Year 1

In year 1 (propaedeutic year), you will gain knowledge about the Leisure & Events profession through what we refer to as 'challenges'. You will complete a total of nine challenges in the first year. During the first challenge, you will get to know fellow students, for example, which helps you feel at home in school. At the beginning of the year, you will start with basic knowledge, but as the year progresses, the level of knowledge will increase.  

The academic year always consists of two semesters. At the end of a semester, your skills are tested with an individual assessment. You will be assessed on your theoretical, research, professional and societal skills. In addition to the challenges, you will take a number of courses during the year, such as English and Financial Management.

Year 1 is all about discovering whether this study programme is a fit for you – and whether you are a fit for the programme. A wonderful journey of discovery, which we would like to undertake together with you. 
 

Year 2

In year 2, you choose the broad Leisure & Events Management programme or join one of six specialisations. Whichever direction you choose, you will learn a lot about the theory and practice of the leisure industry. You will work on real life assignments for the field, receive guest lectures and regularly visit companies. 

It's also possible to switch to the three-year academic bachelor's programme Bachelor of Science Leisure Studies, after passing your propaedeutic year. 

Year 3

In the second or third year (depending on your study direction) you will do a placement. Once in a while you come back to school to exchange experiences and learn from each other. You will learn from a professional in the field and support them in daily activities. You will also work on assignments such as the development of a sponsorship plan for a sports event, the organisation of an event, target group analysis for the cultural sector or an amusement park, concept and product development or do a policy analysis. You can do your placement in the Netherlands or abroad. Breda University of Applied Sciences has a large international network and will help you find the right placement.

Year 4

In the first half of the fourth year, students work on one large-scale project or a variety of smaller projects commissioned by the leisure industry within the scope of their minor track. You may, for instance, organise a festival, write policy plans or investigate the marketing activities of a sports club. The second half of the fourth year is reserved for your individual graduation assignment. At the request of an organisation from the industry, you will conduct research in your specialist area, give advice and make an implementation plan for this. 

Pre-master's programmes

BUas offers its own pre-master's programmes:

• Pre-master Leisure and Tourism Studies If you would like to study Leisure and Tourism in greater depth, our Leisure and Tourism Studies pre-master’s track might be just what you are looking for. You will start this pre-master’s track after your professional bachelor’s degree. The track lasts one year, after which you can move on to the academic master’s programme of Leisure and Tourism Studies at Breda University of Applied Sciences (one year). So, if you did a three-year (short) bachelor’s degree, you can obtain your academic master’s degree in only five years’ time in total!
•  Strategic Business Management and Marketing (SBM). If your academic results are good, you will be offered the opportunity of attending this pre-master’s programme in your fourth year. Successful completion of this track will give you direct access, after Breda University of Applied Sciences, to various Master of Science programmes in business-related studies in management and marketing at several partner universities. A few examples are the universities of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In this way, it will be possible for you to earn an academic master's degree within five years' time or, after having completed an accelerated three-year track, even within four years' time.

After your fourth year, you can also opt for a pre-master’s programme of a Dutch research university to gain direct access to their master’s programmes.  

Study load and coaching

The average study load for this programme amounts to approximately 40 hours a week, during 40 weeks. How many hours a week you will actually spend studying depends greatly on the person and differs per week. You may have different deadlines and tests at different moments, so good planning skills will be critical to your success.

After your propaedeutic phase, you can choose to continue with the regular study programme of Leisure & Events Management, or you can opt for one of the specialisation areas. The specialisation areas are offered in English and in Dutch. Within the Dutch-taught variant, you will study a substantial part of the programme in Dutch, such as certain meetings and sessions, and creating documents and products. The literature and theory lectures may still be offered in English though. This will prepare you for a career in the Netherlands, but with the capacity of maintaining relations and cooperating with the international market. 

Leisure & Events Management (regular study programme)

At Leisure & Events Management, we train you to become the future leisure manager with a broad perspective on the industry and a modern vision of society. As society and the leisure sector are constantly evolving, it is essential to stay updated on the latest trends and developments. In recent years, we have witnessed the growing importance of topics such as sustainability, well-being, and corporate social responsibility, in which the leisure sector plays a crucial role. 

Through various projects, including marketing, you will work on developing your professional competencies. You will learn how to create leisure concepts and involve various stakeholders in solving challenges together. This is done in a deliberate and future-oriented manner, ensuring that the planet is not harmed and that the well-being of people is enhanced.

