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About the course

This full-time MBA is a flagship management qualification for early-career individuals structured to support fast-track career progression. It develops your leadership and strategic management skills and provides you with an up-to-the-minute understanding of the ever-evolving modern business environment.

This postgraduate degree aims to enhance your prospects by developing your ability to apply the latest thinking to organisational development and change in a competitive global context. Successful completion highlights your potential to have a transformational impact on the organisation you join.

Your placement provides you with experience of applying your knowledge and skills to solve real business problems and also forms the basis for your dissertation project. The placement and dissertation is academically supervised and supported throughout.

Why choose this course?

  • Every taught unit on this course is delivered in six-week block mode and has six entry points allowing you to start at a time that suits you
  • Follow a practice-led curriculum that develops your ability to creatively apply theoretical knowledge and understanding to complex real-life issues
  • Through practice events work on live consultancy projects with leading employers in organisations across private public and not-for-profit sectors
  • Develop the attributes and skills expected by professional and industry bodies such as the Chartered Management Institute and the Confederation of British Industry; these include team-working negotiation leadership confidence and the ability to apply critical and creative thinking to complex problems with the aim of finding innovative solutions

What will you study?


Corporate Innovation And Entrepreneurship

Managing creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and change are essential to successful performance in the context of increasing demands and fierce competition faced by organisations in the twenty-first century. This unit provides an opportunity for you to explore how these processes might effectively be promoted across organisations regardless of size and sector from initial business start-up through to large multinational corporations. The unit adopts a critical approach encouraging consideration of alternative philosophical perspectives supported by influential theoretical contributors.

Strategy And The Global Competitive Environment

This unit explores strategy and the implications for marketing. You will consider the broad external environment, current issues and challenges facing directors, senior managers and entrepreneurs in guiding the long-term development of organisations. The objectives of organisations and the means of achieving these objectives through the mobilisation and deployment of assets and resources and the integration of the various functions of the organisation will be the focus of the unit. You will most specifically:

  • Understand and develop strategy; think strategically;  
  • Research, develop and demonstrate expertise in understanding the global business environment in which the modern organisation operates gaining confidence in handling current affairs and relating these to organisations’ strategies;
  • Identify and evaluate political, economic, social and technological developments relevant to organisational strategies;
  • Apply a range of skills in developing business and marketing strategies for different environments and opportunities that can harmonise the organisations’ objectives, capabilities and resources    

Project Management

The unit aims to:
  • enables you to consider the importance of Project Management and the role of a project manager in modern businesses;
  • develop your systematic understanding of Project Management, informed by contemporary research, and its diverse application in different business contexts;
  • enable you to evaluate commonly used tools and methodologies for application in your business area;
  • enable you to approach new projects equipped with many of the necessary skills to bring projects to successful conclusions;
  • enable you to recognise and promote the importance of effective Project Management to potential users.Relevance
Relevance
You will use and analyse commonly used project management approaches and methodologies, including Waterfall and Agile, along with the associated tools and techniques, which will help develop key employability skills

 

Leading And Managing Organisational Resources

The unit takes an integrated approach to critically assess the relationship between leadership, operations management, finance and information systems which is essential for adding value and achieving competitive advantage in contemporary organisations. The theme is ‘leadership’ with an emphasis on high performance work systems and the international management of innovation and change. Successful completion of the unit will give you a comprehensive and detailed overview of contemporary practice informed by quality scientific research evidence. You will acquire a ‘toolkit’ that provides the potential for inspirational leadership and the effective management of organisational resources.
Operations Management addresses issues such as quality, location process layout, capacity management, and scheduling and inventory management. Global sourcing and relocation are now commonplace, and the competitive environment demands new ways of thinking about how to manage operations in a global context. Business and information systems facilitate decision-making and effective management across all functions. You will develop an understanding of how changes in the business strategy, the business operations and the funding of these operations can impact on the reported financial statements, their cash flows and thus impact on both share price and the reported results of a company.

Placement Professional Practice

This is a short professional and academic development course that is designed to support all MBA students in the University of Bedfordshire Business School to develop a professional profile through their journey in the Masters. The specific aims are to:

 

1.   Enhance students’ professional, personal development and communication skills.  

2.   To support students to evidence how their experience at master’s level has contributed to the development of their professional profile as required after graduation.

3.   To support students to develop the necessary academic skill required for successful completion of postgraduate research.

Management Practice (Placement)

Practice events are integral to the University of Bedfordshire Business School’s vision to take business education, research and practice in exciting new directions. Central to this vision is the aspiration to give you the skills and knowledge to find the career and future success you want. We aim to develop intelligent practitioners who imaginatively integrate theory and practice. You will need to select and apply knowledge and principles you have learnt through the taught MBA units, experiential learning activities and challenges to develop an understanding of current realities in work organisations and be better placed as a future manager.

