Bachelor of Engineering, Information Technology (B.Eng)

Find and utilize your personal strengths as a future IT-Engineer

The Information technology (IT) program allows you to join the developers of the future.

The IT program gives you a solid foundation on IT and allows you to specialize in the field of your own interest with personal skills development studies. With this method, you can find and utilize your personal strengths as a future IT engineer.

The studies are carried out in our modern and comfortable campus, with state-of-the-art IT equipment.

Instruction in this degree program is in English. Most of the teachers are Finnish, making Finnish communication with staff and teachers possible as well.

In our Information technology program, you focus on computer networking and implementation services in a modern data center environment. You learn to build secure Internet-connected wired or wireless local area networks. You are able to manage and run server environments. Information and network security is also an important part of the studies. The IT skills are collected together in IoT systems and with them, you learn how to develop and prototype services and understand their possibilities in global business.

You also learn programming, which allows you to develop and customize services for your needs. The personal skills development courses and projects allow you to customize your studies based on your own interests and skills. An example of such a project is the MIDI interface built by Artem Kolichenkov.

Structure of Studies

The IT contents concentrate on network technologies and providing services with modern server environments and data centers. You gain the skills to design, build and administrate small and medium-sized business network environments and to implement security measures to them. Programming skills are also developed along the studies. In your final study year, you specialize in IoT systems and advanced topics according to your own interests. To reach these goals you also study some physics, electronics, and mathematics with project management knowledge and skills.

We organize a large part of the studies through Microsoft and Cisco academies, which allows our students to get Microsoft and Cisco certifications. This is a valuable advantage when searching for a job in the IT market.

There are lectures, but also a lot of practical experiments in your studies. After some progress in studies, you can also take part in research projects at Xamk and in other projects from working life. At its best, your bachelor’s thesis relates to one of the projects commissioned by some company.

Your competences grow in steps while progressing in your studies. The studies are grouped into modules of usually three courses, and 15 ECTS credits, but there are also annual themes for each study year.

During the first year, you are an active learner finding your best learning techniques and working life skills. You gain professional vocabulary in technical issues and learn basic programming skills. Courses in computer hardware, operating systems, networking and information security give a background to further develop technical knowledge.

During the second year, you deepen your knowledge of networking and gain practical skills to design, install, configure and manage secure computer networks. You also get familiar with modern server and data center environments as well as start familiarizing yourself with the IoT systems. In addition, you develop your programming skills and gain important background knowledge in computer electronics and mathematics courses.

During the third year, you combine all your knowledge together by implementing services and prototypes with IoT devices and servers. You also practice project management skills and have a chance to participate in various projects.

The fourth year is the time to complete your bachelor’s thesis. It is wise to start this 15 ECTS credit project early and it typically relates to working life. The practical training included in the studies can also be carried out at this time or earlier, for example, during the summer breaks.

BYOD – Bring Your Own Device

Xamk has had a BYOD policy since the autumn of 2017. According to this policy, new students starting studies at Xamk must bring and use their own devices on campus. However, in the Information Technology program, most of the studies are carried out in our modern computer classrooms with all the special hardware and applications needed.

BRIDGE: from Bachelor to Master

BRIDGE project is a new unique way of collaboration between South-Eastern University of Applied Sciences (Xamk) and Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in terms of building a new education path for the students.

Through BRIGDE you can first earn a Bachelor’s degree from Xamk and then continue to LUT to earn a Master’s degree. In 2016 – 2017 BRIGDE will involve the Bachelor’s degree programs in Information Technology and Environmental Engineering (Xamk). The students of these degree programs will have a chance to meet LUT lecturers at the latter stage and will have an access to the LUT Summer School courses, which will help them to fulfill the admission requirements to LUT.

Career Opportunities

The Information Technology program gives you broad IT skills and allows specializing in an area based on your own strengths. This helps you to find their first job position.

The role of IT is constantly increasing in the daily life of humans. There is a strong demand for new types of smart systems to support daily routines and wellbeing. Especially the IoT environment is gaining popularity and is expected to change the current business.

Information technology is needed in all areas of business and this opens a huge number of opportunities for an IT professional. Many of our students have found a job related to programming. Other common job options are for example server and data center administrators, implementation services, working in a modern cloud environment, designing and managing computer networks, building IoT environments and implementing services with them, or working in IT consulting.

Observis Trainee program

As an IT-student at Xamk, you have the opportunity to take part in Observis Trainee program and receive work life-based assignments, trainee positions and topics for your thesis. This path can also lead you to a more permanent position with Observis.

Professional IT job positions are for example the following:

• software developer
• IT consultant
• server administrator
• network specialist
• data architect
• IT engineer
• technical specialist
• database administrator
• software engineer
• information system designer
• data center specialist
• IoT designer
• project manager