Throughout the program, you will get acquainted with inspiring organizations in the leisure sector through field trips, guest lectures, study trips, and collaborations with external clients. We offer a wide range of opportunities, allowing you to explore which subsector or role best aligns with your ambitions and talents.

Attractions & Theme Parks Management

If you are pursuing the professional bachelor’s degree in Leisure & Events Management, you can specialise in Attractions & Theme Parks Management. This specialisation is also offered to students in the Tourism Management bachelor’s programme, so you will be in a mixed class which is super educational.  

Why this specialisation?
The number of attraction and theme parks is still growing and the competition is fierce. It’s not just theme parks that are constantly reinventing themselves; holiday resorts, zoos, shopping centres and museums - to name a few examples from your future field of work - also focus more and more on creating memorable experiences. In addition, there is still much to gain in terms of corporate social responsibility. In short, things can and must change to become more experiential and more sustainable.

A new generation of managers
There is a high demand for a new generation of managers capable of creating successful and meaningful concepts and experiences (concept design) from a business perspective (business design). In this specialisation, you will learn how to innovate the offerings in such a way that it adds value for both the visitor and the company you work for.

The challenge
There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all business model in the world of attraction and theme parks. The challenge lies in making the right combinations and coming up with ideas that make you stand out and builds goodwill. An example? Zoos are making a turn towards a more ethical and educational approach, whereas museums are adding more experience and interaction. And theme parks are trying to immerse people in complete thematic worlds.

What will you do?
You will dive into the world of marketing, finance, workforce planning and security, as you need this knowledge. But you will also explore the fields of Hospitality, Imagineering and Storytelling. You will work on your creative leadership skills and learn about change management. Each subject is linked to a real client from the world of attractions. During your studies, you can do a placement at ‘world parks’ such as Walt Disney World in Orlando, Europa-Park and Efteling.  

Why choose Attractions & Theme Parks Management?

• You learn to look at the business model from different angles 
• You learn all about operational and business management, as well as Imagineering and Storytelling 
• During your studies, you will work for major (international) parks or suppliers to the parks  
• You get a chance to take part in the Disney International Programme in Orlando (USA)
• You are taught by international lecturers and guest speakers 
• The programme is recognised by the World Tourism Organization/ World Leisure Organization

More information can be found on the website of Attractions & Theme Parks Management and in the video below.

 

Sports & Esports

Sports and esports play a crucial role in today’s society. They socially connect people, provide identity, are key to health, vitality and personal development. In addition, these sectors are major contributors to the leisure industry and therefore play a huge economic role.

Everybody is familiar with the sports sector which builds upon a huge history and tradition. However, esports is catching up quickly to become the fastest growing leisure sector in terms of participants, fans and economic value. Not only with sports-themed games such as FIFA or Formula 1, but also industry-leading games such as League of Legends, Fortnite or Counterstrike. Huge numbers of participants are involved in gaming and from a financial perspective the sector is larger than, for example, Netflix and all cinemas together.

At BUas we focus on the experience of sports & esports, not so much from the participant’s perspective (practising or assisting in (e)sports, professionally or otherwise), but more from the perspective of spectators and fans. Additionally, you will always study both sectors in this specialisation. Rather than focusing on one specific game or sport, the programme looks primarily at what these industries and (e)sports can learn from each other.

You will discover how to fuse insights from both industries and how to create new impactful and meaningful experiences for fans and enthusiasts. Regarding your professional career, this specialisation prepares you for work in various organisations in both sectors. For example, helping sports and esports organisations with creating the best possible and most innovative sports and esports experiences, but also supporting brands using sports and esports for branding and marketing purposes.

In Sports & Esports, we collaborate with real clients in the sports and esports industries. And for esports projects, we even have our own gaming facility where we can make use of all gaming and livestream equipment. This game facility can also be used for leisure to make friends or compete against other students.

With the specialisation, we also go on study trips to explore sports and esports beyond the borders of the Netherlands. We visit a city and various sports and esports organisations. Of course, we also occasionally engage in sports or gaming activities for fun with and against each other.

Live Music & Dance Events

Live Music and Dance Events is a specialisation that focuses on live music and dance events (music festivals, pop venues, clubs) at the heart of the leisure industry. The central theme of this specialisation is creating and organising sustainable events in the live music and dance industry with social and economic impact.

