Logistics Management

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

Year 1

In the first year you will learn what logistics means for various sorts of companies, what differences there are between companies and how you can survey all the logistics processes in a company or organisation. You will become acquainted with subjects such as supply and purchasing management, law and transport management. For this purpose you will attend lectures, seminars, training sessions or guest lectures which are often linked to group assignments. In the first-year excursion week you will see how logistics is applied in all sorts of companies; you will see the theory from the preceding weeks in actual practice – an eye-opener! Because logistics is an international area of specialisation, considerable attention is paid to logistics in an international context.

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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 addition to this expansion of knowledge, at the end of the year you can gain in-depth knowledge on a specific theme:

• 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.
• Care logistics: processes in the care sector concerning the optimal flows of goods (equipment and medicines), information and people (patients and visitors).
• Event logistics: coordinating, monitoring and optimising logistics processes relating to events.

More detailed information about the themes can be found in the 'Areas of specialisation' 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. In the fifth semester you will go on a work placement for a period of 18 weeks at, for example, a production company, trading enterprise, hospital or transport company. 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. Examples of work placement assignments are:

• Improving customer service at a transport company
• Carrying out an analysis of a fleet of vehicles
• Carrying out an analysis of the flows of goods or visitors
• Setting up a purchasing plan
• Designing the set-up of a warehouse

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 business games and simulations. In them, you work on making (smart) sustainable and economic choices around, for example the themes automation, supply chains, e-commerce, and entrepreneurship.

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. In the second half of the fourth year you will carry out a graduation assignment for a company or organisation with complex logistics flows, for example. Once again you can opt for sectors where you undertook your work placement in the third year or choose a competely different area of logistics.

Examples of graduation assignments are:

• Carrying out research into changing a mode of transport
• Improving the supply chain
• Introducing automation processes or the application of supply models

You will write a graduation thesis about this assignment which you will defend during the 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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. You will be taught about entrepreneurship in courses specifically designed for this purpose. In your second year, you can take part in an Excellence Track in Entrepreneurship.

And in the fourth year you can opt for a BUas-wide minor in Entrepreneurship, or you can even graduate in your own business! Perhaps, by that time, you already have a profitable business or have plans to start one? BUas Startup Support can help you.   

More information on how to start your own bussines.