Centria University of Applied Sciences offers a bachelor’s degree programme in Information Technology, which is aimed at you who want to become a versatile IT expert and have plenty of interesting work opportunities in the future.

The field of information technology is continuously growing and developing, but it is also a creative field where small companies and even individual entrepreneurs can develop successful products and services. In our area, there are plenty of exciting work possibilities for IT experts. Our education gives you the readiness to work in different software tasks and positions. Your future occupational title could be, for example, a software developer or software engineer.

The degree programme in Information Technology provides you with extensive knowledge of software engineering and communications. The studies will start from the basics, so you don’t need previous knowledge or experience from the IT sector. In your studies, you can specialize either in software factory or in cloud systems and networking. The studies will also give you strong know-how in the field of engineering, starting from the basics, including natural sciences, language and communications skills and project management.

During your studies, you will gain more expertise in programming, software design and communications. You will learn to use the different IT-related hardware and software, such as Raspberry and Arduino, and Microsoft Visual Studio, Jira and Git that real companies use. In addition to the theoretical studies, you will do practical assignments and participate in different projects. For example, you will spend your 3rd and 4th year studying in Centria’s software factory, where you can practice previously learned subjects in practice by participating in RDI projects or other customer projects. The work is often done in teams in the IT field, so you will also learn teamwork and project working skills during your studies.

The engineer’s work is very practically oriented. All professional studies contain a lot of learning by doing. In our area, many successful companies need experts who understand the possibilities of digitalization. The companies also help us to develop the degree programme and the content of it. Company representatives visit us as guest lecturers and offer work placements, thesis projects and other projects for the students. These projects are an excellent way to show your expertise and possibly get a summer job later in one of the companies. We also co-operate with international parties, such as Cisco, Microsoft, Amazon and ESRI. Centria has its own certification centre, where the students can pass for example the AWS certificates of Amazon. Centria also has an IT laboratory for project learning.

Structure of Studies

The engineering studies in information technology consist of core studies, profiling studies, which include specialization studies, optional studies, work placement and a thesis. The scope is 240 ECTS, and the length of the studies is around 4 years.

The bachelor’s degree programme in Information Technology is offered in English as full-time studies. The contact classes are arranged on our Talonpojankatu campus in Kokkola between 8 am – 6 pm on weekdays. During your first study year, all the classes require a presence on campus. However, the percentage of contact teaching diminishes during the following study years: in the 2nd year, 75 % is contact teaching on campus, in the 3rd year, 50 % is contact teaching on campus, and during your 4th study year and especially in the spring semester, you will concentrate on finishing your thesis project. Through this arrangement, we try to offer our students a smooth transition into working life.

Studying at Centria UAS is very practical, and you will get many chances to participate in real-life projects together with working life representatives. We have a very active co-operation with companies, and the studies include visits to companies and guest lecturers from companies. In addition, work placements and student projects are part of the studies. During the work placement, you can practice and increase your know-how in an actual work environment. Work placements are a great way for you to show your expertise to a potential employer and get a summer job, for example. You can also practise your skills in our software factory and IT laboratory.

The bachelor's thesis is a large (15 ECTS) development or research project that usually takes place during the last study year. The purpose of the thesis is to prove that you have a good command of software engineering related theory and processes, and you can apply these in practice. The students usually do their thesis for a specific company. The thesis project, together with the work placement, introduces the student to practical work-life duties already during their studies. It is also the first step towards the first permanent position for many of our students. Some typical planning and development projects are, e.g. planning and conducting a quality assurance manual, marketing plan, business plan, orientation plan, directive, process or production line. The thesis project is a chance to show the skills that you have acquired during your studies. To become an expert, the student needs opportunities to solve authentic problems of the profession.

Specializing options 

In the degree programme, you can specialize in either software factory or cloud systems and networking. You can choose your specialisation during the second study year.

In the software factory module, you will learn to master the most important programming languages and to learn how to use your expertise in real-life software development projects. You will learn to design web and mobile applications and practical skills on how to implement software that meets customer requirements. You will have access to our modern software development environments, where you will work with other students, customers and teachers to develop and deploy sustainable applications.

In the cloud systems and networking module, you will deepen your expertise in communications. You can participate in study modules offered by Cisco. During your studies, you deepen your know-how as an administrator and a developer of cloud services. As for the cloud services, you will familiarize yourself with the Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure environments and their certificates. You will have plenty of job opportunities in the future. Your future occupational titles could be, for example, a developer or administrator of data communications networks.

Career opportunities

The world needs more skilled IT experts, and therefore our students have excellent work opportunities ahead of themselves. The degree programme in Information Technology gives the freshly graduate IT engineer the readiness to work in versatile positions in different companies in Finland and abroad.

IT Engineers have a wide range of working possibilities. The most used occupational titles are

• Software designer
• Software engineer
• R&D Engineer
• IT Manager
• Security expert
• Network Systems Administrator
• Network specialist or
• CEO of your own start-up company.

International Centria

Centria is one of the most international universities of applied sciences in Finland. Our students represent about 40 different countries from around the world, and you can feel the international atmosphere on our campuses.

We have around 130 partner universities, and if you are interested, you can study for a semester or a full academic year in one of the partner universities. Shorter exchanges are possible as well. Some of our students also do their work placement period abroad or in some international company.

Some of the courses are offered together with other IT student groups. It means that you have a great opportunity to practice your language and communications skills and get to know people from all over the world.

Postgraduate studies

After you have completed your bachelor’s degree and you have gained at least two years of work experience, you can apply to our master’s degree programme in Information Technology.  You can also continue your studies at another university in Finland or abroad.