Ready to negotiate better — and lead with more influence? If you want negotiation skills you can use straight away, taught with real-world credibility and built through practice and debrief, this course is designed for you.

Course overview

Negotiate with confidence — and deliver better outcomes, faster

Negotiation is an essential mode of social interaction and a pivotal leadership competency, vital for managers, business leaders, and professionals across all sectors. It sits at the heart of leadership: agreeing budgets, securing resources, closing deals, resolving conflict and aligning stakeholders when priorities clash.

This flexible, 12-week online course from the University of Edinburgh Business School gives you a clear, practical framework for negotiating with more control and better judgement — so you can protect value, create it where possible, and strengthen the relationships you rely on to get work done.

You won’t just learn what good negotiators do; you’ll rehearse it, stress-test it, and leave with a repeatable approach you can use immediately in your next client or supplier call, stakeholder or partner meeting, team discussion or internal decision-making process.

What you’ll learn

You’ll develop a grounded understanding of negotiation as a mixed-motive process — where cooperation and competition are both in play — and learn how to respond effectively to influence outcomes across both personal and professional realms. You’ll build skills in distributive bargaining to claim value, and integrative bargaining when there’s scope to create value through effectivesmarter problem-solving. You’ll learn to identifysurface underlying interests by distinguishing between what people say they want and what they actually need, giving you more room to formulate agreements that last.

Crucially, you’ll learn how to prepare properly. Using a clear three-step model, you’ll plan your objectives, generate options, anticipate tactics, and choose a strategy that fits the context. You’ll also sharpen your understanding of negotiating power — what it is, how it shifts, and how to use it ethically and effectively — including in multiparty and multi-issue negotiations where complexity can derail even the most experienced managers. The course also introduces alternative dispute resolution processes, helping you choose the right route when negotiation alone won’t move things forward.

Why effective negotiating matters now

Professionally, the stakes of negotiation have increased: cost pressure, tighter budgets, more cross-functional working and faster decision cycles mean more conversations are effectively negotiations — even when no-one calls them that. At the same time, personal relationships matter more than ever; you need outcomes that work commercially without damaging trust, reputation or future collaboration. Strong negotiation capability is a competitive advantage because it improves day-to-day execution: clearer agreements, fewer misunderstandings, less rework, and better alignment across internal and external stakeholders.

Who should attend?

This course is designed for ambitious managers, business leaders and professionals who want to negotiate, both in terms of current workplace performance as well as for personal skills development and career advancement. It is particularly relevant if you regularly negotiate with clients, suppliers, regulators or partners, or if you need to influence outcomes internally across teams, functions and senior stakeholders. If you already negotiate often but feel you rely on instinct, experience, or ‘what worked last time’, this course will give you a structured approach you can rely on under pressure.

How you’ll learn

This is an MBA online course delivered over 12 weeks, with approximately 100 hours of study combining video lectures, focused exercises and online live sessions. Participants will be joining the existing Online MBA cohort, which provides an excellent opportunity for networking and idea exchange. The pace is designed to work alongside a full-time role but assumes steady weekly engagement.

Online tutorials are typically scheduled to run over a two week period in porder to develop a real hands on momentum, so important for this course. They typically run from 11am – 3pm. Specific days/dates are confirmed within eight weeks of the course start date.

The course has a strong practical emphasis: role-play negotiation exercises feature in almost every tutorialsession, so you can practise realistic scenarios rather than simply discuss them. What makes the learning stick is the debrief. Each exercise is followed by comprehensive class debriefs that connect what happened in practice to a clear theoretical analysis of the negotiation process — helping you understand not only what worked, but why it worked, and how to repeat it in different contexts.

Assessment and certification

At the end of the course, you will complete an individual assessment based on an open book take home case study exam. This is designed to embed the learning and help you practically apply your newly acquired skills and strategies in your workplace dealings.

On successful completion, you will receive a certificate from the University of Edinburgh Business School and gain 10 credits (Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework), equivalent to 5 credits (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System), which can be put towards the University of Edinburgh MBA or Online MBA.

Course impact

You’ll leave with a practical negotiation toolkit that you can apply immediately:

  • enhanced planning skills
  • a clearer sense of when to claim value and when to create it
  • an aptitude for uncovering interests and options that others miss
  • the ability to handle difficult conversations with less friction
  • increased proficiency in managing trade-offs more deliberately
  • the capability to secure agreements that stand up in the real world — commercially sound, operationally workable, and relationship-aware

Course lead - Dr Tom Hutcheson

Headshot of Dr Tom Hutcheson

Having practiced as a lawyer since 1994, Tom set up his specialist consultancy business in 2003 focused on combining his practical experience gained as a commercial litigation lawyer with a strategic and academic specialist knowledge of the negotiation and dispute resolution processes.

Through his consultancy business, as well as preparing and assisting clients with what are often complex negotiations and disputes set in a range of commercial contexts, he has also developed extensive experience designing and delivering specialist negotiation and dispute resolution seminars and programmes. He has a diverse client base and regularly works with clients based in Europe, West Africa, USA, Canada, the GCC Gulf countries and South East Asia.

Tom has also developed a practice as a Commercial Mediator having gained his certified mediation qualification at Northwestern University in Chicago in 2005.

In addition to his commercial consultancy work, Tom is an Associate of the University of Edinburgh Business School where he has lectured on their MBA programme since 2008, as well as running various negotiation seminars on MSc programmes. Tom additionally held an appointment as an honorary member of faculty at the University of Dundee School of Law between 2009 and 2017 teaching on their LLM in International Dispute Resolution.

Tom received his MBA from the University of Edinburgh in 2001 and PhD from the University of Strathclyde School of Law in 2016 for his research into negotiation behaviour within the legal profession where he also contributed to teaching on their LLM in Mediation.

Course dates

2 September 2026 – 25 November 2026

Course fees

£2000

Application terms

Applications are accepted until 5pm UK time on Tuesday 18 August 2026.

Our participants typically hold a 2:1 honours degree or higher. We do, however, take a holistic view of every application. If your academic background does not meet these specific criteria, your application may still be considered if supported by a good professional track record.

Successful applicants must also evidence a minimum of three years’ management experience.

Before applying, please ensure you have gathered all the required supporting documents, including a CV and your sponsor letter (if applicable). For further details, please see the application form.

Cancellation requests must be received by 9am on Wednesday 9 September 2026 to qualify for a full refund. After this date, a refund will no longer be possible.

For more information about this course, please email us: executive@business-school.ed.ac.uk