Do you enjoy an exciting and dynamic environment? Can you keep your cool even under great pressure? Do empathy and a service-minded attitude come naturally to you? If this describes you and you also happen to enjoy meeting people from all over the world, you’ll find that the International Hospitality Management programme at Stenden Hotel Management School is perfect for you!
This course amounts to a total of 240 ECTS.
EU: 17 January/15 August
Non-EU: 1 November/31 May
A bachelor’s degree from Stenden Hotel Management School puts you on the fast track to a career in the global hospitality industry. You can choose from any number of career paths, ranging from a management position at a hotel or restaurant, theme park, conference centre or event planning company to business consultant or even start your own business. Your degree will open up a range of career opportunities worldwide!
As a professional in the hospitality industry, you will enjoy a high level of responsibility in a job that is never the same from one day to the next. With your professional knowledge and head for business, your job is to make sure everything runs smoothly, regardless of whether you’re managing a hotel, organising conferences, or managing a financial team.
Careers open to you after graduation include:
To be admitted to one of the bachelor programmes you have to meet certain admission requirements. NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences recognises the following general international qualifications:
Furthermore, some of our bachelor programmes demand additional entry requirements. The additional entry requirements can be found in the list of admissible diplomas. If your diploma is not mentioned in this list, please contact us at csa@nhlstenden.com.
All non-EEA applicants are required to submit an English proficiency test with their application. Exceptions are made for students, who have had their preparatory education in a country where English is the official working and educational language. The language requirements for EEA students are the same as for Dutch students. If your diploma is listed here, the additional English language test is not required.
NHL Stenden accepts three kinds of official language tests: IELTS, TOEFL and the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English.
View the comparison between the different scores.
Please note: If you do not have the appropriate level, it’s possible to enrol in our English Preparatory Language Course.
You are required to write a motivation letter (300/400 words) based on the following guidelines:
Did you previously follow a programme in the field of hospitality, or do you have experience in this area? Then you can qualify for a shorter programme. For more information, please contact sabahattin.yucedag@stenden.com.
Students with an appropriate high school level diploma (entry level for academic universities) might be able to follow a Three Year Track Programme.
If you are from Aruba, Bonaire, or Curacao and you have a Dutch passport, please contact femke.beeren@stenden.com in order to start your application process.
If you are from Aruba, Bonaire, or Curacao and you do not have a Dutch passport, then please follow the application procedure a described.
If you are looking to specialise after four years of study, we recommend that you enrol in the master’s programme in International Hospitality and Service Management.
The International Hospitality Management (official name: Hospitality Management) is where you’ll learn all about hospitality, culinary arts, catering, events, human resources, marketing, sales, and finance. During this four-year course, you will be trained as a specialist in these areas. On successful completion of the course, you will be awarded a Bachelor Degree in Hospitality Management.
In your first year, you will learn about the fundamentals of the industry. How do you make sure your customers or guests are fully satisfied with the service they received when they go home? You get to study the finer points of human resource policy, marketing and financial management. In addition to delving into theory, you will also spend ten weeks acquiring practical work experience at our 4-star property, Stenden Hotel. This unique commercially run hotel covers all areas of the hotel business and is owned and operated by our staff and students.
You will find out what running a hotel actually involves on a day-to-day basis: a process known as operational management. You will learn about business processes, marketing, budgeting, managing staff, procurement, logistics, negotiation and quality assurance. As part of one module, you and a classmate will even run your own virtual hotel, and as a work-experience student you will be promoted to supervisor in the hotel and manage a team of first-year students. Starting in your second year, you have the option to spend part of the year abroad, at one of NHL Stenden’s International Campus Sites.
You will attend classes in strategic management, including financial analysis, revenue maximisation, market analysis and business plan writing. In addition, you will also take on a research project in preparation for your final-year project. As a work-experience student, you will be assigned the role of manager and run an entire department by yourself. You can specialise at this stage of the course by taking two minors. You also have the option to study abroad at one of our many partner universities or at one of the NHL Stenden branches located in South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand or Qatar. We have a special name for this rite of passage: we call it going on a Grand Tour!
In your fourth year, you will be taking on a final-year project. During a management internship, you will conduct research at a company in the Netherlands or another country of your choosing. The internship could take you anywhere: a 5-star hotel, a cruise ship or an events company. Pick your destination from over 27 countries. During your ten-month paid internship, you will have the opportunity to really get to know the company, and many students find that they have a job lined up at their internship company as soon as they finish their studies!
Classes at the International Hospitality Management programme cover all facets of management. In your third and final year, you will have the option to specialise by taking a number of minors: these are electives in which you focus on a specific subject or expand your knowledge by taking an additional subject. This allows you to truly take charge of your education by ‘customising’ your course.
You can take these minors at the Leeuwarden branch or at one of the NHL Stenden branches located in South Africa, Thailand, Qatar or Indonesia (Grand Tour). You can also choose from minors offered by other courses and universities of applied sciences – this is all part of broadening your academic skills.
A selection of minors offered by the NHL Stenden Hotel Management School:
As part of its Real World Learning programme, Stenden Hotel Management School owns and operates various Learning Companies that are affiliated to the various courses and are open to students enrolled in these programmes. Run by students and supervised by industry professionals, the Learning Companies are designed for students to apply in practice what they learned in the classroom while at the same time gaining experience in interacting with customers on a day-to-day basis.
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a style of active learning in which you learn by solving problems, as well as develop your practical abilities, including cultural skills, management skills, and meeting and presentation skills.
All NHL Stenden programmes are working towards a system of Design Based Education (DBE), which puts co-creation with professionals in the field front and centre. You will be working in small teams of students, teachers, researchers, and industry professionals.
To round out the course, you will take classes in a foreign modern language. The language of instruction for all classes, coursework and projects is English. Additionally, you will be allotted a second language from a shortlist you submit prior to your second year. The second foreign language can be French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Russian or Chinese.