove that you can conceive and apply innovative and relevant solutions. For your thesis you might continue on the theme of your Innovation Assignment and choose a topic of your interest to dive into. You might be able to contribute to a large research project from one of the seven research groups and their partners from the industry involved in the programme: Human Capital, International Business, Marketing/Market-focused Entrepreneurship, New Business & IT, Organisational Design and Change, Sustainable Financing and Entrepreneurship, or Sustainable HRM.

Throughout the year

Throughout the master's programme, you will have sessions with the Community of Learners (CoL), consisting of your fellow students, as well as commited professors and lecturer-researchers. The CoL gives you the opportunity to gain new insights and to learn alternative ways of looking at problems. You will improve your intercultural competences and give feedback to your fellow students on assignments you are working on. In addition, there will be guest lectures and company visits throughout the year, as well as classes on Professional Skills Development & Ethics.

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Entry requirements

To enrol for the Master Interdisciplinary Business Professional, you will need to provide the following:

a bachelor’s degree or equivalent degree from abroad within the economic domain and related fields
a transcript (grade list)
a 2-3 min. video pitch in which you showcase your background, motivation, and research experience
an English language proficiency test certificate: IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge test result
a valid residency status

If you want to know more about the value of your own diploma, you can also check the diploma comparison site of our national agency NUFFIC.

If you want to apply for our programme, you have to submit your request first in our national registration system Studielink. After this, we will start the admissions process through our own application system “Hanze Apply”.

The general application deadline

for EU students is 15 August
for non-EU students is 1 June*

This master uses multiple application rounds. The deadlines for the application groups are as follows:

Batch 1: 19 January 2025
Batch 2: 30 March 2025
Batch 3: 1 June 2025
Batch 4: 15 August 2025 (EU students only)

The admission procedure for the Master Interdisciplinary Business Professional consists out of two phases.

You apply via 'Studielink' with a Bachelor degree or an equivalent degree from abroad within the domain business studies and related fields. You also submit the required documents: a Bachelor diploma (if available), transcript (grade list), and video pitch. If you are an international student, you might have to submit an IELTS test certificate, with a score of 6.5. For more detailed information, go to the hanze general admissions information page. You can find the master in Studielink by looking for its official name: M Interdisciplinary Business Professional.
Students who pass phase 1 of the admission procedure will be invited for an online admission exam. This exam is to gain an understanding of your critical thinking skills, business research method skills and your academic language proficiency. The admission exam consists of reading a journal article, which you need to critically evaluate. The invitation for the admission exam will include the exact exam question and the journal paper. You will have four days to complete the admission exam. No exceptions will be made; the deadline for uploading your exam is fixed.

The Admissions Committee can request for additional supporting documents or examination in the form of an (online) interview.

Feel free to contact us by sending an e-mail to m [email protected] in case of questions.

*Please note the application deadline for students from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Iran, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Afghanistan, and Nigeria (who still need a visa and/or residence permit) is 1 May. We therefore advise non-EU students to apply for batch 1 or 2.

English language proficiency should be proven with one of the following certificates:

IELTS (Academic): with a minimum overall score of 6.5 with no sub-scores below 6, or:
TOEFL ibt: with a minimum overall score of 90 with no sub-scores below 21, or;
CAE (Cambridge C1 Advanced Exam): with a minimum grade of C.

Note: Your IELTS, TOEFL ibt or CAE certificate should not be older than two years at the start of the programme. Please note that Hanze does not accept the home versions of the IELTS or TOEFL for the purpose of admission to the master's programme.

Exemptions
The following students are exempt from submitting an English language proficiency test:

Prospective students who have obtained a diploma at an English-taught institution within the EER and who can prove that their prior education for which they obtained a diploma was full time English-taught. (A statement, signed and stamped, from the school, confirming that the medium of instruction and examination of the prior education was entirely in English).
Prospective students whose prior education was English-taught and who obtained a diploma in the following countries: Australia, Canada (English speaking part), Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America.
Dutch students. They need to demonstrate their English language proficiency via the motivational video.

Note: In order to get the exemption, your bachelor's degree should not be older than two years at the start of the programme.

For more information about language requirements, please check the general Hanze page on language requirements here.

Hanze UAS offers the following scholarships for the Master Interdisciplinary Business Professional:

Hanze Scholarship

For non-EEA students
€10.000 contribution towards costs of living

NL Scholarship (formerly Holland Scholarship)

For non-EEA students
€5.000 contribution towards costs of living

StuNed scholarship

full tuition fee waiver for Indonesian students
more info at nesoindonesia.or.id

For more detailed information go to the general scholarship page.

Please note that the application for these scholarships is open between 1 March and 31 May. If you would like to apply for one of these scholarships, you will need to complete the admissions procedure of the MSc programme first; therefore, you need to apply for the master in Studielink before the deadline of the first or second application group (batch 1 or 2). See the item 'application procedure' above for more information.