Management

The Professional MBA programmes focus on developing and enhancing your current academic and managerial skills. An important objective is to provide leading-edge analytical training in the latest strategic managerial and organisational developments in both the public and private sectors. You will collect and analyse relevant information across a range of areas pertaining to given scenarios and situations, synthesise the information into a form appropriate for the evaluation of alternative solutions and subsequent decision-making, and engage with people from different cultural backgrounds in order to raise the level of organisational awareness and thinking. 

As a student on the Professional Masters programme, you will study the latest management theory and acknowledged best practice in areas such as leadership, operations, corporate governance and sustainability. The programme includes coverage of leadership and organisational behaviour. The study of financial analysis and decision-making emphasises the use of financial and accounting data to inform and improve strategic decisions and operations. The coverage of business economics provides the foundations for business decision-making across a range of functional areas. The programmes culminate in the completion of a capstone project enabling you to apply the theories taught on the programme to your place of work to deliver high impact improvements in your businesses.

Duration:

This is a distance learning course with a duration of 18-36 months.

Course Fees:

Please see the tuition fee pages for current tuition fees. Please note that all fees are subject to an annual increase.

Funding:

Funding opportunities may be available, please check our funding calculator for details.

The Professional Masters programmes are designed for professional level managers and leaders with some previous business experience or experienced managers and business leaders aspiring to become managers in business and industry. The degrees would be of particular interest for those who seek to:

• study a subject of truly global importance
• develop a critical appreciation of financial theory, practice and environment
• develop high performance management skills to develop their businesses
• develop high impact projects within their businesses.

You will develop the following key skills and competencies:

Study Skills

Alongside the wealth of world-class business expertise, you will master highly desirable skills in academic research, analysis, argument-formation, presentation and debate. You will also prove your abilities in reflection and self-improvement; you will be able to identify your academic weaknesses and remove them whilst building on your strengths.

Self-Motivation and discipline

Studying the Professional Masters programme requires discipline and self-motivation from every candidate. You will have access to the expertise and helpful guidance of departmental staff, but you are ultimately responsible for devising and completing a sustained programme of scholarly research in pursuit of your Professional Masters degree. This process of independent study at an extremely high level will strengthen your skills as an independent and self-sufficient worker.

Transferable Skills

The Professional Masters programme is designed to give you a range of transferable skills that you can apply in a variety of business contexts. Upon graduation, you will have proven your abilities in structuring and communicating ideas efficiently, writing for and speaking to a range of audiences, evaluating and organising information, working effectively with others and working within time frames and to specific deadlines and, delivering high impact and practical business strategies to improve your business.

Learning and teaching for the Executive MBA and MMgt courses is different to typical programmes. It is recognised that practising professionals require developmental approaches that allow them to align and emplace theory, models and frameworks in real-world situations. 

To ensure that delivery is most effective the teaching framework includes:

• Case analysis, with facilitated discussions on application and variance within industry and professional settings
• Group-based evaluation and articulation of critical paths for success, the identification of industry best practice and the challenges and opportunities of emplacing that practice in applied environments
• The analysis of scenarios and evaluation of prioritised decision outcomes and the determination of success.

Because of the nature of delivery, learning may be assimilated within a working environment contemporaneously.

Assessment

Assessment takes the form of reports on collaborative action learning problems, case studies, oral assessments and analysis reports. Each student will complete a management project worth 60 credits.

