Course description
MSc
The MSc Business Administration will be of interest to those who have not formally studied for a degree in business or management and who would like to increase their understanding of business and management. In addition, it will be valuable for those who have a first degree in business and management and would like to develop their knowledge at a higher level.
The Business School is based on the Wheatley Campus and makes use of a purpose-built postgraduate building. Oxford Brookes Business School is acknowledged as a leading provider of professional business management training in the UK. We have over 100 teaching and research staff and our students are drawn from all over the world. Our reputation is built on our student-centred approach, our teaching and research excellence, our innovation and service to the community and professional organisations, and our educational philosophy, which seeks to embrace education in its widest sense.
Course content
The MSc is based on the completion of the following compulsory module elements, plus an 80-page master's dissertation.
Compulsory module elements:
* Business Strategy introduces the major concepts of business strategy and the analytical tools used to develop strategy in complex business environments. You will develop an understanding of how financial statements can be used to evaluate organisational and strategic performance, and how a range of stakeholders' interests impacts on the development of business strategy.
* Principles of Financial Accounting and Statistics provides the opportunity for you to develop core competencies in accounting, basic statistics and their integration in business decision making. The module seeks to give you an understanding of financial and quantitative information relevant to middle or senior managers in order to enhance your effectiveness when operating in an international organisation. The module is primarily concerned with the analysis and interpretation of quantitative and financial information, not its production. The content of this module is used as a foundation for further study in other modules including Research Methods.
* Managing Business Operations explores the complex and interconnecting relationships between functional areas and the real world of business. You will learn how business operations and resources can be most effectively and efficiently managed in order to achieve competitive advantage, and how every organisation has to manage its operational activities in so as to add value by transforming inputs into saleable or usable output products and services.
* Organisational Theory and Design seeks to provide a framework for the understanding and analysis of organisations with particular reference to organisational design, processes and change. The organisation will be critiqued from a number of perspectives: individual, systems/contingency and cultural/social processes. These perspectives will encourage a critical awareness of organisational dynamics and will provide you with an evaluative framework in which to engage in independent problem solving.
* Research Methods enables you to develop the critical approach necessary to undertake a thorough, penetrating and evaluative analysis of a topic. The module will enable you to think and construct arguments in a rigorous and analytical manner and to reflect critically on the philosophy, process and ethics of management research.
* MSc Dissertation is an individual in-depth rigorous research study of up to 80 pages.
* Personal Development Plan addresses your individual learning needs and priorities, and explores the organisational and individual consequences of individual and collective actions and behaviours. Your personal effectiveness and capacity to recognise, adapt and apply relevant theory to the managerial context, and to personally learn from experience, will be improved by engaging in self-reflection and critical self-evaluation exercises.
As well as these compulsory modules a range of optional modules is available. Some examples are included below. Your choice is made in consultation with the programme director and in accordance with the rules laid down for the award.
* Strategic Human Resource Management and Development (HRM) develops your understanding of the theoretical origins and underpinnings of human resource management. You will explore the links and possible co-dependencies between business strategy and strategic HRM, enabling you to identify the relationship between achieving strategic objectives and the implementation of appropriate and coherent HR strategies.
* Global Market Development applies many of the concepts of strategic analysis and planning from the earlier part of the programme to a global context. The module examines global marketing strategy with particular emphasis on creating sustainable competitive advantage by the implementation of strategies taking into account various market differences and, where possible, creating global products having near-universal application and appeal.
* Strategic Perspectives explores how changes in the external environment generate both opportunities and threats to which an organisation must respond. The managerial challenge in strategising is to deliver a sustainable competitive advantage against a background of increasing volatility and turbulence in the global corporate and business environment.
* Managing People introduces the key principles and practices that underpin the management of human resources. You will explore the scope and content of a human resource strategy, the methods of recruiting and selecting a workforce, the principles and practice of performance management, ethical dilemmas, the identification of training and development needs, and the ways in which human resource planning and work design are implemented.
Teaching, learning and assessment
Much of the teaching on the course takes the form of interactive workshops, but there are also lectures from staff and visiting speakers. Lectures, discussions, role-play exercises, learning packages and seminars are linked with selected case studies and assessments to strengthen your practical analysis and decision-making skills. You will have the opportunity to develop your skills in working as part of a team through structured syndicate work and group assignments.
Teaching staff are primarily those academics from within the Business School with research and/or in-depth practical experience of business and management issues. Visiting speakers from business, industry, consultancies and research bodies provide further input.
Scholarships and funding
The Business School is pleased to offer scholarships in all disciplines for students wishing to undertake full-time taught postgraduate MSc programmes. Some part-time courses may be eligible for scholarships for UK and EU applicants.
Scholarships will be awarded for academic excellence and each award will be paid towards the tuition fee for a taught master's degree. These scholarships do not include a maintenance grant.
Quality
The reputation of the Business School is underpinned through membership of and programme accreditations received from the Association of MBAs, the Association of Business Schools, and professional associations such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and the European Foundation for Management Development. The Business School is, therefore, widely regarded as one of the best within its peer group.
The Business School's programmes benefit from rigorous quality assurance procedures and regularly receive excellent feedback from external examiners, employers, students and professional bodies. In 2005, Business and Management achieved 'Broad Confidence', the best possible result, in the discipline audit trail as part of the Quality Assurance Agency Institutional Audit.
Many students who graduate from Business School programmes go on to achieve high status in the industry of their choice.
The Business School has an active programme of research based around six key research areas:
* Accounting, Governance and Information Management
* Economics and Strategy
* Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism Management
* Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour
* Marketing and Operations Management
* Pedagogy
The School maintains a rigorous and dynamic doctoral programme leading to the higher degrees of MPhil and PhD. Postgraduate students join a supportive, friendly and multicultural research environment.
