Why choose the School of Business Management
We are a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) accredited centre, and all courses offered within our HRM portfolio are CIPD accredited.
Our academic team are experienced industry professionals, active within the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) as well as in consultancy and research.
We offer employer site visits and have local employers and colleagues from the CIPD visiting the University.
About the course
This course equips you with the knowledge, skills, behaviours and graduate competencies that employers value and need, in line with the CIPD professional accreditation. You explore key areas of human resource management (HRM) such as talent management; operational management; leadership and motivation; data management and interpretation; selection and recruitment; and employee relations. You may also take up opportunities to engage with real-life HRM problems, allowing you to carry out practical projects that emulate working as a professional manager.
You may also want to consider our BSc Human Resource Management (with Placement) course, which offers a guaranteed 12-week placement.
Course accreditation
We are an accredited Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) centre. This means all of our HRM courses are professional body accredited, giving you access to Level 5 accreditation and increasing your employability in the HRM profession, on successful graduation.
Your student experience
Learn from expert tutors, active within the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), and in both consultancy and research.
Develop your understanding of how HRM works with other business disciplines, enabling you to fit into numerous organisation roles.
Apply what you have learnt to real-life situations experienced by companies and organisations globally.
Build the confidence and problem-solving skills needed to be an effective manager across a range of organisations and settings.
Benefit from HRM-focused employability events throughout the academic year, including careers fairs and immersive CV events.
Learn from employer site visits and visits to the University by employers and local HR managers, who to share their HRM stories - a great way to network and ask questions relating to HRM career development.
Gain from having regular engagement and support from CIPD members and branch officials, helping you make a smooth transition into the world of HRM employment.
with Professional Practice Year
This course has the option to be taken over four years which includes a year placement in industry. Undertaking a year in industry has many benefits. You gain practical experience and build your CV, as well as being a great opportunity to sample a profession and network with potential future employers.
There is no tuition fee for the placement year enabling you to gain an extra year of experience for free.
*Only available to UK/EU students.
with Foundation Year
A Degree with a Foundation Year gives you guaranteed entry to an Undergraduate course.
Whether you’re returning to learning and require additional help and support to up-skill, or if you didn’t quite meet the grades to pursue an Undergraduate course, our Degrees with Foundation Year provide a fantastic entry route for you to work towards a degree level qualification.
With our guidance and support you’ll get up to speed within one year, and will be ready to seamlessly progress on to undergraduate study at Bedfordshire.
The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.
This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.
Why study a degree with a Foundation Year?
- Broad-based yet enough depth to give you credible vocational skills
- Coverage of a variety of areas typically delivered by an expert in this area
- Gain an understanding of a subject before choosing which route you wish to specialise in
- Great introduction to further study, and guaranteed progression on to one of our Undergraduate degrees
The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.
During your Foundation Year you will get the opportunity to talk to tutors about your degree study and future career aspirations, and receive guidance on the most appropriate Undergraduate course to help you achieve this; providing you meet the entry requirements and pass the Foundation Year.
Studying our Human Resource Management BSc (Hons) course will equip you with expert knowledge and skills in the combined areas of social sciences and business management. As a human resource (HR) professional, it is important that you actively understand organisational issues from staff to management. This is where our Human Resource Management Foundations unit will develop your knowledge to demonstrate the skills and behaviours you need to meet professional standards in the industry. In other core areas of study, you will explore key concepts, theories and practices of human resource management (HRM) such as recruitment and selection, training and development and employee relations in our HR and Work in Organisations unit. Moreover, with technology becoming a prevalent tool in businesses, you will explore The Role of HR in The Digital Age and discover how human resource management has evolved and is developing with changes in technology.
As a fundamental skill, our unit in Applied Numeracy for Business will give you the confidence to develop the mathematical and numerical skills used for decision making and problem solving for businesses. In your second year, our unit in Innovative Practice in HRM and Human Resource Development (HRD) will equip you with the knowledge and skills to implement creativity and innovation in the workplace and understand how this contributes to organisational performance, competitive advantage and employee engagement. You will also be introduced to The Strategic Context of HRM where you will unpack theory around strategic HRM approaches in different business contexts while learning to make informed judgements in Employment Relations as a crucial skill in the HRM sector. Another fundamental part of HRM is resourcing and developing people, and this is where our unit in People Resourcing and Development will expose you to how organisations manage resourcing and development activities in the most effective way using key operational tools, techniques and practices.
