Logistics Management

4-year professional bachelor’s programme | English-taught

Bachelor
4 years
Full time
Dutch
English

Talent for organising?

Are you interested in economics and finance? And you also enjoy working with people? Don’t go with the flow but take control in our Logistics Management programme!  

Do you see to it that iPads make it onto store shelves in time? Do you help to reduce hospital waiting lists? You will learn all about planning and organising production, transport and warehouse processes, as well as care and events logistics. This management programme focuses on the economic and financial aspects of logistics.

Why choose BUas?

  • Small-scale degree programme with lots of personal contact with lecturers
  • Focus on physical distribution, production, event and care logistics
  • Serious gaming plays a part in gaining insights into logistics processes

The right choice?

Do you want to know if our professional bachelor's programme Logistics Management is the right choice for you?

Within five minutes you will find out if this programme is the right fit for you!


Take the quiz

Zoom in on Logistics Management

Programme content

Blokko: logistics game

Work placements & study trips

Student city Breda

Campus favourites

Why Eva chose logistics

Our introduction event

Study overview

Learning community

Logistics is about organising and planning flows of goods, information and people in the quickest way and at the lowest costs. In this process, sustainability is also taken into account. 

During your studies, you will acquire specialist knowledge and develop competences in the field of logistics that you need to be successful in your future job. In our learning community you will work on a project basis on real-life assignments from the logistics industry. In addition, you will attend lectures, guest lectures and seminars, training courses and coaching sessions. You will also do a number of work placements and participate in excursions and field trips. The study programme is practice-based and optimally linked to the demands of the industry! 

Curriculum

An overview of the curriculum, study components, course content and learning objectives from years 1 and 2, can be found in the study guideWe will explain below what you can expect in each year.

Year 1

The first year of the study programme is dedicated to learning about logistics and supply chain management at different types of companies. Year 1 is designed so that you come into contact with all facets within a company or organisation.

After a general introduction, you will learn about the different functions and departments in a company, step by step, using real company cases. You will work together in groups on a project, so the knowledge you have gained can be applied immediately. Trends and developments within the market of logistics and supply chain management are also discussed, and you will share your ideas about innovations. You will learn about transport, distribution and inventory, but also about purchasing and sales, law and finance. Service logistics is also covered. In the second half of this year, you will assist in the day-to-day operations at a company of your choice and observe how logistics are organised and run.

During the excursion week, you get the opportunity to see how logistics is applied at all kinds of companies; you then see the theory you studied in previous weeks in action - an eye-opener!

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Year 2

In the second year there is more freedom of choice. You will expand your knowledge of logistics by becoming acquainted with intermodal transport, manufacturing systems and automation techniques. In a project, you will work on the financial, legal and organisational consequences of changes. At the end of the year, you can delve into a specific area of logistics:

  • Production logistics: coordinating, monitoring and optimising the production process.
  • Transport: transporting products or services in a safe, quick, sustainable and as inexpensive manner as possible from supplier to client.
  • Warehousing: optimising the setup of warehouses.
  • Healthcare logistics: processes in the healthcare sector concerning the optimal flows of goods (equipment and medicines), information and people (patients and visitors).
  • Event logistics: coordinating, monitoring and optimising logistics processes around events.

More detailed information on the themes can be found in the 'Specialisations' tab.

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Year 3

In the third year, working in professional practice and studying at Breda University of Applied Sciences are alternated. You will go on placement in the first half of this year (semester 5), for 18 weeks. 

For the work placement you can opt for the same focus as for the theme choice in the second year, but you can also explore a different area of logistics. Placement assignments can cover a wide range of topics, a few examples are: 

  • improving customer service at a transport company or at, say, BOL.com or Coolblue 
  • developing a training manual for a new inventory management system
  • carrying out an analysis of the flows of goods or visitors
  • improving a return flow of a production company
  • setting up a purchase and sales plan following a renewed business strategy

In the latter half of this year (semester 6) at Breda University of Applied Sciences, you will work on taking a more in-depth look at the field of logistics in learning communities, business games, panel discussions, and much more. In it, you will work on making (smart) sustainable and economic choices around, for example, the topic of automation, making supply chains more robust, or making e-commerce and entrepreneurship more sustainable.

