Global Project and Change Management/Bachelor of sustainable development | WINDESHEIM UNIVERSITY

Working as a project and change manager, involves working in complex, multidisciplinary environments, for example in the field of global health, or civil society.

You might have to liaise between policy-makers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private businesses. Or you might need to set up your own social enterprise.

You'll need knowledge of international business and economics, global challenges, project and change management and research.

As well as acquiring knowledge, you'll need to develop skills such as communicating in different styles, managing diversity in teams, planning and budgeting, and change process leadership. Most important of all, you'll need to know and develop yourself as a person, build awareness of your strengths and shortcomings, your ambitions and your place in the world.

This bachelor of sustainable development has three learning lines: Business Skills, Research and Project Management. Each course has its own focus, but all courses incorporate our central theme of Global Challenges. 
Throughout this BBA programme of sustainable development we offer extensive, personalized career counseling. During the first year, we'll help you to study successfully, e.g. by providing workshops on time management and prioritizing. In the later years, we'll help you to develop a professional profile and market yourself. You'll compile a personal portfolio, which you can use to find internships and electives and, once you've graduated, to get the job you want or a place on a Master's programme.

4 years

All courses and examinations will be in English, so you need a good command of spoken and written English.

The level required for admission should be an equivalent of the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) score of 6.5, or TOEFL (79-93), such as:

Cambridge Proficiency (CPE) B2

Cambridge Advanced (CAE) Grade C (180 - 184)

Cambridge Lower (FCE) Grade A

Greek high school diploma (Apolityrio Genikou Lykeio), with a general grade of at least 10 and a grade of at least 15 for mathematics.

The admission procedure also includes writing an essay and doing a Student/Programme Matching Test. In your personal statement, you explain why you want to study Global Project and Change Management.

Once you've completed your application and your educational level has been assessed as equivalent to what we require, you'll be invited to a selection interview day. On this day, you'll do a group activity and have a personal interview lasting up to half an hour. The interview can also be done by Skype from Greece. The aim is to get to know you better and to check whether your expectations about the programme and Windesheim meet what we can offer.

For the first year of the programme, you're required to live in the Windesheim student residence, “The Hive”, located in Zwolle, The Hive is the new student residence for international students of Windesheim Honours College.

The Hive reflects a place where people live together and are constantly changing and innovating things that are strange, or simply ordinary. It makes it so easy to work together on a project and you get to know the people in your programme really quickly. It's beneficial on many levels: you learn how to deal with different cultures and you have to speak English at all times (not only in class). Seeing your flat mates working hard, motivates you to do your very best. You will have a decorated and furnished room in an apartment, which you will share with three other students from the programme.

If you want to find other accommodation in your second year, you should expect to pay roughly €300 to €400 a month in rent, per person. Prices depend on the room size, type of room (single or double) and facilities. We have several residential sites in Zwolle and we work with SSH (foundation for student housing) to help students find suitable places to live.

The way our programme is set up means you'll be working mainly within the triangle formed by non government organizations (NGO), business and government. That might involve working within one of the sectors, or being like a spider in the middle of the web, liaising with all three to make a project work. An NGO is a charity, association or social enterprise that is independent of government and business, whereas a business is a commercial organization that tries to make a profit.

After you graduate, you'll be qualified to work on issues such as population aging, new forms of government and urban problems. As a project manager, it'll be your responsibility to lead a project team towards a solution.
Project management provides organizations with the knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to plan and execute projects on time and within budget.

After graduating, you can start your career for example as a:

• Project manager/advisor at international NGOs, like Red Cross and Doctors without Borders
• Project manager in slave-free clothing, or food industry
• Project manager for businesses aiming to introduce sustainable production
• Project manager/advisor with governments, or political institutions
• Communication advisor on healthy lifestyles with an insurance company
• Project manager reducing food waste in cities, or at large popular events
• Advisor improving communication on scientific results on Global Warming (IPCC)
• Advisor improving Corporate Sustainability

Instead of going straight into a job, you might want to continue your education when you graduate. If you'd like to do a Master's degree in the field of international sustainable development, talk to your careers counselor. He or she will go over the options with you.

We have a strong network of contacts in other universities and expertise in lots of different fields. So we can give you good advice and help you make the right decision. About 80 per cent of our students from this course do Master's courses after graduating from Windesheim.