Economics as its foundation, technology as added value and entrepreneurship as a guideline. This, in short, is the philosophy behind the Belgian academic qualification of “Business Engineer” (Handelsingenieur / Ingénieur de Gestion, sometimes also translated as “Management Engineer” or “Commercial Engineer”).

The idea has always been to deliver professionals who are able to understand the jargon and business environment of all of their colleagues, whether they are engineers, economists, lawyers, computer scientists or have other specialisations. Our business engineers can be the bridges between the worlds of different members of the workforce.

During the “bachelor” phase of our degree, students develop a solid foundation in economics and are immersed in business fields such as marketing, finance, management and human resource management. This is followed by a thorough grounding in mathematics, statistics and computer science, whilst a strong basis in science is provided by physics, chemistry, electronics and technology courses. Another peculiarity of the business engineer’s education is a strong focus on language skills.This broad knowledge is the cornerstone of this master’s programme.

The English variant of the Handelsingenieur / Ingénieur de Gestion / Management Engineer master’s programme, is not just a copy of the existing Dutch and French programmes that are already offered at VUB and ULB (and will continue to be offered). The Master of Business & Technology focuses even more on IT and innovation, and has a clear international flavour. In fact, the entire second year is organised around these three I's (IT, Innovation, International).