
Bachelor of Science in Leisure Studies
Breda, Netherlands
DURATION
3 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
01 May 2024
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2024
TUITION FEES
EUR 2,530 *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* the institutional fee for bachelor's programmes is €12,500
Introduction
An expert in leisure time
Leisure is all around us, from parties to music festivals, from amateur sports to urban development projects around sports stadiums, and from art to gaming and esports. But what's behind it?
How can we predict trends in the way people spend their leisure time? How can traditional leisure businesses use social media more effectively to attract visitors? What new business models are needed in an increasingly complex and dynamic leisure sector? You will explore all this and more in the only academic bachelor's program in the field of leisure in the Netherlands.
An academic bachelor's program in leisure?
- Interdisciplinary and intercultural study environment
- BUas is one of the seven World Leisure Centres of Excellence
- Straight on to an academic master's degree!
Admissions
Discovery day
Please visit link for more information
Curriculum
This multidisciplinary academic study program offers you courses on the importance of sports, culture, and music events, innovation, sustainability, and well-being, and you will learn how policy and strategy regulate the leisure sector. Together with other students, you will work on assignments for real industry clients, you will learn about research methods and techniques, and will attend theoretical and practical seminars.
Most of the lecturers of this BSC leisure program hold, or are working on, a Ph.D. and conduct substantial research. To be more effective, efficient, creative, and decisive, Breda University of Applied Sciences, Tilburg University, and several other institutes have decided to join forces in leisure research by means of a Centre of Expertise in Leisure, Tourism & Hospitality (CELTH).
Year 1 - Introduction to the core disciplines of the leisure field
In the first year, you will get a solid introduction to different sectors of business and social science, as well as research methods, underscoring the varied nature of the leisure field. Some courses will focus on the consumer perspective or social science approaches, whereas in other courses the business side is more prominent. You will learn to apply your knowledge in several practical cases.
Year 2 - Deepening your knowledge and training your analytical skills
In the second year, you will strengthen your knowledge of what kinds of activities people choose in their leisure time, and how companies can organize those activities and profit from them. In addition to theoretical lectures, practical seminars, debates, and case studies, you will work on several projects for commissioners from the leisure field. In these projects, you will apply the research techniques and theoretical insights learned in the various courses.
Year 3 - Expanding and integrating your knowledge
In the first half of this year (semester 5), you can opt for a work placement or a minor. For the minor, you put together your own set of subjects at another university in the Netherlands. It is also possible for you to attend the minor at one of our partner universities abroad. In the sixth and final semester, you will apply everything you have learned by:
- Considering leisure preferences, activities, networks, and impacts from all angles. These leisure practices involve complex collaboration processes, for instance in the development of urban space and city culture;
- Considering leisure activities across different cultures; studying fundamental philosophical questions about the relevance of leisure and the ethical questions it raises;
- Investigating the contribution leisure can make to the development of urban space and city culture;
- In the last semester, you will write a thesis, in which you will investigate a complex leisure issue. Topics for the bachelor's thesis can be connected to current research being conducted by members of staff.
Academic versus professional education
Generally, the differences between ‘academic’ and ‘professional’ programs are as follows:
- Content (the academic program has more research and uses more advanced theories/models, teaching you to see leisure from a broader, societal perspective);
- Analytical perspective (the academic program trains for roles at a more strategic level, professional programs are focused more on operational roles);
- Assignment and work styles (the academic program features a large variety of assignment styles - writing papers and research reports, presentations, discussions, etc. - and more individual work than the mostly project-group-based professional program);
- Graduation perspectives (the professional programs educate you for work in a specific sector, whereas an academic diploma affords more flexibility, training you in skills that you can also apply in other sectors and roles);
- They are similar in atmosphere and attitude.
Study load
The average study load for this program amounts to approximately 40 hours a week, for 42 weeks. How many hours a week you actually spend on studying differs per week and depends greatly on the type of person you are. The last weeks of a term and the exam weeks are relatively busy.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
As a leisure expert, you may take up a career in large enterprises in the cultural and leisure sectors, consultancy and engineering agencies, property developers, sports associations, event organizations, or state, provincial, and local authorities.
Examples of possible professions and employers are:
- Leisure policy developers at for example local and regional authorities (Breda, Noord-Brabant)
- Consultant at for example engineering and consultancy offices (Grontmij, DHV, Berenschot)
- Academic and applied researchers at for example universities, SCP, or W.J.H. Mulier institute
- Lecturer at for example Breda University of Applied Sciences,
- ROC’s Project manager at for example large events, exhibitions, leisure project developers, banks
- Staff member (sport) federations at for example NOC*NSF, cultural foundations, and exhibitions.
The logical next step for a graduate of an academic Bachelor's program is to continue with an academic Master's. The first group of ‘International Leisure Studies’ students graduated in 2012, and since then ILS graduates have been accepted into Master’s programs on, for instance, leisure and tourism, cultural management, human resource management, and marketing and communication. In addition, ILS graduates are ideally positioned to enter a career in research, policy development in sports or the cultural sector, and consultancy on strategic issues in the public sector.