The figure illustrates, how the core competence in information management is built up as well as the gradual progression from the first semester theme “introducing information management’" to “practicing information management” in the sixth semester. The figure also shows, how the fields of communications studies, organisational studies and interdisciplinary research methods contribute to laying the theoretical foundation for competencies in information management.

The BA(im) programme is built upon the following academic fields:

These four academic fields constitute points of departure for the first-year courses. Towards the end of the first year, some of the fields are combined in the first year project, and in the course of the second and third years, the approaches are further combined and gradually integrated towards inter-disciplinarity and new disciplines towards the core competence in information management.

Practicing information management may be a complex challenge, and the basic assumption of the BA(im) programme is that in order to be able to manage complex tasks related to information management in an organisational setting, students must master the basic skills within the fields of communication studies, organisational studies and information systems. Thus, the first year courses serve as basic courses that provide the theories, concepts and tools required for building up the core competences in information management.