Profiles and specialisations

Summary
Fontys ICT offers a broad bachelor's degree programme based on the HBO-i competency model. All students eventually graduate in HBO-ICT, but their learning path through the study programme consists of profile semesters, specialisation semesters and/or open education. The semesters are based on the architecture layers from the HBO-i competence model. Specialisation semesters are offered from semester 4 and presuppose prior knowledge of one of the profiles. This page describes the policy agreements around starting new and ending semesters.

As a broad bachelor's degree programme, Fontys ICT offers both profiles and specialisations. Units of study are regularly added or terminated. Two important reasons for this are:

• To be able to respond immediately to rapid changes in the fields of expertise;
• to fulfil the promise to students to “study the full breadth of ICT” and to offer a wide range of options to do so.

There are five profiles that are structurally offered. These profiles focus mainly 1-on-1 on the architecture layers from the HBO-i competency model, but always draw on 1 or more other architecture layers as well. In addition, starting from the second year, a number of specialisations are offered, which presuppose prior knowledge from one of the profiles. Students can become acquainted with specialisations in the second academic year and deepen their knowledge of them further on in their studies. How the specialisations are anchored in the study programme, can be read on the page about the programme structure. From year two there is also the option of choosing a personalised programme based on the Open Learning working methods.

ICT & Education and ICT & Academic Prepration were created for strategic reasons and will therefore be offered regardless of the number of people interested. In addition, we offer relevant and current specialisations. An important criterion here is whether enough students are interested in a specialisation. The norm is 18 students or more. The Study Navigator lists which specialisations are offered.

The following guidelines apply for starting and ending specialisations.

1. Selection moment semester 3: if there are fewer than 18 participants as of 15 November for a specialisation (S4), it stops as an independently run unit of study for the following school year (1 August)
2. Selection moment 3rd year/minor: if there are less than 18 participants for a unit of study by 15 May, this unit of study will not be offered and will stop as a self-contained unit of study at the next implementation in the second year.
3. Choices apply to projected participants in September, students' choices in February are disregarded for stopping units of study.
4. Students who have enrolled for a course unit that will be discontinued can opt for a personalised course unit based on open learning working methods. Here, in a different educational environment, they can still demonstrate the learning outcomes of that course unit.
5. The strategic specialisations that will be offered each year will be decided on 1 February. For now, the following specialisations are offered on the basis of strategic choices:
   • ICT & Education, because of our common responsibility in the Engineering domain;
   • Academic Preparation, from the social obligation to promote advancement to WO for students who wish to do so;