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Year 4

At the beginning of the fourth year, you follow a minor; an in-depth minor in which you specialise further within your field of study, or you look beyond the borders of your field of study: an extended minor. You can also choose to study abroad for half a year.

In the second half of the fourth year, you will carry out a graduation project for a company or organisation with complex logistics flows. Once again you can opt for sectors where you undertook your work placement in the third year or choose a completely different area of logistics. Examples of graduation assignments include conducting research into changing a mode of transport (to reduce CO2 emissions), organising a change process within a complex supply chain, or finding out whether automation can be used to improve efficiency within a company. You will write a thesis on this assignment, which you will defend during your final exam.

Pre-master’s

BUas offers its own pre-master's programme 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.  

 

Areas of specialisation

At the end of the second year of study you will choose one the following themes: 

Production Logistics

How do you ensure that for making a specific sort of car all the necessary components are available on time, produced in the right numbers and can be supplied to the client? Production logistics concerns planning and organising the production process. You coordinate the production process and monitor the planning and quality.

Transport

Without transport everything would come to a standstill. Have you ever wondered about the way in which you ultimately come about your iPad or the jeans you are wearing? This can happen via all sorts of routes. More and more products are being produced in low-wage countries. This means that more and more goods have to be transported over great distances. You will learn how a product or service can travel from the supplier to the client in the best manner.

Warehousing

Which products are most frequently distributed from a warehouse? Are those products on the highest shelves at the front or at the back of the warehouse? To enable members of staff in a warehouse to move around as efficiently as possible, it is important that the warehouse is set in the most efficient way. In addition, it is important to consider which processes can be automated or where indeed people are the important factors.

Care Logistics

In healthcare you are concerned with the organisation of logistics processes, such as the flows of goods (e.g. equipment and medicines), information (important data has to be safely available at the right places) and people (e.g. patients and visitors). This requires logistics specialists. The demand for professionals in this sector will increase rapidly due to the rise in the ageing population.

Event Logistics

A concert or festival may often concern the main act of the day for the visitor. But have you ever thought about the organisation that such an event entails? Are there adequate numbers of toilets for the number of visitors, what are the parking facilities like and have entrance to and exit from them been well-regulated? Event logistics concerns coordinating, monitoring and optimising logistics processes around events.

 

Three-year tracks

After a comparable mbo programme

Have you followed one of these mbo programmes at level 4?

  • Logistics supervisor
  • Manager in transport and logistics
  • Location manager in national or international wholesale trade
  • Manager in port logistics.

Then you would be eligible for the mbo-hbo fast track. On the basis of one of these mbo programmes you will be granted exemptions. In this way you can complete your study programme in three years.

Three-year mbo-hbo track: how does it work?

In a number of mbo programmes which are related to the disciplines of Breda University of Applied Sciences, you can already become acquainted with Logistics Engineering in your last mbo year. For 16 weeks on a Wednesday you will take part in a number of training sessions and courses and carry out a project with us. If you receive a positive recommendation after the completion of this programme you can enrol in the second year of the study programme.

Ask the student counsellor or study programme manager if your mbo is participating in this enrolment programme. This programme always starts around mid-February and lasts until mid-June.

Is this something for you?

The enrolment programme is intended to discover whether the hbo is suitable for you and whether you can cope with education at this level. If you follow this programme you will be enrolled as a student at Breda University of Applied Sciences. You will not yet have to pay any tuition fees but you may make use of our student facilities. Come and take a look on an open day, where you can experience the atmosphere of studying at an hbo institution and you will have the opportunity of talking to the student counsellor about the enrolment programme.

How and until when can you apply for this programme?

To apply for the mbo-hbo transfer track, please to go Studielink. You have until 29 January to apply for this track. 

Would you like to know more?

If you would like more information about the three-year track, please contact the student counsellors of this study programme, Minke Snels and Lizanne Hessels: studentcounsellorABEL@buas.nl, telephone (076) 533 2600. You can also download the prospectus Mbo-hbo doorstroomtraject (information is in Dutch).

After vwo

To be able to complete this four-year study programme in three years, in addition to your vwo-diploma, you have to possess a number of qualities:

  • You are able to plan your studies well;
  • You are able to learn and work independently;
  • You take responsibility for your studies;
  • You really know what you want;
  • You enjoy working with others.

