Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration & Business Psychology – Not Your Run-of-the-Mill Degree Program

Three female students share how they have made the most of their personalized curriculum.

Business Administration and Psychology—what may initially sound like two separate worlds have long been intertwined in practice. Companies need employees who think in business terms and, at the same time, understand what motivates other people. This is exactly where the Bachelor’s program in Business Administration & Business Psychology at FERNFH comes in.

During the first four semesters, the focus is on the core curriculum. Students learn the fundamentals of business administration—such as accounting, management, marketing, and change management—simultaneously and in conjunction with psychological expertise in areas such as industrial and organizational psychology, social psychology, and market and consumer psychology. Students here don’t study business administration with a little psychology on the side; rather, they truly study both—as an integrated system.

A More Personalized Education Through Specialization

Specialization begins in the 5th semester. In the elective curriculum, students choose one of three areas of focus, in which they take a total of 9 ECTS credits:

• Human Resource Management – This concentration prepares students for strategic human resource management: from recruitment and development to modern compensation models.
• Change Management – This specialization teaches how to guide organizations through change processes—using a psychologically grounded approach that is attuned to the people driving the change.
• Marketing Management – This concentration combines brand management, customer loyalty, and marketing strategy with a psychological understanding of target audiences and markets.

In addition to the elective course, there is the Individual Curriculum: 11 ECTS credits in the 5th and 6th semesters, which students can design themselves. Whether it’s additional courses from their own or another FERNFH program, micro-credentials in fields such as healthcare, IT, or digital business, courses from other universities, or even volunteer work: the Individual Curriculum invites students to tailor their studies specifically to their own career and life goals. Three students demonstrate how this works in practice.

Julia Klein: “That’s how I ended up earning a micro-credential on the side—without even realizing it at first.”

Julia Klein works in labor market policy—a field that, at first glance, seems to have little to do with business administration, yet is more closely connected to it than one might think. Demographic change influences markets. A healthy population means a larger labor force. Julia has always sensed these connections—her studies gave her the vocabulary and theoretical background to understand them.

For her personalized curriculum, she therefore selected the courses “Public Health” and “Demography and Epidemiology” from the FERNFH program in Aging Services Management. Shaped by her time working with an advocacy group in the fields of labor, social affairs, and health—right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic—this was a deliberate choice regarding the course content. And it brought a pleasant surprise: by completing these two courses, she also earned a micro-credential.

“It was a nice surprise to find out that I’d actually earn a micro-credential by taking these two courses. But I made a conscious decision about the course content right from the start.” — Julia Klein, student in the Bachelor’s program in Business Administration and Business Psychology

Micro-credentials are certified supplementary qualifications that FERNFH students can earn at no additional cost, allowing them to gain additional knowledge from other fields of study at the distance learning university.

Julia’s honest take on these additional courses: Thinking outside the box opens up new perspectives, introduces you to fellow students from other majors, and reveals connections you hadn’t noticed before. At the same time, in some cases, it can mean more in-person class sessions. For Julia, the benefits in terms of content outweigh the drawbacks—and, she emphasizes, this was always her own decision.

Denise Springer: “Knowledge management came along at exactly the right time—and I chose ethics based on my gut feeling.”

Denise Springer from Graz knew right from the start where she wanted to go: into human resources. And that’s how she planned her path through college: an elective in Human Resource Management and a personalized curriculum that served as an extension of her professional reality.

The “HR Management” specialization offers courses such as Workforce Planning, Strategic Human Resources Development, and Performance & Compensation Management—content that Denise was able to apply directly to her day-to-day work. For her personalized curriculum, she also chose Knowledge Management from the FERNFH Business Informatics program, and she did so for a very specific reason: Several employees at her company were about to retire, and valuable practical knowledge was at risk of being lost.

“I was able to take away an incredible amount of practical knowledge—but I also learned a lot on a personal level. Knowledge management has shown me how to make experience visible—and how much is lost when you don’t.” — Denise Springer, student in the Bachelor’s program in Business Administration and Business Psychology

Her second choice for her personalized curriculum turned out quite differently: Ethics from the FERNFH program in Aging Services Management. No strategic plan, no career-related reason—just a gut feeling. In hindsight, says Denise, it was one of the best decisions she made during her studies. After all, anyone working in HR is constantly torn between two loyalties: the company on one side and the employees on the other.

“On the one hand, you represent the employer; on the other hand, you want to—and are supposed to—protect the interests of your colleagues. This conflict is closely tied to ethical issues—and has opened up many new perspectives for me.” — Denise Springer

Denise's general thoughts on the individualized curriculum: Those who know themselves make the right decisions. Those who are still figuring that out will learn it, at the latest, during the selection process.

Julia Jäger: “Marketing and HR—I used to think they didn’t go together. Today, I see things differently.”

Julia Jäger has chosen a combination that may seem surprising at first glance: marketing and HR. External image and internal culture. Campaign and candidate. What initially sounds like a contradiction makes perfect sense to her, and she owes that in no small part to the degree program itself.

In her elective course in Marketing Management, she delved deeply into the world of brand management: How are strong brands created? How are customer relationships built and maintained? What does strategic marketing mean in practice? In her personalized curriculum, she supplemented this with HR-specific content. What she discovered in the process: The boundaries between the two fields are more permeable than she had thought.

“At first, I also thought that marketing and HR were pretty different worlds. But now I’m realizing how much overlap there is—for example, when it comes to employer branding or internal communication. For me, they complement each other really well because they help you understand companies better, both internally and externally.” — Julia Jäger, student in the Bachelor’s program in Business Administration and Business Psychology

Her decision not to commit to a specific path early on was a conscious one. In a professional world that is constantly changing due to digitalization and artificial intelligence, Julia is building a broad foundation. With her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Business Psychology, she has career opportunities in human resources management, marketing, sales, or management consulting.

“I think it makes sense to have a broader foundation, especially at a time when so much is changing due to digitalization and AI. It just makes me feel more flexible when it comes to my future career.” — Julia Jäger

What Remains

Three students, three completely different approaches, and yet one thing in common: The elective and individual curricula in the Bachelor’s program in Business Administration & Business Psychology are not just nice extras. They offer the opportunity to truly tailor your studies to your own life, to your current job, to the questions you ask, and to the path you want to take.

You can find all the information about the bachelor's program here.