Depending on the European country considered a bachelor’s degree may take three up to four years to complete. In most of the countries the completion of this initial degree leads to the start of an ICT-related profession, but it may also be a stepping stone for graduates to enrol in a master’s degree for continuing their studies.

 

It should be noted though that in some countries two types of bachelor’s degrees are provided – one more academic-oriented and one more professional-oriented. Typically, professional bachelors are offered by higher education institutions dedicated to applied sciences. However, there are cases in which both types of degrees are provided by the smae kind of higher education institutions.

 

Professionally oriented bachelor’s degrees are primarily aimed at practising a profession and provide a fast lane for entering directly in the labour market. These degrees focus on a specific profession and prepare students for specific careers. Graduates with these degrees may need a switching programme for entering master programmes in ICT.

 

Academically oriented bachelor’s programmes focus on a broad academic education and aim at preparing access to a master programme. These academic bachelor’s programmes although they do not limit the access of graduates to the job market and the start of a professional career, they mostly lead them to continue their studies in ICT and further develop their capabilities at a master’s level.

 

Two basic approaches can be identified in what concerns the organisation of the ICT bachelor’s curricula. Most bachelor’s degrees provide solely an ICT-dedicated curriculum, but others are part of broader engineering degrees in which the first year is common for all students. After an initial year with courses common to all variants of the programme, students are invited to choose a specialisation following from then a specific itinerary or learning path on ICT. There are also bachelor’s degrees which are part of interdisciplinary programmes with a large focus on ICT (e.g., business informatics or medical informatics). Due to the huge number of variations, we do not discuss this last category in this report.

 

Apart from mathematics and basic science subjects, most training programmes include therefore a broad array of other subjects in various ICT domains. The title of the diploma varies among the different universities and countries, but the most common ones that can be found are the following: bachelor in Applied Computer Technology, Computer Engineering, Computing, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Electronic Engineering, Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications, Electronics and ICT Engineering Technology, Informatics, Information and Communication Technology, Information Engineering Technology, Information Systems, or Information Technology.

 

Some bachelor’s programmes focus on one specific topic from the start or provide a specialised track, e.g. AI, AI Systems, Data Science, Computer Systems and Networks Security, Information Communication Systems, Mobile Solutions and Smart IoT Systems, Software Development, Software Engineering, Software Systems and Telecommunication Engineering, among others.