During the programme

The first year trains you to think like a creative strategist: hands-on, curious, and collaborative. You explore systems of money, power, future tech, branding, and end with a social-first business idea showing impact goes beyond profit. Year 1 consist of four blocks (15 EC each):

• A: Beyond Humanities. Analyze systems through human, nature, and tech lenses; question power and redefine value.
• B: Beyond Technology. Uncover tech’s hidden impacts; build a Tech Independence Map
• C: Beyond Creativity. Study Gen Alpha; co-create a future-proof Brand Book.
• D: Beyond Business. Map money and attention flows; design a social-first business that aligns profit with purpose.

The second year trains you to research like a strategist—creative, playful, and open to failing forward. Each of the four block builds your research skills while producing real-world outputs: toolkits, tested concepts, strategies, and books:

• A: Beyond Failing: Test and refine creative research methods; gain sharper questions and surprising, industry-ready insights.
• B: Beyond the Brief: Tackle a real company brief and future-proof it through shifts in law, tech, and culture.
• C: Beyond Speculation: Use speculative design to turn insights into visionary concepts and future-facing campaigns.
• D: Beyond the Heard: Gather stories from unheard voices and translate them into inclusive strategies for brands and society.

The third year is outward-facing, focusing on broadening your skills and experiences. This practical experience lets you apply and prove your skills in real-world settings, preparing you for your future career.

Courses:

• Beyond Minor (30 EC): You’ll complete a minor at HU, a partner university, or the Travel Minor, combining study with exploring the world. This helps deepen and shape your personal and professional interests.and knowledge.
• Beyond Internship (30 EC): Complete a meaningful, hands-on internship—remote, abroad, or local—where you’ll take on real responsibilities at companies, NGOs, brands, or agencies.

The fourth year is where everything comes together. You’ll act as a creative strategist, combining creativity, tech, humanity, and business into one final “Beyond” solution. You tackle a real-world challenge for industry, society, or the planet. Year 4 consist of 4 phases:

• Phase 1: Beyond Framing. You frame your final challenge by spotting urgent shifts in society, industry, or the planet. You’ll turn broad issues into sharp questions and align them with post-human perspectives and push your thinking into a first “Beyond” idea.
• Phase 2: Beyond Creating. You develop your “Beyond” idea into a tangible solution: a tool, concept, or prototype that organizations can actually use. By combining creativity, business, technology, and humanity, you turn an abstract vision into an innovation that sticks.
• Phase 3: Beyond Testing. You prototype and test your solution. Build fast, fail smart, and adapt. With feedback from partners, you check whether your “Beyond” idea holds up in the real world and refine it into something credible and resilient.
• Phase 4: You launch with impact. In a TED-style talk you showcase your tested solution, your vision, and your value. This is more than graduation—it’s your entry into the creative economy as a creative strategist, with work that proves what you can do.

We focus on experiential learning, which means being present is essential, both in bootcamps and online Labs. Learning works best through reciprocity and accountability, so being active during Labs and bootcamps is key.

Dutch-style learning

You’ll work with students from many countries. Sometimes that’s a challenge, mostly fun and always a learning curve. Our approach is rooted in Dutch culture: open, egalitarian, and direct. Everyone’s voice counts regardless of gender, role, or background.

Coach

From day one, you’ll have a Study Career Coach (SCC) to help you navigate choices, challenges, and opportunities. Together, you track your growth, plan your path, and make sure you’re getting the most out of Beyond Campus.

Coaching triangle

You’ll learn with three guides around you: your Beyond Campus coach from HU, plus an industry coach and a personal coach that you arrange yourself. The industry coach comes from a brand, NGO, or startup. The personal coach is someone you trust: a parent, sibling, or friend. Together they keep you sharp, grounded, and connected.

