BA (Hons) International Business with Mandarin with Placement Year

What's the course about?

Study plan overview – Three-year programme

Year 1: University of Hertfordshire

Year 2: Study abroad in English (Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia or Australia). Minimum study abroad of one semester required and ideally you will be away for the whole year.

Year 3: University of Hertfordshire

Study plan overview - Four-year programme

Year 1: University of Hertfordshire

Year 2: University of Hertfordshire or Study abroad in English (Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Australia) for one or two semesters.

Year 3: Study abroad with the option of a work placement (Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Australia) or a year-long placement if you have studied abroad in Year 2. The work placements can also be in the UK, in internationally facing roles and would need to be approved by the placements team.

Year 4: University of Hertfordshire

In your first year, you’ll start your studies at the University of Hertfordshire. Your core modules will be Marketing, Economics, Accounting and Human Resources. You’ll learn regional consumer patterns that influence how companies decide to advertise and digitally communicate to their audience. Explore how politics and levels of infrastructure, such as transport, can affect global economic development. If you decide to, you can pick up a language during this year.

In your second year, you can stay at the University of Hertfordshire or study at one of our partner universities in English taking similar subjects. In the four-year route you have a choice to study at a partner university, whilst in the three-year route you must study at a partner university for at least one semester. The programme team at Hertfordshire will support you in your choice of modules at the partner university. Alternatively, you may decide to pursue a dual degree and go to one of our TABSA partners in Spain, Germany, France or the USA for two years and complete with two degrees.

Here there’s a stronger international focus of the business disciplines. You’ll explore geographic influences on international relations in geopolitics and gain an international insight on global employment laws, performance and people management in HR and finance. You’ll also explore economics at an international level and get a better understanding of our own and the European market.

You’ll start taking your learning into your own hands. You can choose to continue with your language if you want and you have a choice of optional modules. You can dip into Exploring Business Ethics, learn about project management or learn about Cross Cultural Management.

Students on the four-year route will all be abroad in your third year. You can shape your learning through study or practice too. This means you can study for one semester at one of our partner universities, then do a placement. Or you can spend the entire year studying abroad. This can be at one university, or you can experience two. Wherever you go, they’ll teach you in English. However, you can challenge your language skills and study some of your modules in their native language. The great part about this year is that you don’t pay tuition fees to us or the university that you go to. You’ll be learning about different cultures. You’ll build your international networks and get the contacts you need, should you decide to start your career abroad. If you have studied abroad in your second year, you will be able to undertake a year-long placement in your third year.

On both the three-year and four-year programmes your final year will be at the University of Hertfordshire. Your core modules will be Contemporary Issues in Ethics, Business and Sustainability, International Strategic Leadership, Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation. You’ll choose the other half of your programme from a wide variety of business modules offering a strong global focus, including in marketing, HR, finance, management systems and economics. You can also continue to study a language and can choose to do a dissertation You’re able to tailor your final year to match your own interests and career aspirations.

Please keep in mind, due to COVID-19 restrictions, we will need to consider government guidelines regarding travel at the time you reach your second and third year.

Study a language

At Hertfordshire Business School there are a lot of opportunities to study a modern language as part of your degree alongside another subject. Your chosen language will comprise 25% of your studies and will be listed on your degree certificate. This course will develop language and communication skills, and cultural insights into the countries of the language studied. The course will also develop many other transferrable skills to boost your employability prospects, such as time management and organisation; resilience; cultural understanding; working both independently and as part of a team.

Your main campus is de Havilland

You’ll share this campus with students from business, law, sport, education, and humanities subjects. The student housing is close to our Sports Village which includes a gym, swimming pool and climbing wall. You can get breakfast, lunch, or dinner in our on-campus restaurant or bar (in the newly built Enterprise Hub) on days you don’t feel like cooking. You can also use the common room to play pool, video games or just to hang out with friends. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.