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University of Bedfordshire
Park Square
Luton
Bedfordshire
UK, LU1 3JU
This course offers you the opportunity to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to operate effectively in the marketing arena. It will take a vocational approach and put you in contact with real issues challenging marketers today.
This course will suit those who are new to marketing or wish to develop a more strategic, integrated approach to marketing and business management. Marketing is vital for innovative companies to remain competitive, and encompasses a range of elements including brand management, international marketing, communications and e-Business. You will study all of these areas and apply your knowledge to a range of situations, taking account of the relationship and interaction with other aspects of business. You will also learn to design, propose and demonstrate strategic marketing solutions to real business problems. As part of the process, you will exhibit recognition of how cultural and social differences affect buying behaviour.
This course will put comprehensive study of management into a wider business context, providing you with a general idea of how to manage and develop people within organisations, plus an appreciation of the value of information systems and communication in all levels of business. Your complete business understanding in conjunction with your marketing-specific skills will give you a competitive edge in the job market and enhance both your short-term and long-term employment prospects.
On completion of this course, you will have developed your ability to analyse problems logically and apply decision-making skills and knowledge to reach feasible and realistic marketing and business solutions. This range of marketing and management skills will make you highly employable in career areas such as marketing management, brand management and communications within both the private and public sectors.
During the course you will:
Areas of study you may cover on this course include:
A range of assessment methods are used throughout the course. You will be required to undertake a variety of group and individually based assessments. These assessments include individual essays, report presentations, examinations, in unit and computer based tests; and group based reports and presentations. The assessments are designed to test knowledge and understanding of the appropriate subject matter, but also to demonstrate the range of skills identified in section 3 above.
The assessment strategy underlines the programmes concern with research and independent thinking, critical knowledge of theory and practice, the ability to make information decisions and communicate these under time pressure and, finally, the all important skills of teamwork and oral communication of ideas.
The written assignments and group reports contribute to the learning outcomes focusing on your ability to research and critically evaluate elements of the curriculum in depth. They generally allow you to use a variety of named sources to support your viewpoints.
The end of unit examinations focus primarily on critical discussion of theory and current practice and provide the reassurance of guaranteed student authorship, and a true measure of your own ability and understanding.
The time constrained tests will be more cursory in nature, generally assessing awareness, understanding and application of elements of the curriculum.
The significant weighting given to individual and group presentations stresses the primacy of team work and of effective oral communication based on research and creative, holistic thinking about organisational, financial, media, stakeholder and international marketing issues. For example, in Brand Management and Research, you will study contemporary and real time company branding development. You will select one brand from the Worlds top ten list, then analyse and report on this significant business.
This part is rather formal but is needed to demonstrate what you should be able to do having completed the course. The course is designed to meet the UK Quality Assurance Agency subject benchmarks for Masters degrees in Business and Management and these learning outcomes mirror those required for generalist Masters designed for career entry.
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
1. Demonstrate a critical and systematic understanding of relevant knowledge about organisations, their external context and how they are managed.
2. Justify the usage of relevant knowledge to a range of situations taking account of the relationship and interaction with other areas of the business or organisation with particular emphasis towards customer service and marketing planning in national and international markets.
3. Develop a critical awareness of current issues in business and management which is informed by research and practice in the field.
4. Compare and evaluate appropriate techniques to allow investigation into relevant business and management issues that requires familiarity with a range of business data, research sources and appropriate methodologies, and as such to inform the overall learning process.
5. Justify the application of knowledge and show a practical understanding of how techniques of research and enquiry are used to develop and interpret knowledge in business and management, with particular emphasis towards customer service and corporate social responsibility and their influence upon applied solutions.
6. Develop the ability to acquire and analyse complex data and information, to evaluate their relevance and validity, and to synthesise information in the context of new situations.
7. Develop a high level of conceptual understanding to:
8. Communicate effectively both orally and in writing, using a range of media.
In addition, this course draws additional learning outcomes from the economic, social and environmental section of the UK QAA benchmark for this area:
9. Extensive knowledge and understanding of management and business practices, and their limitations, and how these may be applied appropriately.
