BSc Communication & Multimedia DesignAdd to shortlist

Programme profile

Wherever your interest in multimedia lies, whether it’s app development, games, graphic design or virtual reality, the Communication & Multimedia Design (CMD) programme sets you up to become a designer and multimedia specialist. With projects set by industry, you can expect a very hands-on approach that enables you to build your own portfolio of work while you study.

As you develop your design skills, you also discover the learning skills you need to make design concepts and tools your own. With guidance from your personal coach, you’ll explore which skills you can best apply to learn different things. This is closely entwined with attitude and you’ll work closely with your coach, lecturers and fellow students on your drive for the industry. Each designer has their own voice and we want to help you find yours so that you can understand how you can have a positive impact on the world.

You work on assignments from real companies in each year of the course, collaborating in small groups and drawing on the skills and experience of lecturers and professionals in the field. You could be working on an interactive advertising campaign for a major brand, developing a virtual reality experience for people with mental health issues, creating an app with stylish design for a music festival, or designing a campaign to stop cyber bullying. This method of working (Design-Based Education) means you learn to draw on feedback to adapt your ideas and become more flexible, while also developing your teamwork and leadership skills. It means you get hands-on experience of what it’s like to research and understand a client’s business, their target group and the many disciplines of design.

Programme content

Year 1
Your first year focuses on community building and exploring where your talents and interests lie within the various creative disciplines of multimedia communication.  In communities of expertise, you’ll explore new disciplines, learn from others and work with a film studio, game studio, print agency and digital agency for web & app design and programming. Through design challenges, you’ll develop your skills in design research (i.e. getting to know your target audience), and in 10 creative disciplines in multimedia design:

Storytelling 
Photography 
Sound design 
Game design
Graphic design
Motion design & video
Illustration Web/app design 
3D modelling

Year 2
In year 2, you explore the creative disciplines you particularly want to develop, taking the knowledge you developed in the first year to the next level. The project work helps you develop your portfolio and confirm the direction you are taking in multimedia design.

Year 3

In your third year of , you get to specialise by taking a number of minors. Minors are electives in which you focus on a specific subject or expand your knowledge by taking an additional subject. This allows you to truly take charge of your education by ‘customising’ your course.  You can take these minors on the Leeuwarden campus or at one of the NHL Stenden Grand Tour locations in South Africa, Bali or Thailand. You can also choose from minors offered by other courses and universities of applied sciences – this is all part of broadening your academic skills.

- Art ‘n’ Sound (Leeuwarden, the Netherlands) 
- Entrepreneurship (Leeuwarden, the Netherlands) 
- Integrated Digital Marketing (Bangkok, Thailand) 
- Media Concepts & Sustainability (Leeuwarden, the Netherlands) 
- Digital Entrepreneurship (Bangkok, Thailand)

Year 4
For your final year, you take a minor subject in Leeuwarden that either develops or broadens your expertise.  For your graduation project, you work on a thesis that brings together and grounds what you’ve learnt during your studies

Entry Requirements