Information Systems (IS) is both a professional discipline and an academic field, aiming to bridge the technical capabilities of IT with business needs. As an academic discipline, IS investigates a wide range of topics, such as IS strategy and management, business systems, IS development methods, user behaviour and usability. It also investigates more theoretical issues, such as the relationship between technology and the social world, and the dynamics of the information society.

Business Analytics is the process of transforming data into actionable insights for making fact-based data driven decisions. The aim of this business analytics specialization is to facilitate learning of students towards understanding theories, frameworks, and concepts of descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics to support business decisions in an organization. The curriculum focuses to develop knowledge and skills concerning the theory and practice of planning and implementing analytics projects in organisations. The courses include Introduction to IS research, Data Management, Advanced Visual Analytics, Applied Statistics, and Applied and Big Data Analytics, and underpins this by enhancing students’ core information systems understanding, including Ethics, Sustainability and Society, Research Methods, Proposal Development, tailoring them to meet the needs of this specialization. Business Analytics specialization is designed to help students acquire specialized analytical skills to develop data analytics projects to support decision-making and solve real-world business problems.

The awarded title is Master in Information Systems.

IS Masters with specialization in Business Analytics are qualified to work as Data Analyst, Product Analyst, People Analyst, BI Developer, Data Specialist, IT Project Manager and more general Information Systems roles such as IT Managers, Business Analysts and Consultants. After completing the master's programme, the candidate is also formally qualified for a PhD study in a related area of research.

The Master Thesis - the aim with the Master Thesis is to provide the student with an opportunity to develop systematic understanding and critical awareness on the solutionof a relevant problem in the student’s focal area. Students will gain advanced knowledge of the research process at Master level in information systems, including a deep knowledge of selected theories. They will acquire specialized problem-solving skills, being able to plan and conduct the steps in the research or development process at a high methodological standard. They shall take responsibility to conduct a well planned and executed project at Master level.

On a more detailed level, the student will, based on observations of the industry and the existing body of knowledge, develop a research question. Students will also be able to connect their Master Thesis work to one of the ongoing research projects at School of Economics, Innovation and Technology. Furthermore, the student will conduct an extensive literature review in order to map what is already known about the chosen research question. Building on this, the student will carry out the research. This usually includes collecting his or her own data, which can be done by means of surveys, interviews, experiments, observations, and more. The data are to be analysed in a thorough manner before conclusions can be made. Lastly, the student has to reflect on ethical issues, limitations, future research and the value of the contributions of the conducted master thesis.

Study program MBD

Master in Information Systems: Business Analytics