10. The ability to make general evaluations of commercial risks through some understanding of the basis of such risks.
This programme of study aims to achieve the following:
You will have a number of induction sessions before the formal classes begin. These will cover areas such as administrative arrangements, academic study in the UK, financial regulations and personal safety. If you have questions or problems with academic matters support is provided by the Course Manager. In the event of an illness during the course or have significant personal or family problems the Student Services offers independent and confidential advice. They are also the only people who can give you extensions to hand in dates for assignments; but they will only do this if you have a good reason. Other support is provided by Student Services, and by the Students Union.
For international students there is a dedicated International Students' Support Team. The team are here to help you settle in to University life and give advice on a range of issues such as: part time work, how to open a bank account, places of worship and local places of interest. There is also an international student induction programme designed to enrich your time of study at the University as well as help you settle in, adjust to your surroundings and get to know your way around. Please speak to your marketing tutor if you have any questions regarding marketing content at any time during the course.
Organisations where people do not work together fail. In most units you will find that group work forms a component of the activity. In some units this draws from in class discussions and in others it is a fundamental part of the assessment. We value the diversity of background that participants in the course bring. We try to capitalise on this in class by drawing from your knowledge and background in the in class group activities and assessments. Tutors facilitate the group and provide feedback and support where necessary. Group working is so important that we use this as the starting point of your finishing point the Advanced Management Project. Here the group is presented with a significant management issue and the team scopes and defines the problem (with support). The team then collects appropriate information and shares this prior to their creation of an individual report and reflection.
Career:
As the name suggests this course is intended to equip you with the knowledge and skills to take up a career in the management of Marketing sector organisations. Although not excluded this course is not totally allied to agency employment but is more aligned to working on the client side for marketing departments. This could be either in the private or public sector and you should expect it to be a career entry, or relatively junior post unless you already have relevant experience.
Further study:
This course is primarily aimed at people wanting to move directly into employment but if you find your studies particularly stimulating and want to study further then there is always the possibility to continue to Doctoral studies, i.e. a PhD.
A foundation degree will be of particular interest if you have completed a Modern Apprenticeship, vocational A levels, BTEC National or equivalent.
Foundation degrees are also particularly suitable if you want to qualify while working.
Many students studying for foundation degrees come to us through work-based routes so you can apply for a foundation degree even if you don’t have traditional academic qualifications.
We welcome applicants with relevant work experience.
We will consider you as an individual and take into account all elements of your application, not just your qualifications. We are looking for both breadth and depth in your current studies as well as enthusiasm for the subject you wish to study.
The general requirement is one of the following:
Postgraduate applications (MA/MSc) should be made direct to the University using the standard University application form. There are some exceptions, please see individual course descriptions for details.
As a general guide, to apply for a place on an undergraduate course (BA/BSc) at the University you need to have completed your high school education and have the required English qualification.
We have students from all the European Union member countries so we are quick to make decisions on most qualifications.
(Please note that applicants on a full student visa are not eligible for part-time study)
We recommend that you apply directly to the University where possible, as this allows us to offer the quickest turnaround time for your application.
Please read the Direct application instructions before completing the course application form.
Application forms for accommodation in the student halls at Bedford campus and Luton campus are available in the Student life section
APL is available for international students applying for undergraduate (Bachelor degree) study. Please do not use this APL form to apply for postgraduate courses.
Use the APL form to tell us about any non-standard qualifications and/or work experience you have that you think should be taken into consideration with your application. `
The APL form should be submitted at the same time as the course application form.
We regret we are unable to process APL forms from students who have not submitted a formal course application form.
Return your completed application to:
University of Bedfordshire
International Admissions
Park Square
Luton
Bedfordshire
LU1 3JU
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)1582 489326 (non-EU Students)
F: +44 (0)1582 743469
E: international-admissions@beds.ac.uk
The course features a variety of delivery methods allied to a mix of assessment strategies. There is a particular emphasis placed on theoretical underpinning, but consideration is given to the application of models, ideas and theories within the contemporary marketing environment. You will be presented with a current and practical view of marketing management.
