Study content and requirements
for the Business Psychology degree program
What should you bring to the program?
The bachelor’s program in Business Psychology at CU Carinthia University of Applied Sciences is generally open to students from any high school background with a general university entrance qualification, provided they have the appropriate interest and are willing to work hard, even without prior specialized training in the field.
What Business Psychology students should bring to the program:
- An interest in economic and socially relevant topics
- An interest in the psychological aspects of human behavior in business
- The ability to work in teams and to lead them
- Language and communication skills
- A sense of responsibility
- Enjoyment of international and intercultural challenges
Here´s what you´ll learn during your studies
In the Bachelor’s program in Business Psychology, you’ll learn to combine business expertise with psychological insights. You’ll analyze human behavior in companies, during purchasing decisions, and in markets, and develop practical solutions for organizations.
Understanding and Applying
Economics You’ll learn to apply fundamental economic knowledge to real-world business situations. This includes finance and accounting, manufacturing and logistics, marketing, and human resources management.
Explaining and Shaping
Human Behavior You’ll explore how customers, employees, and other market participants think, make decisions, and act. In doing so, you’ll examine individuals, groups, companies, and societal contexts.
Analyzing
Organizations and Their Environment: You’ll learn to examine the internal situation of organizations as well as their legal, social, and economic environment, and to make informed assessments of developments.
Applying
methods of business psychology: You will apply methods of business psychology to specific real-world tasks. The focus is on human resources, organization, and work, as well as consumption, marketing, and market research.
Taking
on leadership and responsibility: You’ll prepare for leadership roles and learn to critically reflect on—and appropriately balance—the differing interests of employees and companies.
Acting
in an Interdisciplinary and Sustainable Manner You will collaborate with people from various disciplines and cultural backgrounds and incorporate the goals of sustainable development into your work in business psychology.
What opportunities will you have after you graduate?
With a bachelor’s degree in business psychology, a wide range of career paths are open to you. For example, you can work in human resources management, employee development, change management, management consulting, training and coaching, or in workplace design and workplace health promotion.
There are also numerous opportunities in marketing, advertising, and market research—for example, in the areas of consumer insights, market intelligence, user experience research, or marketing consulting. Other fields of work include project management, finance and accounting, and corporate communications.
If you’d like to further deepen your knowledge, you can pursue a master’s degree in Business & Management or Business Psychology at a university or university of applied sciences.
Here´s how the program is organized
The program lasts six semesters and is worth 180 ECTS credits. You’ll study full-time on the Villach campus and graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Business (BA).
Starting in the very first semester, you’ll combine foundational business concepts with content from psychology and behavioral sciences. The modules are divided into two half-semesters. An exam week takes place between each half-semester and at the end of each one. This allows you to focus specifically on individual topics and plan your exams more effectively.
For more information, see our FAQs on the Bachelor’s program in Business Psychology.
General information about the program
For more information on admission requirements, training contracts, nostrification and recognition, the admissions process, examination regulations and grading, ECTS credits, and the academic calendar, please refer to the General Study Information.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about the bachelor’s degree program in
“Business Psychology”
What requirements do I need to meet?
You must have a general university entrance qualification, a vocational matriculation examination, or an appropriate university entrance examination. A relevant vocational qualification, combined with the appropriate supplementary examinations, may also qualify you for admission.
How long does the program last, and what degree will I receive?
The program lasts 6 semesters and comprises a total of 180 ECTS credits. Upon successful completion, you will receive the academic degree of Bachelor of Arts in Business (BA).
Do I need any prior knowledge?
No. No prior knowledge of economics, psychology, or statistics is required. You will learn the necessary fundamentals during the program. However, you should be willing to work with numbers, data, and scientific methods.
Current Courses
Current course - Management · Study branch: Wirtschaftspsychologie
The allocation of modules to the six core areas of the Business Psychology program (rounded percentage of the program in parentheses)
What specialized skills will you gain during your studies?
The Business Psychology program combines in-depth psychological expertise with the fundamentals of economics. This broad, interdisciplinary curriculum covers all key areas of business psychology without requiring you to commit to a single specialty early on. This allows you to develop a well-rounded, practice-oriented skill set and prepare yourself for a variety of career paths.