This unit is specifically designed to help your transition into the professional work environment through combining academic rigour with practice skills: the behaviours, attributes and intent which give you immediate impact in the organisations you join. This produces individuals with the confidence and know-how to fit in and be effective from day one: managers who understand business context, and have the creativity, drive and focus to bring about change.

The aim of this unit is to:

  • Enhance your transition to the workplace through experiential learning
  • Improve your personal, interpersonal and business skills
  • Develop your awareness of professional working practice and increase your employability
  • Relate the theories learnt in the earlier stages of the MBA to real-word business practice issues.
  • Develop your skills in designing policy and management practice interventions

Mba Business Placement Dissertation

Aims:

To bring theory and practice together to formulate a research question and conduct a major piece of research on a topic of your choice relevant to your field of study

To stimulate you to reflect on issues critically and to identify aspects that need further research

To provide you with the opportunity to explore a topic in considerable depth, including carrying out a major literature review

To train you to critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of other people’s research to formulate your own study

To enhance skills in time-management, research management, project organisation and decision-making

 

Relevance

An important aim of a Master’s degree is to train you to use your knowledge and skills independently so that you can successfully carry out a major piece of research. This dissertation provides you with the opportunity for sustained independent study that builds on your research proposal and represents the culmination of your Master’s level studies.

How will you be assessed?


The assessment strategy for this course is designed in a way that will contribute to student development and will help you achieve your goals and enhance your employability. An essential element of this process is that feedback will be provided in due time so it is integrated in the learning process. When group work is required the marks given will be individual following the University of Bedfordshires regulatory scheme. The different kinds of assessment are listed below and in some cases they will be used in combination making sure however that there are no hidden tasks. In addition to the assessment strategies followed in each unit your knowledge and skills will be also formatively assessed through problem solving sessions or case study discussions in order to ensure that development of your comprehension of the underlying concepts is appropriate to the level of studies and continuously supports your overall achievement. A full list of how each unit will be assessed is presented in the previous section. Please refer to the relevant section of this form regarding academic integrity. The underpinning philosophy of all assessments is to develop both your knowledge and skills to enter employment as a confident manager with a strong base from which to meet your own aspirations. This requires consideration of your own personal capabilities as well as looking outward at the business world. The aim is for you to become an independent and self-directed lifelong learner. Apart from the formal assessments there will be an emphasis on self peer and group assessment. Tutors will provide feedback on formative assessments to support your development of good academic practice. All assessments are rooted in authentic and practical workplace scenarios to enable the integration of theory and practice in dynamic `real world work contexts. Exams are kept to a minimum. To facilitate learning for all students a range of assessment methods are used throughout the course including: - Business Reports to demonstrate contextual insight and professional practice; - Project Plans to demonstrate project planning skills; - Seminar Papers to develop critical analysis skills; - In-class tests of your knowledge of core concepts in context; - Project Report integrates learning throughout the course independently applied in practice; - Live Case Studies where you demonstrate the impact of your strategic decision making - Research Dissertation. Each block of study has 2 assessment points the first assessment submission deadline is in week 3 of the block and the second in week 6. Assessments focus primarily on critical discussion of theory and its application in current practice and are designed to provide reassurance of guaranteed student authorship and a true measure of your ability and understanding. The PPP unit requires reflection on performance to date with a focus on action planning for enhanced performance in both forthcoming assessments and personal development. The Business Placement Dissertation Unit is completed once the academic taught studies have been successfully submitted assessed and moderated in accordance with the University Regulations. Placement Experience: To qualify for the award designation `with Placement your Course Co-ordinator will be required to verify that the activities hours and learning requirements as specified by the Business Placement Dissertation unit have been fully completed. The focus is on the impact of management education to management practice and later assessments require greater complexity and integration through independent study to support your successful transition into work. This is exemplified by two units at the dissertation stage: Management Practice (for Placement) and the MBA Business Dissertation on placement. These help you to consider your personal and professional development and the complexity of applying management education in practice once in employment.

Careers


On completing your MBA you will be well placed to fill a wide range of positions. Your team-working skills analytical abilities and understanding of management will be attractive to employers. You would be expected to enter into mid-level management careers in SMEs and larger organisations or start your own business.

If you wish at a later point in your career you may pursue a doctorate of Business Administration (DBA).

Entry Requirements

2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area

Entry Requirements

2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area

Entry Requirements

2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area

Entry Requirements

2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area

Entry Requirements

2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area

Entry Requirements

2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area2.2 honours degree or equivalent in a related subject area

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