Why study this programme?
Unique
This is one of very few programmes in Europe (and the only programme in the Netherlands) that focuses on the cultural and linguistic dimensions of international business and organisational communication.
Internship
You can do an internship in which you work towards solving a particular communication issue or answering a specific communication question for a company or organisation that operates internationally. This provides you with real-life, hands-on experience, and the opportunity to use your knowledge and skills independently, in a relevant organisational setting.
International
This English-taught specialisation attracts students from the Netherlands and abroad, and because admission is selective (max. 50 students per year), you’ll be part of a small group of committed and motivated students. You’ll be working with lecturers and researchers who all have international experience, and you’ll be studying on an international campus, with the opportunity to meet and mingle with students from other countries and other programmes. Our international office can help you to build your professional network. This guarantees that your learning environment is international and multilingual as well, allowing you to further develop your intercultural competence, and providing you with useful networking opportunities towards an international career.
Interactive
Our workshops and lectures are intensive, collaborative and interactive. You’ll be working on assignments individually, but also in small teams, allowing you to develop your collaborative and intercultural communication and negotiation skills.
Practical
Although the focus in this programme is on effective internal and external communication in larger, international companies, you will be able to apply what you’ve learned in a variety of organisations after graduation, from profit, non-profit or (non)governmental organisations to start-ups, SMEs or multinationals.
Relevant topics
The programme provides you with insights into relevant topics such as global corporate communication and strategy, interpersonal intercultural communication, corporate language strategy, managing organisations in a culturally diverse environment, international marketing, and international stakeholder communication. The programme has a strong focus on language(s) and culture, and their impact on internal and external communication of internationally operating organisations.
Overview
This master’s programme will give you the knowledge base and practical tools to function as an independent communication specialist in organisational communication in diverse international contexts. You will learn how factors such as language(s), culture and globalisation play a role in the management and communications of organisations that operate internationally, and how these factors can be taken into account to optimise communication with and between international stakeholders, inside and outside the organisation.
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Course details
The Master’s specialisation in International Business Communication is taught within the Faculty of Arts and has a course load of 60 EC* (one year). Courses have a load of 5 or 10 EC and the Master’s thesis is 20 EC.
* The Internship is an optional element of the programme. Instead, you can choose a combination of elective courses with a total courseload of at least 10 EC (see options for elective courses below).
Elective courses
You may choose any course offered as an elective at Master's level, with a workload of at least 5 EC, offered within the Faculty of Arts, by programmes in other faculties (e.g. Management, Social Sciences, Law), or even by programmes at other universities in the Netherlands, for example through the Masterlanguage initiative. Examples of electives include Crisis and reputation management, New media & society, and Digital marketing.
Master’s thesis
Your Master's thesis is an individual research project, in which you investigate a topic related to one of the current research themes in international business communication, with the guidance and supervision of our expert staff. Your research should investigate a theory-based, empirical research question, and should relate to the themes currently being investigated by CIS research staff.
Entry requirements
Your admission into this programme depends on your previous education. You are admissible if you have a completed Bachelor's degree in Communication and Information Studies or a related area. In general, your previous education should reflect your affinity with the following four subject areas: Communication Studies, Management & Organisation, Intercultural Communication or (Inter) Cultural Studies, and Foreign Languages or Linguistics.Your degree has to be equivalent to a Dutch research university diploma. The Admission Office will determine if an international student has the required knowledge to be admitted.
Proficiency in English:
In order to take part in this programme, you need to have fluency in both written and spoken English. Non-native speakers of English* without a Dutch Bachelor's degree from a Research University need one of the following: a TOEFL iBT score of ≥100 (internet based) and subscores ≥22; or An IELTS score of ≥7.0 (overall band) and subscores ≥6.5; or Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE) or Cambridge C1 Advanced, with a mark of at least C; or Cambridge Proficiency in English (CPE) or Cambridge C2 Proficiency, or Cambridge C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency with a mark of at least C; or Bachelor’s Degree from a Research University in Australia, Canada (excluding Quebec), Ireland, New-Zealand, United Kingdom or the United States of America.
Experience in quantitative research:
As conducting communication research is an essential component of this programme, candidates should have experience in doing quantitative research (e.g. experimental or survey research) and knowledge of basic inferential statistics (e.g. t-test, ANOVA, Chi-square).
Career outcomes
With a Master’s specialisation in Global Communication and Diversity, you could pursue a career in government, semi-government, business or academia. For example, our graduates work as internal or external communication managers; Press spokespeople in companies, government departments, health institutions or non-profit organisations; Communication trainers for consultancies; Social media managers; PR, marketing, or recruitment consultants.
International perspectives:
Since the programme focuses on communication in international contexts, and on communication with international target groups, many graduates have found jobs outside the Netherlands or with international organisations operating from the Netherlands.
Job openings for our graduates can cover a wide range of communication functions, organisational types and (business) sectors. This is because organisations have increasingly come to realise that effective communication is essential to all organisational functions (e.g. marketing, PR, HRM, R&D, finance), and have made a real effort over the past decades to professionalise communications, making (international) business communication an increasingly important discipline.