Lectures, seminars and tutorials will be used extensively, but, in addition, a great deal of your time will be spent in small groups, involving for example discussion of case studies, simulation exercises, preparation for assessments, and work on presentations. Of course, there is a great deal of material for you on line in the BREO Virtual Learning Environment. While particular units vary in the nature and range of content you will always find the basic course information and lecture slides on BREO. This document is only updated infrequently (it is updated annually) and so the extent and detail of the BREO content that you will see is difficult to specify. Current developments at the time of writing suggest that formal inputs will be substituted for self study materials via BREO giving you more time for interaction and discussion. It will also mean that if you are ill, or for good reason are not able to make it to the first session, you will be well placed to catch up on the material that otherwise you would have missed completely.
Formal sessions are an important component of masters courses, and these will be used on all units with an emphasis upon interactivity and applied learning. In general, however, if a lecture is incorporated, this will be limited to one hour in length, and will be followed by small group work. There may be further scheduled group work which may be with or without direct lecturer supervision. As with any post graduate course much of the learning of students will be from each other and this process will be facilitated by the style of delivery, and the assessment methods.
Whilst contact time will be relatively that private study demands on this type of course are considerable. You should remember that a full time course represents 35 hours per week and time not spent in class needs to be devoted to private study or group meetings.
When you get to the final stage of the course, the applied management project, project support will be through learning sets supported by facilitators from the Business School and other areas of the University. This will help you in:
Communication
The ability to communicate effectively is universally recognised as a key skill in an aspiring manager. We try to help you develop your communication skills in a variety of ways in all of the units that you study. There is a core unit in business communication which demonstrates how important we consider this to be. While communication is typically broken down to written and oral this broad classification in no way represents the diversity of opportunities that you will be give. To develop your written communication skills you will be exposed to a wide variety of applications. Business reports and essays (there are not too many essays) are obvious ones but you will also be completing briefing papers, keeping notes, writing proposals and plans. The oral side is equally diverse and you are encouraged to develop your oral skills through class discussions and presentation. A PowerPoint presentation combines both oral and written communication and you will become more experienced at using these.
Information Literacy
In the UK, information literacy is defined by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals as: Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner. Right from induction you are introduced to the sources that the university has. We invest heavily in electronic sources of information as well as paper based ones and you are introduced to the range and diversity of what is available to you. The majority, if not all of the units that you study will expect you to search out relevant information and so your skills will improve throughout the course.
To help with the development of this you will use of the Internet as a research tool; analysis of websites, SMS etc. as communication media; use of online data / journals e.g. Keynote, EBSCO; use of PowerPoint as a presentational medium
Research and Evaluation
Through the analysis, processing and justification of numerical data: budgets; brand equity; return on investment measurement e.g. AVEs; other technical formulae OTS, CPT, TVRs. Problem solving permeates much of the course. In most, if not all, units you will be expected to search out relevant information and academic literature. Identifying information and theory is only the start, you must assess the relevance of information and the applicability to the context at hand of the competing theories that you find. This requires critical assessment of the material that you have. Obviously, tutors will present their own critical evaluations of theory and the applicability of theory in particular contexts within class and you should learn from this to develop your own perspectives.
Creativity and Critical Thinking
If running a business were a simple thing then all you would have to do to succeed is read a textbook and follow the guidance given. Theories are a great basis for running organisations but the way that you implement them is critical to how well they can help you. This is where creativity comes in. You need to be looking for different and creative ways to apply what you learn on the course. Of course we give you ample opportunities to develop your creativity. You will find class sessions provide opportunities for discussion of case examples where other classmates have very different solutions to the ones that you have thought of, some more creative than yours and others less. Most of the assignments that you tackle will call for some degree of creativity and so you will get plenty of practice in developing and arguing creative solutions.
Critical thinking, on the other hand represents the application of logic and evidence rather than creativity. Again class discussions provide you with ample opportunity to present logical solutions to case problems and receive feedback on the strength of the argument. Indeed, the majority, if not all, of your assessments need logic and evidence to support your case not least when you have come up with a creative solution.
We believe that being on a postgraduate course is very much like working as a professional in an organisation. We therefore expect that you will behave like an employee and we will do our best to behave as your employer. This has a number of imperatives:
