Intercultural Studies for Business

Objectives

The MA program in Intercultural Studies for Business opens up new international horizons for students. The course has been approved unconditionally for 6 years by the national agency for accreditation A3Es. With a highly specialized teaching staff, the MA offers innovative courses such as Chinese (Mandarin) and Arabic Languages and Cultures for Business, Culture, and Development, Intercultural Economic Relations, Entrepreneurship in Culture, Intercultural Communication Technologies, as well as English, French, Spanish, and German Cultures for Business.

The MA is fully taught in English, thus allowing for increased collaboration and international mobility. Students may opt for a double degree, in combination with the Masters in Languages and Intercultural Management of the Université d'Artois, France. The course provides internships with Incubit – Business Consulting & Entrepreneurship, the High Commissioner for Migrations, the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs, Vida Económica Publishing Group, and several other European partners.

This MA is part of the Higher Education Network for Intercultural Mediation. Graduates will also be able to continue their studies at a Ph.D. level at the Universities of Vigo and Santiago de Compostela, due to protocols signed with these prestigious Spanish universities.

The target audience is made up of graduates from all IPP schools, as well as professionals from the fields of heritage, arts, communication sciences, social sciences and the humanities, economics, planning, languages, literatures, marketing, management, international trade, local and central administration institutions, public and international relations, tourism, hotel management; publishers and booksellers; translators and interpreters; project managers; socio-cultural mediators; NGO staff; teachers, coaches and mentors.

The MA in Intercultural Studies for Business offers in-depth training focused on the business world, in order to develop practical, analytical and critical skills for an effective communication between cultures, the profitability of knowledge, and entrepreneurship in the field of culture. The program puts forward an innovative approach to the humanities, in tune with the corporate job market, based on an interdisciplinary approach and the application of new technologies. Graduates will be able to understand, use and monetize methodologies of context analysis and measurement of cultural variables in a business environment.

The MA will train professionals capable of autonomous, efficient and integrated performance in intercultural contexts, able to incorporate initiatives for the understanding between cultures into business practices, in line with the new epicenters of economic flows and their agents.

Learning outcomes to be developed by students include understanding the relationship between culture, communication and the socioeconomic and political context in the business world; assessing, adapting and (trans)creating information to be communicated; applying multimedia tools; choosing and implementing differentiated business strategies based on nonstandard cultural knowledge; researching and acting in culturally specialized areas. Graduates should be able to use interdisciplinary techniques and expertise to facilitate the implementation of international projects; identify and address the needs of different cultural environments; improve communication between business cultures and deal with intercultural situations effectively, leveraging integration and growth; develop culturally aware and sustainable business ventures; know local customs, their opportunities and obstacles for the global business environment; carry out scientific work with a solid practical, technical, theoretical and methodological basis.

In line with a policy of self-employment, the MA in Intercultural Studies for Business views the knowledge of culture as a profitable field, indispensable to any company, both as a tool and as an agent in business and economic growth. The comparative study of cultures allows graduates to adapt and develop professionally in different work contexts. The MA pays special attention to postcolonial cultures and to the current flows of business and decision-making centers to China, the Maghreb, the Middle East, Hispano-America, and the Commonwealth, among many others. This MA articulates intercultural studies with economics, communication, politics, history, management, and media arts, to create a professional profile with growing demand in business, publishing, communication, cultural management and political and administrative organizations, in different fields and institutions, within the global context.

Classes will be concentrated after working hours, on Thursday and Friday evening and Saturday morning. The last semester of the course is totally devoted to the elaboration of the dissertation or course project or professional internship.

Careers

Communication; Cultural planning; Marketing and publicity; International management and trade; Local and central power; Public and international relations; Tourism; Hotel and hospitality management; Publishing and bookselling; Translation; International project management; Socio-cultural mediation; NGOs; Teaching and mentoring.

Regime

After work hours