Within the Live Music and Dance Events specialisation you will be trained to set to work as a concept/programme developer, marketeer, manager or production leader at a music festival or pop venue. A professional field that is constantly changing due to impacts of social trends such as sustainability, big data, or crowd safety. You will be working in a flexible world in which operating independently as well as in networks and an ability to handle peak periods are key. 

Live Music and Dance Events is a specialisation for students who are flexible, have a great passion for music events (in whatever form), and have the ambition to work together and discover the industry, but also have a vision of the future of the industry. All this is offered in a free programme structure in which personal development is essential.

Social Innovation

Working towards solutions with people, not just for them. That is the essence and power of Social Innovation. You will think up creative solutions to social issues together with others. Initiatives in the field of social innovation are connected to major challenges in society addressing themes such as sustainability, care, labour, equality, and human rights. There are two ways of looking at it:

1. Within the leisure industry you will try to improve the way in which we cope with these challenges.
   Example: Festival Digital has chosen to sell only vegetarian food.
2. Leisure time can be spent with the specific purpose of trying to solve these social problems.  
   Example: Trash fishing is a leisure activity involving citizens collecting waste in their leisure time.

Within the Social Innovation specialisation area, you will engage with practical issues. You will do so for organisations within and beyond the field of leisure, such as sports, theatres, museums, festivals and for care institutions, retail organisations or government authorities. You will mostly operate at the interface of multiple sectors. The knowledge acquired in your courses can be used to create a broad support base among stakeholders involved - citizens, residents and organisations. Everyone contributes from their own background or expertise, which collectively leads to useful solutions and which strengthens a sense of community.

What makes this specialisation so special is that you do not attend a fixed curriculum. You will shape your own learning process by choosing certain topics and projects. Each academic year, you will work on about eight real-life projects, using methods from the fields of experiences, community building, facility management, and process design. In addition, you will work in self-selected multidisciplinary teams. In other words, you will work together with students from other years and other programmes.
 

Events for Business

Events for Business is a specialisation in which events are used as a means to achieve business goals, such as branding, marketing communication, team building or relationship building.  Events have proven to be a powerful tool to add emotional value to a message you want to communicate. 

Major event venues or exhibition and conference centres , such as RAI Amsterdam, Jaarbeurs Utrecht and Ahoy Rotterdam have plenty of facilities for organising business conferences and corporate exhibitions. In addition, many companies from outside the leisure sector often organise events to promote new brands or launch new products. Just think of Coca-Cola, Apple or car makes. In this specialisation you will learn more about event venues, the corporate events market, and how the international events sector is developing. 

You will be trained to become part of a new generation of innovative and strategic events professionals, capable of creating (hybrid) events or series of events to give meaning to organisations, cities, regions or countries. This can be as a project manager, marketer, brand (city) manager, concept designer, data analyst or marketing and communication specialist. Are you creative, empathetic, have a hands-on mentality, good social qualities and the drive to discover the business market together with fellow students and graduates? Then this specialisation is just your thing!

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Urban Life & Placemaking

This specialisation focuses on leisure taking place in cities and all the aspects playing a role there - looking from a social, economic and spatial perspective, in many different situations. 

This is as broad as the transformation of an old industrial site into a new vibrant cultural area, a cultural festival which links to the identity of a city and daily leisure in neighbourhoods in skateboard parks, community centres or small theatres. 

The city offers a dynamic context for leisure activities in all kinds of areas - such as culture, sports, events and hospitality. During your study, you will be guided in finding your topics of interests, work with projects for real clients and on top of that you even get the chance to live in a city abroad for 5 months! 

In this specialisation we pay attention to subjects such as concepting, place branding, community development and vision. Stakeholder engagement, gentrification, city interventions, well-being of residents and a sense of place are key words within Urban Life & Placemaking.

The regular track of this programme takes four years. However, with a appropriate pre-education a three-year track is available.

• The 3-year track for students who already have a vwo diploma, a ‘Hochschulreifezeugnis’ (Abitur) or a comparable pre-university education
• For Dutch students only: The tailor-made track for havo graduates: you will start your course of study at De Rooi Pannen (mbo level) in Dutch and you will proceed to Breda University of Applied Sciences in year 2 of the regular 4-year programme.

