Autumn semester - Course list Business 4 Exchange

At the completion of this course, students should be able to:

• Identify social media communication strategies, how they are used and by whom

• Analyze and recreate the various techniques of persuasion used on social media 

• Recognize what the media makers want us to believe or do

• Evaluate social media messages based on their own experiences, skills, beliefs, and values

• Create and distribute their own social media communications on subjects involving business, the arts, and social or environmental causes

The course will focus on the role of the modern manager as a leader and a coach, and the psychological aspects of working with people. Focus will be on how people function as an individual (me), interdividual (you and me), and as a group (we). First part of the course consists of a brief introduction to psychology. Special attention will be given to Positive Psychology, which focuses on improving the mental functioning of human beings above that of normal mental health. Students will learn what makes the positive psychological traits of human beings. They will learn how the mind works, and the role of automatic thoughts. How the way people think influences the way they feel. Which specific thoughts lead to which specific feelings. How by changing the way you think, you can change the way you feel. The ten most common thinking errors.

Second part of the course will focus on the differences between different personality types. Students will receive an introduction to the most common personality type indicators, with the possibility to take one (MBTI), so students can get an insight in how their own personality works. How their personality typically develops during lifetime. What is their dominant mental function. What is their inferior function. What typical situations bring them stress, and how can they reduce it. What are the typical careers for the different types. Based on the different personality types, different subjects will be discussed. Speed reading personality types. Misunderstandings between types. What each type can learn from the others. How do the different types view leadership, teamwork, time management, meetings, problem solving,… Students will learn about the different roles people play in a team. 

The starting point of this course will be several key elements that have been instrumental in the development of a European identity as we know it today. From industrialisation, the formation of nation states and the tendency to internationalise and globalise certain aspects of politics and trade over the concept of supranationalism, the transfer of sovereignty, the creation of the internal market and the customs union to the creation of the EU where concepts such as freedom, democracy and respect for human rights are considered as commonplace in European democracies.

We will study each of those topics more thoroughly, from a historical and contemporary perspective, find similarities over different countries and look for equivalents worldwide, consult media channels, look at what challenges them nowadays, consider future projections ...

Delivering a memorable presentation requires you to be a psychologist, creative wonder, strategic salesperson and Hollywood star combined. No small task.
On top of this, public speaking ranks – next to flying, death and spiders - very high on the list of things we’re most afraid of.
Therefore, our approach in this course will be a bit different from other presentation trainings out there.  It’s not one size fits all, we’ll build on your personal talents and work around the pitfalls.
We’ll explore ways to master all aspects of presenting so you can confidently take that floor and become the pitch Ninja you never thought you’d be!

Students will learn to drive traffic and sales for a real business with Google Ads. After a theoretical introduction of how Ads works and how to research and set up a campaign, students will create a real Google Ads campaign for “their client”. In the end, students will interpret the data of the campaign, create a report and present their insights and recommendations.

Branding has become one of the most important concepts in marketing. Branding includes corporate identity expressions like brand and product names, logos, design, packaging, look & feel,... Its application ranges from consumer goods and services to places, people and concepts. The branding phenomena reached its peak when companies got a green light to incorporate the brand’s intangible value in their balance sheet. In this module students will obtain a clear understanding of the relevance of brands in contemporary society and will learn how to set up a brand management strategy.

This course addresses the topic of Human Resource Management in an international setting. As the business world globalizes even more, we must be aware of the reasons, the benefits, and the challenges of having a global workforce. Even though HR processes are based on the same core concepts and frameworks regardless of their national or international reach, the specificity of managing individuals, teams, and organizations in an international environment is quite significant. After this course, students will understand what it means to recruit & select employees internationally, train & develop them, and create compensation packages across borders.

City Marketing, also known as City Branding (or Place Making) is a practice whose objective is to build a city’s image, which in turn is the starting point for developing a city’s brand. It is the basis for raising a policy to pursue economic expansion and, at the same time, it serves as a conduit for city residents to identify with their own city, impacting in their daily life, economically, socially and culturally. In an scenario of a globalized world, where competition among cities is a commonplace, City Branding  comes to the foreground as a complex cutting edge, all-pervasive discipline and well-organized governmental activity, which contributes to the economic and physical restructuring of localities, in order to succeed in such a competitive environment.

