Welcome to the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University!

Business research and education in business studies and commercial law constitute the domain of the Department of Business Studies. Additionally, the Department is host department of one Bachelor programme in Business and Economics and two Master programmes taught in English, one in Business and Management and one in Accunting, Auditing and Analysis.

The business students are a distinct element in the body of 40,000 students at Uppsala University. Almost 3,000 students study at the six departments which form the core of Uppsala's business and economics programme: the Departments of Business Studies (inluding Commercial Law), Economics, Economic History, Informatics and Media (including Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Media and Communication), Social and Economic Geography and Statistics. With its 1,300 enrolled students, the Department of Business Studies is largest of these six departments.

The six departments are located in the Centre for Economic Sciences (Ekonomikum), a modern building in mid-town Uppsala. The name Ekonomikum alludes to Anders Berch, who in 1741 became Sweden's first business professor (iurisprudentiae, oeconomiae et commerciorum professor, i.e., professor in law, economics, and business studies). This made him the fourth scholar ever appointed as professor in business studies in the world. In his times, Berch had a building in Uppsala at his disposal which he called Theatrum Oeconomicum. The name of the new building for the economic sciences, rendered into Swedish as Ekonomikum, thus symbolizes Uppsala's heritage in business education and research.

First cycle programme

The Bachelor programme in business and economics is the core of the business education at Uppsala University. Most of the students admitted to the programme choose business studies as their major, specializing in financial control, marketing, organization, or international business. Economics, economic history, and statistics are other optional majors in the programme. Students are admitted to a complete programme of three years (180 credits), and all majors are thus available to all students admitted to the programme.

In addition to the Bachelor programme in business and economics, business studies are included in other study programmes too, both at the Social Sciences faculty and at other faculties at the university. Moreover, many students pursue business studies as single subject courses, either to get acquainted with the subject before they apply to a study programme or to complement their study programme with business studies. Some students may even design a complete degree programme from single subject courses in business studies and other subjects.

International profile

Ever since the Department of Business Studies was founded in 1958, an international profile is a distinctive feature of its business research. This profile also characterizes all branches of the Master of Science programme in business and economics. About half of the students in the programme spend one semester of studies abroad at one of the Department's 70 partner universities in West or East Europe, North or South America, East Asia or Australia. In return, visiting students from these partner universities spend one semester at the economic sciences programme taught in English at Uppsala university.

Research

The business research at Uppsala is characterized by a persistent concentration to selected research areas. Already when the Department was set up, a specialization in international business research was chosen. Empirical anchoring of the research was also an early feature. The international specialization has produced numerous studies of Swedish companies in an international perspective as well as studies of foreign markets from a Swedish point of departure. Important impulses to research are generated along the interfaces to the other major research areas at the Department: financial control, management and organization, and marketing. In this way, a view of organizations as nodes in networks has emerged.

Corporate contacts

The business research and education at Uppsala is well integrated in the business community, even if not many companies might consider Uppsala university as their particular local responsibility. Uppsala can be considered as Sweden's only genuinely national university in the sense that it recruits students from all of Sweden. Students from the city of Uppsala and the province of Uppland are not a dominating part of the student body. The orientation of the business research has created an extensive contact network in major corporations all over the country.

Within the programmes, the corporate contacts are reflected in guest lectures and assignments for bachelor and master theses which is of advantage to the students as well as to the companies. The lively Association of Uppsala Business Students (Föreningen Uppsalaekonomerna), which counts almost all business students as its members, has extensive corporate relationships which are used not least at the annual recruitment fair "Kontaktdagarna" with high corporate participation. The Uppsala branch of the student association Aiesec uses its corporate relationships to arrange international traineeships both for business students and other social science students.
After graduation, the new Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in business and economics remain in touch with the university through membership in the Alumni Association at the Department of Business Studies. This association is a contact forum bringing together the Department and business graduates who have begun their professional careers.

A research based university profile

Contrary to many other business programmes and departments of business studies in Sweden, Uppsala has chosen not be organized as a business school. Instead of running tightly regulated training programmes for narrowly defined professions, the Department cooperates within a wider academic framework. A university profile such as the one chosen by the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University provides a focus on research based courses and utilization of the possibilities available at a large university. Its programmes offering generalist ability with options for self-chosen specializations enable the students to prepare for a rapidly changing future, where life-long learning gains increasing importance.