First and foremost, integrated communications responds to the strategic questions of communication aims, target groups and the most effective communication channels. These considerations are followed by planning and creation for integrated media use: online, moving images and print media for various channels and events.

Anyone who can conceive, plan and manage these communicative challenges, particularly as a creative talent working from this foundation, is well-equipped to develop excellent communications that will hit their target. Students will acquire a solid base and develop individually for either strategy, creation, management or media production. In the dual programme Integrated Media and Communications (IMC), our students become acquainted with these fields and can try out various roles. Therefore, they find their own paths at an early stage of the programme. One component of the eight-semester bachelor’s programme involves training as a technical design assistant in cooperation with the multimedia vocational school located at Expo Plaza. This allows students to discover their talent for creative design and learn to assess and implement design and production processes in economically appropriate ways.

The programme connects a deliberately broad range of the content and methods from the subjects Communications Strategy, Media and Communications Design, UX Design, Media Management and Planning, Marketing and Communication Science. A good understanding of the relationships and connections in all these disciplines forms the foundation for the development of strategic communication. IMC trains our students for the communications industry of tomorrow. From strategy and creation to concrete implementation, thinking in terms of connections takes centre stage.

At the same time, a well-founded range of theoretical foundations characterises the curriculum, with related subjects from marketing, business administration, media management and planning, media and contract law, applied psychology and communication science. With this in mind, the first four semesters at the vocational school teach design-related technical skills in media production (photo/print/video/web). The fourth semester concludes with a test to qualify as a technical design assistant. Throughout the entire period of study, students also undergo internships at companies. In the first to fourth semesters, study alternates between three months at the vocational school and a three-month internship phase. During the fifth semester, students work on a comprehensive communications project: IMC regularly participates in the GWA Junior Agency competition whereby students work on actual projects for actual clients and are accompanied by a selected GWA agency. The sixth and seventh semesters offer a nine-month internship and impart theories and methods in communication science. The eighth semester is devoted to the bachelor project, which is carried out in conjunction with an internship phase. The internship phases are accompanied by and reflected in seminars at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

In the IMC bachelor’s programme, students learn in small groups, for each year’s class has only 25 members. The lecturers are in close contact with the students and teach in interdisciplinary ways as they work together on projects and teaching collaborations with real clients. Around half of the courses are connected to concrete projects. Agencies and companies often initiate concrete commissions in teaching collaborations. The planning and implementation of these projects are carried out by small teams of three to five students, and each participant is fully involved.  Because all our students gather experience at companies, they can forge many connections.

Our teachers come from the areas of communication science, media and communication design, marketing, media law, controlling, media studies, information management, media design, moving images, photography and printing. Teaching tasks, guest lectures and workshops by experts in theory and practice, as well as excursions to specialist conferences and companies/agencies, round out our courses. It is not only subject-related knowledge that counts; initiative, a capacity for reflection and social intelligence are particularly important to us as well.

The technical equipment at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts ensures subject-appropriate work for all requirements in media production. Professional equipment for film and photography work is available at the central campus media workshop and the multimedia vocational school.

A stay abroad is not a component of this study programme. However, students of the dual BA in IMC have the possibility to undergo the internship phases of the second study stage in another country provided a suitable internship partner can be found.

The integrated vocational training and work-related practice provide many types of work experience right from the study stage. These applied skills form the background for learning about processes of strategy, creation and gathering experience in various roles during the long internship phases. Students can test their responsibility, resilience in the face of criticism and capacity for reflection.

Our programme aims to train cross-medially qualified graduates who can strategically and/or creatively complete communications-related tasks in the areas of marketing, public relations and human relations. For instance, planners for integrated media conceptualise and manage the increasingly complex issues inherent in the conceptualisation, production and strategic employment of all forms of corporate media. Professional areas are agencies that work with communications, marketing and PR, communication departments at companies and organisations (marketing and corporate communications/human resources) and freelance professions in media consulting and production.

The dual bachelor’s programme in Integrated Media and Communication covers a regular study period of eight semesters including the integrated technical design assistant training and completion of the bachelor project.

Student guidance at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts can advise all students and those interested in studying. It can inform them about study offers and content as well as about the form and structure or our courses of study.

Moreover, we can provide advice concerning study-related questions and problems surrounding admission requirements, funding opportunities, changing universities or subject areas, difficulties with exams, contact and work-related problems and professional prospects. For more information about student guidance, go to www.hs-hannover.de/zlb-s

Every student pays a fee each semester. This fee includes a student pass for the Greater Hanover Transport Area (GVH), a public transport pass for Lower Saxony, a student fee, membership in the Students’ Union and an administration fee. More information is available at hs-h.de/semesterbeitrag.