AI buddy

Between Labs, you’ll study with your AI buddy: a 24/7 partner for structuring work, testing ideas, and reflecting on your progress. It won’t replace teachers or coaches but it will challenge you, spar with you, and make your self-study sharper. You’ll also learn how to use AI responsibly, so you don’t just ask for answers, but for better questions.

Laptop

You’ll need a reliable laptop, strong Wi-Fi, and a webcam. A MacBook with an M1/M2 (or newer) chip or a mid-range Windows laptop with similar specs is ideal. Tablets or Chromebooks aren’t enough, you’ll need full laptop power.

Software

Every student runs MS Teams and Canvas — our HU standards. On top of that you’ll work with your AI study buddy, test diverse tech tools, and use creative and research platforms. Expect to explore, compare, and experiment with the tools shaping tomorrow’s creative economy.

Your tuition fee at HU depends on a number of factors:

• Are you an international student? Check the tuition fee calculator.
• Do you have a Dutch nationality? Check the 'collegegeldmeter'.

Besides tuition, you’ll need to budget for books and tech tools.

Travel/lodging costs

You’ll travel to Utrecht four times a year for bootcamps. Because dates are fixed long in advance, you can book trains or flights early to save money. Some students carpool with classmates; others use apps like BlaBlaCar (always check your own safety). For lodging, sharing an Airbnb or hostel keeps costs down and turns bootcamps into a social highlight.

Living costs

Tuition is the same as any HU programme. The difference is in how you live. Student cities can be costly and stressful, with rent, housing lotteries, and hidden extras. With Beyond Campus you can stay where you are, budget your own way, and only cover travel for the four yearly bootcamps. That freedom makes a real difference.

Universities dive into theory, lectures, and research. Beyond Campus blends that depth with applied power. You’ll practice critical, research-driven thinking, meet English standards fit for a global BA, and deliver outputs industry can actually use. With us, you’re seen, needed—your voice shapes the Labs, projects, and strategies we build together.

Yes, you can follow an expanded and more intensive version of the standard programme, or accumulate Honours Stars during your regular studies. Creative Business has an Honours Programme just for you! If you collect five stars in total, you graduate with honours.

Yes, in year 3 you’ll step into the industry through an internship. This can be with a remote company, a local agency, or abroad with an NGO or startup. Wherever you go, you’ll be working on real projects with real impact.

Creative Strategists thrive everywhere—shaping brands at Nike and Pinterest, driving innovation at PNO or WWF, decoding culture at Creativeans or WPP, or starting their own business. They blend creativity, business, technology, and humanity into skills companies worldwide urgently need. Read more about job options.

Some students thrive in the buzz of a daily campus. Others need a different rhythm  because of neurodiversity, chronic fatigue, caring for family, or the focus required for top-level sport. Beyond Campus offers structure without overload: fixed online Labs, clear deadlines, and 12 fixed community days a year in Utrecht. A full bachelor, designed to be inclusive.

No. Twice a week you work live with your team online: cameras on, voices heard. And every 10 weeks we reunite in Utrecht for a 3-day bootcamp. Think group projects by day, shared meals and hangouts by night. Many students visit each other abroad, turning their studies into mini-festivals of friendship and learning. Online or offline, you’re never on your own.

At Beyond Campus, community is the heartbeat. Twice a week you collaborate live in online Labs, and every 10 weeks you reunite in Utrecht. Maybe you’ll share an Airbnb, book a hostel together, or swap houses abroad. Online teams rotate each block, so you’ll work with many classmates, not just a few. Together you create outputs no one could build alone. Your peers become your future creative network.

And beyond class?

• Want to meet students outside your Beyond Campus track? With trips abroad, festivals, and events? Join the Creative Business student association LinkUP, 
• Prefer something broader—connecting internationals and Dutch students through cultural and social activities? Utrecht also offers student networks like BuddyGoDutch, ESN, and AEGEE.
• Also check the overview of all Utrecht student organisations.

Most activities take place in and around Utrecht, so travel may be required if you don’t live nearby.