The program focuses on three key areas of expertise:
You’ll gain the ability to design work environments that are people- and team-oriented. The program focuses on work psychology as well as personnel and organizational psychology: You’ll learn how to promote employee motivation, leadership, job satisfaction, and occupational health using a scientifically grounded approach. Through People Analytics, you’ll also be able to support data-driven HR decisions and actively help shape the company culture.
The focus here is on market and consumer psychology. You’ll explore purchasing behavior, brand psychology, and market research: How do customers make decisions, and how can products, services, and marketing strategies be optimized from a psychological perspective? Behavioral economics and financial psychology are also part of the curriculum—you’ll learn how psychological factors influence economic decisions.
You’ll learn to help shape change processes and development projects in organizations and to develop psychologically grounded solutions for new challenges. With a deep understanding of human behavior, you’ll be able to support change projects and take on consulting and coaching roles. This field brings together your expertise from all subdisciplines of business psychology—from Human Resources & Organization to Market & Customer—and positions you as a sought-after business psychologist in a wide range of professional fields.
Understand what drives people.
Learn to analyze human behavior in companies and markets, and develop psychologically grounded solutions for the workplace of tomorrow. Start your bachelor’s degree in Business Psychology now at CU Carinthia University of Applied Sciences.
Jobs & Careers
With a bachelor’s degree in Business Psychology, you’ll open the door to a wide range of career paths at the intersection of psychology and business. You’ll combine foundational knowledge of economics with expertise in psychology and behavioral science, qualifying you for roles in human resources management and development, organizational consulting and change management, training and coaching, as well as marketing and market research. This will enable you to further develop your professional profile in line with your interests across a variety of companies and organizations.
Your Career Prospects After Earning a Bachelor`s Degree in Business Psychology
As a graduate, you can pursue a career as a specialist, an emerging leader, or an independent professional. Your business education opens the door to traditional career paths in companies. Thanks to your specialization, you’ll also be in demand for roles where psychological knowledge about employees, customers, and markets plays a key role.
According to the BMBWF’s assessment dated July 20, 2022, designating graduates of this program as “business psychologists” and “business psychologists” is compatible with Section 4 of the Psychologists Act, as this designation does not constitute an independent professional title associated with a specific regulated profession or a specific professional license.
You can work in these areas
As a graduate of the bachelor’s program in Business Psychology, a variety of career paths* are open to you. These include, in particular:
- Human Resources Management: aptitude testing & workforce planning, performance evaluation, HR and management development
- Consulting & Change Management: Organizational assessment & organizational development, management consulting, corporate communications, mediation
- Training & Coaching: for employees and executives
- Work & Digitalization (including workplace health): Work analysis & work (space) design, human-system interaction design
- Marketing, Advertising & Market Research: Business Analytics & Intelligence, User Experience Research, Marketing Consulting, Product Design, Behavioral Marketing
- Other Areas of Expertise: Financial Psychology, Communication Consulting, Policy Design, Creativity Coach, Empathy Interventionist
*
(1) See main areas of practice for business psychologists according to the Society for Applied Business Psychology (GWPs): für Alle – Society for Applied Business Psychology (GWPs) e.V. (gwps-ev.de)
(2) See the job description for “Business Psychologist” according to the Professional Association of German Psychologists (BDP), berufsbild_2017.pdf (wirtschaftspsychologie-bdp.de)
Here are the tasks you can expect in your day-to-day work
Depending on your field of work and specialization, you’ll take on a variety of tasks related to people, organizations, and markets. Typical responsibilities include:
- Recruiting, developing, and supporting employees
- Analyzing working conditions and employee experiences
- Helping to shape change processes within organizations
- Developing training and professional development programs
- Designing workplace health promotion initiatives
- Examine purchasing behavior and customer needs
- Conduct market, consumer, and user studies
- Developing psychologically grounded marketing and communication strategies
Possible positions include People & Culture Partner, Employee Experience Manager, HR Training & Development Specialist, Change Management Consultant, Market Intelligence Specialist, or Consumer Insights & Data Analyst.
Your personal growth doesn´t stop after you earn your bachelor´s degree
With a bachelor’s degree, you can either enter the workforce directly or further deepen your knowledge by pursuing a master’s degree. Options include master’s programs in Business & Management at CU University of Applied Sciences Carinthia, as well as relevant programs in Business, Management, or Business Psychology at other universities of applied sciences and universities. Depending on your interests, you can specialize, for example, in business psychology, human resources and organizational development, marketing and market research, management, or a related field, either in Austria or abroad.