The analysis and design of cities’ image and/or identity, including its subjective dimension as a place of emotion and meaning; and the methodological considerations techniques, practices and postulates of City Marketing are some of the aspects tackled in this course. Some of the questions that are addressed include, what is: A place? A city? A brand? Identity versus image? The citizens’ role versus tourists’? Measurement and city brand equity? A city brand index and items to be considered? Or if brands can be city makers?, among other inquiries. 

The course aims to develop managerial skills in multicultural decision-making contexts through the acquisition of knowledge necessary for the understanding of interaction between different cultures. The course will bring strong emphasis on human skills required to manage the cultural diversities in global teams.

Storytelling, it’s all about communication, interaction and getting your idea across. 

• The difference between information and ideas 
• Key requirements 
• Story versus factual representation 
• Requirements to tell stories 
• CAST model  
• Finetuning 
• Bringing it all together 

If you want to communicate so that your ideas and messages stick, tell stories. Storytelling is not fluffy, it’s about adding narrative structures, narrative elements to your content, to your texts.  

It’s about shaping the story of your organisation, through stories of the past, the future, the successes and the failures. Adding a human touch, and shaping the tone of voice of your brand, your organisation. It’s about communication without clutter, making yourself heard and remembered. 

This course will prepare you to conceive and deliver a solid Digital Marketing Strategic Plan, using the very same methodology implemented in a number of high-level organisations, often in a multi-country environment, such as Toyota and many others. By the end of this course (via a hands-on and interactive methodology) you will be able to:

• Conduct an in-depth analysis of your brand and your competitors online.
• Use the most relevant tools to audit digital channels: sites and social networks.
• Propose solid strategic paths to achieve success in the online environment.
• Deliver a tactical plan in order to maximise your company’s results in an increasingly tough and unpredictable market.

You take part in a business game on the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility. You form a team with students from other degree programmes. Each team represents the management team of a netbook manufacturer whose mission is "to be successful in business by being innovative and socially responsible". Throughout the game, you make strategic and operational decisions (e.g. choice of product, sales region, product location, supplier, quality of the components, terms of employment etc.). The goal of the game is to achieve the highest scores on the 3 Ps (People, Planet and Profit). The CSR Business Game is integrated in interactive workshops and complemented with a variety of assignments aimed at the acquisition and processing of knowledge and competences.

Complementary to thorough proficiency in English you can develop your skills in Dutch. Dutch is the local language of Antwerp where you will be living for a while. The approach concentrates largely on listening, reading and speaking. These three skills will be combined with the fourth skill, the writing skill, in your assignments.

Complementary to thorough proficiency in English you can develop your skills in Dutch. Dutch is the local language of Antwerp where you will be living for a while. The approach concentrates largely on listening, reading and speaking. These three skills will be combined with the fourth skill, the writing skill, in your assignments. Students who are fluent in German tend to learn Dutch very fast and can reach an A2 level in one semester.

During this course unit you will learn about the different sustainability frameworks (e.g. SDGs, 3Ps, CSRD..) and how this topic is situated in a historical context and as part of geopolitics in our globalized world.  Next to the general principles we focus on system thinking and new economic models like circular economy, regenerative economy, social entrepreneurship, etc. After this course unit you will have a profound knowledge about how sustainability drives business today and tomorrow.

You will learn about methods to critically consult and assess different types of information sources. It is about gathering, validating, measuring and processing data to develop insights, strategies and appropriate actions, and reporting about sustainability parameters. You will be able to make the right calculations and decisions with the support of tools (e.g. AI).

You support the development of concrete business options and setting up the right priorities in the surrounding business ecosystem. This means that you consider different business models, gather and process inputs of relevant stakeholders (e.g. customers, suppliers,…). You will be able to distinguish between different options and make informed choices as a consultant and ambassador for the initiatives you are involved in.

