21st Century USA – American Business & Culture
- Starts February
- English
- 30 ECTS
- 5 months
About this minor
In a nutshell the minor will provide a Socio-Economic overview of contemporary America. The main aim of the content is to give you a deeper understanding of today’s America. This will give an objective basis for those who wish to know about the key superpower in the world today, the potential changes that are to come and how the world economy will be affected.
In this minor you will partly work together with students from the Sports Entertainment Management degree program at the University of Northern Texas, Dallas. You jointly work on cases brought in by a selected set of organisations from the Netherlands and the USA.
Why the minor 21st Century USA?
- True multi-disciplinary work with students from various background in the Netherlands and the USA.
- Part of the minor is a facilitated study trip to the USA. During this trip you will put in practice what you learned in the minor and you visit and pitch your finding to the university and business case partners.
- Participating Dutch and US organisations are in the field of sports, innovation and technology.
- Minor is taught and coached by experienced international (American) staff who lived, worked and/or studied in the USA.
University of Northern Texas, Dallas
Take a look at the campus of the University of Northern Texas in Dallas.Programme
The 21st Century USA minor consists of an interesting balanced workload. During a 20 week timeframe you can expect 12-18 hours a week on lectures and coaching. In addition you work with the US students on the project. Due to timezone differences we require you to be flexible in meeting the US students.
You can expect to learn the following;
- Students will obtain valuable business insights and educational knowledge concerning the American Business & Culture in the 21st century.
- Understand, apply and analyze the main macro-economic principles and policies and being able to relate them to America’s (economic) position in the world as well as current global economic developments.
- Understand, apply and analyze America’s economic model and its monetary and financial system and the central role it (still) has in the world economy.
- Understand, apply and analyze cultural issues in American society and apply these in business cases. Focus is on history, politics, sociology and regionalism.
- A specific and relevant knowledge and experience of American business practices and real case-studies on location in the USA. This will be used to create solutions stemming from the cases.
- Student shows that he/she can apply knowledge and insights at business cases related to his own specific degree program. This knowledge and insight will be analysed and evaluated.
The learning objectives will be assessed via a combination of didactical assessment tools. We will use a combination of formative and summative assessment
15 ECTS = Theories and case-studies concerning the economic, political, historical and cultural context that form a background understanding of contemporary USA which can then be applied to the actual global business environment by our students. We identify 3 subjects: The American monetary and financial system, American macro-economic principles and policies, American business and culture.
10 ECTS = One project in two parts concerning American business practices and opportunities.
5 ECTS = You will create a personal portfolio. This portfolio is based on the ILO’s (Individual learning outcomes) defined at the start of the minor. We use Canvas and the Feedpulse module to reflect and assess the portfolio (the USA study trip will take up part of this portfolio reflection).
At the start of the minor we will organise an American Evening. This is a social gathering to get to know each other and the lecturers and coaches.
Entry requirements
If you register for this minor you are expected to have some background knowledge of basic economic theory and the contemporary international business environment. If you are a student from a non-economic background you are also very welcome to take part in the minor. In the intake interview we jointly see if your individual learning objectives meet the learning objectives from this minor. The advice is non-binding.
The minor has an obvious and structural international character – both the learning and social environment uses English. We expect you to master English at B2 level. This will not be tested in advance. It is your own responsibility to ensure this level.
In order to participate in this minor we ask every student to make a financial contribution to partly cover for the facilitated study trip costs. The individual student contribution will be made known soon. The decision to run the facilitated study trip will be made prior to the start of the minor and depends on the situation at that moment.
How to apply for this minor
February
The application for minors that start in February goes from the first week of July until December 15 of the preceding year. However, if you need a little bit more time to choose, you can still register yourself until 1 February in most cases.
To attend a minor you have to
- Have passed the propaedeutic phase or;
- Have permission from the examination board of your study programme
Note: not all programmes are available every semester. To find out when this minor is offered, please check its specific details.
How to apply as an exchange student
Applications should always be submitted via the International Exchange (or Erasmus) Officer at the home university. If several versions of the programme are offered, please indicate for which version you would like to apply to (Programme I, Programme II, Programme III, etc.) This officer will send your application request (nomination) to Fontys. Once Fontys has accepted the application, your Fontys study department will send you a link to a web application called Mobility Online.
Deadline for application
Fall semester: 15 May
Spring semester: 15 November
Note: Not all exchange programmes are available every semester. To find out when this programme is offered, please check its specific details.
Agenda
Register here for one of our activities. This way you can be sure whether this is the minor for you! We hope to see you soon!
There are currently no activities planned for this study programme. Please contact us if you have any further questions.