Your first year will start in the regular second year which will be your propaedeutic year. After this you will attend the regular third and fourth years.

Participating in this three-year track is hard work. That is why you will be intensively supervised by a student counsellor in the first year of the track. In the sessions you will have with the student counsellor, you will talk about how your studies are progressing, which subjects you are finding difficult, what your first results are, and naturally whether you are enjoying it.

If it appears in December that your results are below standard, you will be able to transfer to the regular first year. You will then be able to complete your studies in four years.

How can you apply?

If you want to participate in the three-year track, please follow the regular application procedure and indicate your preference for this  track in Studielink.

Would you like to know more?

If you would you like more information about the three-year track, please contact the student counsellors of this study programme via studentcounsellorABEL@buas.nl, telephone (076) 533 2600.

After hbo or wo

If you have a hbo or wo propaedeutic certificate, please contact us for information about the three-year track. Contact the student counsellors of the study programme via studentcounsellorABEL@buas.nl or via telephone (076) 533 2600.

 

Exchange programmes

Studying abroad for a while will offer you the opportunity of broadening your horizons, both literally and figuratively. You will be in an international environment, meet people from different cultural backgrounds and what's more, it is good for your language skills. In brief, studying abroad is a wonderful opportunity … go for it!

In the fourth year of your studies you can spend part of the year studying abroad, for example in Finland, Germany, Belgium or Austria; Breda University of Applied Sciences has contacts with several partner universities which you can visit as an exchange student.

Field trips

As a logistics student, you will explore your field of expertise during field trips at home and abroad. For example, you will visit the port of Rotterdam, or you go to a warehouse or production facility. You also will take a look behind the scenes of organisations abroad. The cities of Hamburg, London and Barcelona are recurring field trip destinations.

Entrepreneurship

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.

Eye-catchers

Admission

To be admitted to this degree programme, you need a havo or vwo diploma with an appropriate profile, or an equivalent of these Dutch diplomas. You can also be admitted with a level-4 mbo diploma. 

  • Check out the complete admission requirements and the possibilities if you do not meet the requirements
  • Additional requirements have been set for the 3-year track.

Application

If you meet the admission requirements, you are invited to apply for this programme. Please check out the application procedure

Study costs

In the academic year 2024-2025 the statutory tuition fee for bachelor's programmes is €2,530. In addition to the tuition fee, you will need to take into account additional costs for participation in the introduction week and the purchase of study materials such as textbooks and excursions. Read more about study costs.
 

Mateo - Logistics Engineering - BUas

I really love figuring things out

I would say the best tip is to think of what you enjoy in life and this can be very simple things. I found my passion for Logisitics by realizing that I absolutely love puzzling and this career offers me the opportunity to do exactly that. Define your soft skills and work from there out to find your study of choice 

My tips for students who still have to make a choice:   

Mateo Gomez Pineda

Student Logistics

More than shoving boxes around

Logistics is more than shoving boxes around. I now work at Move Intermodal. The company is a leading provider of synchromodal logistics solutions. We organize over 1.000 movements per day all over Europe. A shipping container must go back and forth. If it does not come back, you are not making a profit. My background from the degree programme -especially the experienced gained and coaching received during placements – really helped me to look at the entire chain.

Tomas Tempelaars

Chief eXcellence Officer at Move Intermodal

Practical learning

Guest lectures and company visits show our students that logistics is not just transporting, storing, and producing goods. It’s also about crowd safety at events, patient flows in hospitals and finding better ways to recycle and reuse products. I think it’s important that students are introduced to the various aspects of the industry to make it easier to connect the dots between theory in class and tasks and responsibilities they will have in the future.

Raechel Torner

Lecturer Logistics Management and Logistics Engineering

Your career

Logistics Management is more externally focused on directing the entire supply chain. As a logistics manager, you ensure optimal communication and smart organisation of logistics processes. As an entry-level worker in logistics, you can work as an account manager, customer service specialist, buyer, and logistics analyst. Soon you can advance to positions such as purchasing manager, supply chain manager or project manager.

Like to know more? After your bachelor