Within sustainability it is of big importance to know how innovation can play a role in a business transformation process. You will need to solve specific problems within a company by using iterative techniques (e.g. product & service design thinking, co-creation) and process development. We immerse you in the trends, successes and failures of new technologies and what to integrate in the context of sustainability. The principles of intrapreneurship will help you to see and combine different perspectives to develop structural and impactful actions.

You will learn the basic principles of change management and what makes it part of sustainability. You will not only be able to understand the different parts of change but will also be able to enable change in different parts of an organisation, team and company. As a change manager you need to listen, to understand, formulate clear goals, empower and motivate colleagues and other stakeholders involved.  You keep the overview and bring in knowledge that is needed to get through the never-ending journey. You will have to cope with successes and failures throughout the process. Project and time management will be essential to analyze structural patterns in an organization.

This course is about fostering personal growth and self-awareness, encouraging reflection on values, beliefs, and emotions, and promoting the development of critical thinking skills to cultivate a deeper understanding of oneself and the world around them. This to become resilient, empathetic, and socially responsible in the business context and beyond.  We explore how to use talents and authentic leadership to make international and intercultural teams work in a business and the current world context. 

The theory and knowledge that you will gain during the different course units will come together and will be deepened during a series of cases, closely connected to different sustainability topics and specific sectors. The cases will both be conducted individually and in groups and will gradually evolve in complexity over the track.  At the end of the semester you will be immersed in a complex case where you have to demonstrate in thinking and doing what you have learned and personally integrated to create impact within the topic of sustainability.

Complementary to thorough proficiency in English you can develop your skills in Dutch. Dutch is the local language of Antwerp where you will be living for a while. The approach concentrates largely on listening, reading and speaking. These three skills will be combined with the fourth skill, the writing skill, in your assignments.

Complementary to thorough proficiency in English you can develop your skills in Dutch. Dutch is the local language of Antwerp where you will be living for a while. The approach concentrates largely on listening, reading and speaking. These three skills will be combined with the fourth skill, the writing skill, in your assignments. Students who are fluent in German tend to learn Dutch very fast and can reach an A2 level in one semester.

Basic Programming Concepts, Object-Oriented Programming, Java: Dive into the world of programming. You will learn object-oriented programming in Java to develop your first applications.

Operating Systems, Networking, Linux: Have you ever wondered how the WIFI or your computer actually works? In this course you will learn to set-up a data network, get to know Linux and experience what an operating system does.

SQL Databases: Always thought that you needed a magic spell to retrieve the answer you look for out of a list of data like a spreadsheet? With this course you will learn how to convert a case to workable datasets, manage the data and retrieve the information that you need out of the data by using the SQL language in Postgresql.

Business management skills, and cross-cultural communication: In The Company the student is immersed into the role of a young professional at the end of her/his studies and at the start of her/his career. Focus lies on cross-cultural skills, self-awareness, team formation, audacity, scrumming, business processes, organizational structures and reflection.

Conceptual Design thinking with UML, Integrating programming, data and infrastructure technologies: Are you a fan of drawing schemes to explain your thoughts? Do you like it when everything comes together, and the puzzle fits? In this course, we introduce you to the world of conceptual design thinking to ensure your solution does whatever you want it to do. You bring together all the skills you've learned in the other courses to experience for the first time how the software talks with the data, how the server hosts your solution and how a website can promote your solution.

Complementary to thorough proficiency in English you can develop your skills in Dutch. Dutch is the local language of Antwerp where you will be living for a while. The approach concentrates largely on listening, reading and speaking. These three skills will be combined with the fourth skill, the writing skill, in your assignments.

Complementary to thorough proficiency in English you can develop your skills in Dutch. Dutch is the local language of Antwerp where you will be living for a while. The approach concentrates largely on listening, reading and speaking. These three skills will be combined with the fourth skill, the writing skill, in your assignments. Students who are fluent in German tend to learn Dutch very fast and can reach an A2 level in one semester.