Modules

• People and Organisations This module investigates the ways in which the development of an organisation is driven through its own people. Relevant theoretical principles and models of human resource management, organisational behaviour and leadership are considered. Specific topics include recruitment and selection, employee motivation and remuneration, organisational culture and managing change, and diversity in employment. There is an emphasis on applications using practical examples and case studies.
• Marketing Management Strategy This module deals with identifying, entering and developing markets and provides a thorough grounding in the theories, concepts and techniques of marketing, by examining strategic marketing concepts and models. The module evaluates the role of marketing in contemporary organisational environments. A general management approach is used, identifying relationships and market orientation as key premises for business and marketing management.
• International Business Economics This module examines microeconomics and macroeconomics principles, concepts and methods of analysis. The module analyses the microeconomic behaviour of individuals, households, firms, and their interactions. The module also covers the macroeconomic behaviour of economic aggregates, including gross domestic product, consumption, investment, inflation, unemployment and the balance of payments. There is emphasis on role of government policy and regulation at the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels.
• Corporate Governance & Sustainability This module introduces key concepts, theories, research and practices of corporate governance within an increasingly global context. Contemporary corporate governance codes, disclosure requirements, risk management and ethical systems are examined, with emphasis on the holistic nature of such systems and processes. The module explores auditing and accounting policy issues, with reference to international convergence in professional standards and regulatory responses to current issues. Particular attention is paid to issues of business ethics and sustainability.
• Financial Management and Decision Making This module develops a practical grasp of financial and management accounting, financial analysis and financial decision-making, relevant to the aspiring general manager. Topics include the preparation and interpretation of the principal financial statements; accounting requirements and practices for the internal planning, monitoring, management and control of a business; and business finance, including sources of finance, financial management, and stock-market analysis of performance.
• International Strategy and Operations This module examines international strategy and operations management, including the international supply chain, an increasingly important aspect of business opportunities worldwide. The module examines techniques required for the design, operation and control of business processes and consulting, including methods for reducing supply chain risk. The module emphasises the importance of customer/ supplier relationships, as well as the risks associated with supply chain management
• Project Management Tools and Techniques Through the process of examining and reflecting on the processes of the planning, organisation, and managing of engineering projects, the module aims to critically analyse a range of project management models, engineering project planning tools and techniques and to apply these techniques to the design, planning, cost control and management of given project scenarios.
• Leading and Managing Projects Whilst Project Management typically focuses on the process of managing short-term projects to successful completion aligned to the triad of Time, Cost, and Quality Leading, Project Management explores in depth the more sophisticated and softer elements of successful Programme Management and the impact of strategy and leadership on the delivery of successful projects and programmes. 
• Global Supply Chain Management The aim of this module is to identify the key drivers and issues that are driving globalisation of industries and markets and, to further explore the main activities, structures and management of global and international logistics systems and supply networks.
• Green Logistics and Supply Chain Management This module critically examines various Supply Chain & Logistics strategies, systems and technologies used in the development of supply chain systems and, through the application of systematic design strategies; plan, design and develop suitable and effective supply chain and logistics configurations for given scenarios.
• Environmental Economics This module provides an analysis of how economic theory may be used by governments, NGOs and the business sector to help protect and enhance our natural environment. Basic concepts in economic theory are introduced, so that understanding is developed of how markets are supposed to achieve economically efficient allocations and why, when they fail to do so, environmental degradation often results. The module then explores how governments, NGOs and businesses might intervene to address environmental issues, and evaluates the effectiveness of a range of policy instruments including command-and-control instruments and incentive-based instruments. It also explores why economists attach importance to the monetary and non-monetary valuation of environmental goods and services, providing a critique of these techniques. We then explore how such values might be incorporated into the design and evaluation of environmental policies, as well as macro-economic indicators such as Green GDP measures. The above theories are demonstrated in practice through a series of contemporary environmental policy case studies.
• Global Marketing This module examines the identification, entry into, and development of international/global markets. The module provides a thorough understanding of the theories, concepts and techniques of global and international marketing, including motives for international expansion, market selection and entry, management of communications and customer relations in international markets, and international branding.
• Quality Engineering and Management Through examining and reflecting on the concept of quality systems and quality management, this module aims to critically analyse a range of QA and QE systems and models as well as quality planning tools and techniques and contemporary quality improvement techniques and, will apply these techniques to the design, planning, control and management of given production systems.
• Ethics, Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility in Organisations This module is designed to develop and augment the knowledge and understanding of management through ethics and corporate responsibility. It will consist of a series of lectures/workshops that focus on both ethics and corporate responsibility, combining theoretical explanation and the use of contemporary case studies to which theory can be applied to practical examples.