Semester 1
Core
Academic Skills
This module serves as an introduction to the core academic skills required of students embarking on undergraduate studies in a range of courses and modules. Students will embed academic literacy, alongside the development of technical and interpersonal skills, as appropriate to study in specific disciplines. It takes a task-based and reflective learning approach to develop students’ existing skill sets, exploring and strengthening new skills and focusing on social and emotional skills.
Management and Organisations
Managers are responsible for planning, organising, leading and controlling human and other resources. This module introduces and explains the main business functions and considers the contribution made by theories to the practice of management. The module considers how management has evolved within an external environment of turbulent change. Management, leadership styles and motivational theories are considered.
Marketing and Communications
This module focuses on the importance of marketing in its role in driving success and delivering results. It provides an introduction to the functions of marketing within the organisation, examines key marketing concepts and explores their application in the context of organisations. Students will examine the theories, processes and practices of good business communications to facilitate an understanding of the importance of effective internal and external communications in a business context.
Semester 2
Core
E-Commerce in Context
This module provides an understanding of e-commerce and examines how it impacts modern businesses. It examines the theories and practice of e-commerce management, the issues involved in conducting business online and the implications of the internet in both the B2B (business to business) and the B2C (business to consumer) environments. The module introduces students to the practical, technical, commercial and regulatory issues involved in e-commerce.
Professional Skills
This module serves as an introduction to the professional skills required of students embarking on undergraduate studies across all programmes. The module focuses on embedding professional skills needed to relate to specific disciplines. It takes a task-based and reflective learning approach to develop students’ existing skill sets, in both practical and theoretical terms, as well as exploring and strengthening new skills.
Financial and Economic Literacy for Managers
This module introduces students to governmental and economic policies, as well as financial information that impacts on business decision making. It enables students to apply concepts, models, and financial information to decision making. The module develops students’ ability to present information that supports decision making to relevant users and stakeholders.
Semester 3
Core
Employability Skills
A compulsory module in which students develop the knowledge and apply professional skills to achieve employability outcomes within the context of the local, regional and global marketplace. The content allows students to critically reflect upon their career journey, share and explore ideas and interests, analyse graduate stories, develop an action plan and build self-confidence when making successful career transitions through and beyond completion of their programmes.
Consumer Behaviour and Customer Insights
Consumer insight and understanding of buyer behaviour has become a key source of competitive advantage for businesses, enabling them to differentiate products and services through more precise targeting of specific consumer segments. This module explores traditional and current approaches to consumer research to generate unique behavioural insights that facilitate more effective marketing decision-making.
Digital Marketing
This module recognises how digitality enables organisations to be agile and how digital channels and digital communications’ tools can help to achieve business objectives. It recognises that digitality is now one of the most important sales and marketing tools available to businesses. This is a practical digital marketing module which enables students to effectively use digital skills in a business context.
Semester 4
Core
Project/Placement Design and Implementation
Whilst many higher education studies have focused on the importance of developing subject knowledge and the critical and analytical skills relevant to the study, it has become increasingly important for students to be able to apply this knowledge and these skills within a work context. Thus, this module provides students with the opportunity to either undertake a work placement or engage in a work-related learning project implemented within a specified timescale.
Evaluation and Reflection (Work Based/Related Learning)
Students undertaking this module are expected to be engaged (or have recently engaged) in a project or work placement, and thus should evaluate their work and reflect critically.
Reflection is a key aspect of the learning process as it involves examining experiences, actions, feelings, and responses in order to interpret and analyse them so as to learn from them.
Semester 5
Core
Emerging Themes
Change is not only likely, it’s inevitable. This module critically reviews theories, concepts and practices applicable to emerging issues that exemplify the dynamic working environment confronting organisations and workers today. The identification and analysis of these emergent issues provides students with a functional knowledge of current issues and a critical understanding of how these affect the shaping the overall organisational strategy and decision-making. This will focus on the specific emerging themes relating to students’ disciplines of study and will change to reflect the contemporary debates of the day.
Managing an Online Portfolio
This module takes an in depth look at what is involved in managing stock as part of an online ecommerce enterprise. It covers the full range of processes involved in selling products online from stock acquisition to pricing, managing transactions, shipping, legal obligations and how to deal with customer feedback and returns. The module also explores website design and functionality and the pros and cons of using out-of- the-box and bespoke solutions to online supply chain management.
Digital Strategy
This module provides insight into how organisations can implement digital marketing capabilities into strategic marketing planning. It outlines how an understanding and analysis of the macro- and micro-environments can enable organisations to assess the impact of the digital landscape in delivering objectives and developing strategic recommendation.
Plus 1 Elective
Research Methods
This module allows students to undertake supervised research in an area of their chosen field as appropriate to their programmes. The module aims to provide students with the tools and skills for developing their own academic research.
Research and the Professional
In business, there is a need to seek answers to questions, such as service levels, consumer perceptions or how satisfied employees are. To succeed, businesses need to gather information about their competitors, their consumers and their own performance.
Through the evaluation of different research methods, students apply business research methods in a range of contexts. These methods will not only prove useful in personal and professional development but will form the foundation for work on a Capstone Project.
Semester 6
Capstone Project (Dissertation/Consultancy Project/Work Based Learning)
A Capstone Project synthesises a student’s learning in a single project that demonstrates their fulfilment of the programme learning outcomes. Each project results in a final product such as a research paper, article, and documented action project, presentation of a body of visual / literary work, written project, dissertation or combination thereof. It also includes a student’s reflection in writing on his or her experience in relation to the material.
Plus 2 Elective
Strategic Marketing and Planning
Marketing is by definition a management process (CIM). The strategic application of marketing principles is a necessary requirement for corporate success, with strategic marketing and planning linking directly to organisational strategy. A dual focus exists; both the co-ordination of internal activities and management of organisational relationships externally with customers, supply chains and other key stakeholders.
Starting an Online Enterprise
This module provides students with the fundamental building blocks for setting up a successful and sustainable online enterprise. From analysing the marketplace to processing stock and providing a great end to end customer experience, students learn the ins and outs of trading successfully online whether using bespoke, out-of-the-box ecommerce platforms or selling wholly through a third party site such as eBay. The module also covers the legal aspect to keep students’ businesses on track online.
Social Enterprise
Social Enterprise is continuing to gain traction as a sustainable model of business that focuses on the triple bottom line of Profit, People, and Planet. These organisations, with both commercial and social objectives, re-invest their returns into the organisation or the community they work in. This module explores various aspects of these organisations and the social sector that they operate within.
Creative Thinking and Problem Solving
This module aims to bring together the multiple aspects of students’ degree programmes, with a particular focus on applying creative thinking and problem solving techniques to business situations. Students are given the opportunity to experience the impact of strategic and tactical decision making as members of the Management Team of a Trading Company in a simulated business environment. This requires the application of knowledge from areas such as Strategic Management, Finance & Economics, Marketing & Communications and Human Resources. Each round of the simulation requires the formulation of both strategic and operational decisions. The entire module simulates 10 years of trading with a changing external environment, it is necessary to creatively adapt and develop strategies to respond to these changes.