3-year track

With a propaedeutic certificate
Do you have a propaedeutic certificate from a hbo (professional) or wo (academic) degree programme in the domain of leisure, tourism or hospitality and did you obtain this certificate within one year? If so, you qualify for the three-year track. If you have a propaedeutic certificate in higher economic education, there are additional admission requirements. These are passing the progress test and demonstrable knowledge of the English language at B2/C1 level. All other students do not qualify for admission.  

Do you comply with these conditions or do you want to know more? Just contact Iskander Khairoutdinov via [email protected].

With a hbo (professional) bachelor’s degree  
Are you in possession of an hbo degree? If so, you may qualify for completing the Leisure & Events Management in a shortened programme, depending on your previous education and wishes. Please submit a request to the board of examiners via [email protected].

Have you already obtained a degree in higher education? Then you will have to take into account the payment of institutional tuition fees. These amount to €12.850 per year.

The track

Do you comply with the conditions? Then you may skip the general propaedeutic year and start straight away in the second year of study, in one of our specialisations or in the regular Leisure & Events Management programme. The following areas of specialisation are available for you to choose from:  

• Attractions & Theme Parks Management
• Sports & Esports
• Live Music & Dance Events
• Social Innovation
• Events for Business
• Urban Life & Placemaking

A matching procedure applies to all these specialisations. Please take into account that this matching procedure will take place in mid-April or May. On this website you will find more detailed information about the areas of specialisation and the regular programme.  

Practical experience
Whether you opt for the regular Leisure & Events Management programme or for a specialisation, you will always work on assignments for the Leisure & Events industry. These could be projects you work on together with fellow students, but you will also do a placement at a company or organisation, or go on industry visits for a peek behind the scenes. In addition, there are possibilities to do an exchange abroad.   

Minor and graduation 
In your final year, you will choose a minor in which you will further explore a specific theme, such as esports or crowd management. You will also complete an individual graduation project.  

How to apply
You can apply via Studielink. Please note: always choose ‘year 2 / main phase’. Then make a choice from the specialisations and email this to Iskander Khairoutdinov: [email protected].

Before 1 August, send a certified copy of your propaedeutic certificate or hbo/wo degree, or a statement from your current school describing that you have already obtained your propaedeutic certificate or hbo/wo degree, but will not receive it until later (no later than 30 September).  
 

Special tailor-made track for havo graduates

You have just earned your havo diploma, would really like to work in the Leisure & Events industry, but are not sure about the step from havo to hbo. Either you fear this step is a little too big, or you are inadmissible to Breda University of Applied Sciences. Breda University of Applied Sciences, in cooperation with De Rooi Pannen, offers the perfect alternative in the form of the tailor-made study track. You will start your course of study with two years at the programme 'Medewerker Evenementenorganisatie' at De Rooi Pannen (mbo level) in Tilburg. You conclude your studies with an mbo diploma level 4. Next, you will proceed to this Breda University of Applied Sciences’ degree programme where you can earn your bachelor’s degree in three years.

More information

If you have any questions left on this tailor-made programme after watching the Dutch video below, please send an email to Richard van Bragt ([email protected]), coordinator at Breda University of Applied Sciences, or Bas Horsten ([email protected]), coordinator at De Rooi Pannen. You can also read more on the website of De Rooi Pannen (in Dutch).

 

In the third academic year, many of the Leisure & Events Management students take the opportunity of doing a part of their course at a university abroad. An exchange period lasts approximately 20 weeks. Possible destinations are: Spain, China, Italy, France, Ireland, Arizona (USA), Finland and Portugal.

For her exchange, Manon went to an international school in La Rochelle, France.

“During my exchange, I met a group of international students from all different nationalities. This group made me understand the different norms and values of other cultures. Although we had different views and opinions, we had a shared goal to enjoy the exchange and together had one of the most memorable experiences of our lives.” 

At BUas you are trained to become an entrepreneurial professional. In all the professional bachelor’s programmes, you are given the opportunity to develop your entrepreneurial skills. Alongside your studies, you can join BUas Startup Support, BUSS. BUSS organises (networking) events and connects student startup entrepreneurs, there is even the possibility to apply for guidance from your own startup coach.

You can also graduate within BUas with your own company! Every academy offers this opportunity, though a selection process may apply. Maybe, by that time, you already have a small profitable business or have plans to start one? BUas Startup Support can help you.

More information on how to start your own business.