In addition, you will be introduced to the principles and norms of Employment Law. You will move on to address Contemporary Issues in The Workplace and how HR functions should respond to them while considering the implications for policy making and practice for people management. As an essential skill, our Management and Leadership unit will also introduce you to theories and practice in this field alongside persuasive communication techniques so that you are equipped to solve problems and contemporary organisational issues. HR Analytics and Data unit will expose you to the fundamentals of HR analytics, how data is used in the HR environment, and the ethical issues and limitations that arise from this. With accreditation from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), this course will also prepare you for an organisational role in the HR profession with our unit in Developing Professional HRM Practice. This will develop your understanding of the skills required to work in the sector against the CIPD Profession Map and support you in creating your own personal development plan.
Finally, you will conduct a thorough piece of academic research and/or a practical project in our Business Project unit and to support you with this, our unit in Data and Research Methods for Business will provide you with the knowledge and skills to conduct research and analyse data in a business context. To prepare you for your career, our unit in Beginning your Professional Business Journey will help to ease your transition into the workplace and provide an insight into professional business environments. At the University of Bedfordshire Business School, we prioritise your employability and hope to equip you with skills you can take with you into the next stage of your career. This is where our Planning Careers and Employability unit will support you with practicing and preparing for a range of interview scenarios while also allowing you to get involved with local employers to gain insight on your own employability and prepare yourself to become a business-ready graduate.
In line with the Business School's commitment to practice-based education, a large part of the assessment will relate to your demonstration of your ability to do HRM in practice. We will want to see that you understand the theory and have developed critical thinking skills which help you evaluate the relevance of what you have learned. All of this comes together in being able to demonstrate rigorous human resources practice for an organisation.
To assess this range of integration of theory and skills into sound practice, we use a range of methods. You will encounter many different kinds, including the ones listed below, some of which are used in combination, for example a report might be required as an outcome of a time-limited assessment task.
- Reports: you analyse a business problem and propose solutions.
- Presentations: present proposals as if to your boss, a board or a client.
- Time-limited tasks: on a set day, you will be given a task which you will need to complete in a set time, such as 48 hours or five days.
- Academic writing: used to demonstrate clear, critical thinking, you might be asked to write an essay or a short summary of a theoretical debate.
- Appraisals: just as in business, you use appraisals to assess your own learning and to set your personal and academic development objectives.
- Projects: these are assessed in a number of ways depending on the task defined by our business partner. Typically, you will need to prepare an analysis, report or presentation which is suitable for the business partner and a longer piece of work which sets out the behind the scenes' work which underpinned the output for business. It is in the longer work that we expect to see explicitly your application of theory and critical thinking which underpin good HRM practice. You will usually also prepare a project review.
- Project reviews: you analyse and evaluate the way you worked on a project and set out how you would work more effectively on a similar task in future.
- Exams: as well as conventional exams using set questions and case studies, exams can be the outcome of a group task. You might work on a large task together and then sit an exam to show your individual learning from the task.
- Portfolio: you will plan and record your CPD activities using the CIPDs HR Profession Map as a guide to the knowledge, skills and behaviours you need to develop to be ready to work in HR.
For all assignments you will have an assignment brief which clearly sets out what is required and you will be given the criteria which your tutors will use to mark your work. All units have a form of non-graded formative assessment which feeds into the summative methods of assessment; this may come directly from tutors or from your peers and self-assessment. You will receive feedback on all your assessments. If you use this feedback, you will be able to improve your learning and your grades on future assignments.
Careers
You will be equipped for starting a career as a HR professional, with all the knowledge and experience to hit the ground running in a HR practitioner role within a variety of organisational contexts. Equally, your skills would enable you to excel in a range of more generalist people-management roles.
A human resource management (HRM) degree can be applied to almost any organisation in any sector. It is a versatile qualification for dealing with hiring, training, development and general people skills
Careers directly related to your degree include:
- Human resources officer
- Office manager
- Occupational psychologist
- Training and development officer
Careers where your degree would be useful include:
- Business adviser
- Careers adviser
- Data scientist
- Higher education lecturer
- Life coach
- Management consultant
- Mediator
- Operational researcher
- Recruitment consultant
- Risk manager
- Sales executive
- Talent agent
- Trade union research officer
The careers listed here are for information and guidance purposes only. Many employers accept applications from graduates with any degree subject. By completing your degree, you have demonstrated skills which are transferable to a range of careers.
Entry Requirements
Entry Requirements
Entry Requirements
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £9,535 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See www.gov.uk/student-finance
Excellence Scholarships
Worth £2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*
» If you don’t qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering £500 per year of study**
» Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available
* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.
International
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is £16,900 per year.
There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.
A full list of scholarships can be found here.
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £9,535 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See www.gov.uk/student-finance
Excellence Scholarships
Worth £2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*
» If you don’t qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering £500 per year of study**
» Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available
* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.
International
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is £16,900 per year.
There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.
A full list of scholarships can be found here.
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