By embedding the themes of strategy and leadership into everything we do, we prepare organisational managers for the new global challenges ahead. Through our online MBA, you'll learn new ways of thinking and develop your personal and leadership capabilities.

The online MBA is delivered part-time with entry points twice a year. The programme takes 2 years and 9 months to complete, and combines academic study with practical application. This is achieved both through case studies and via consultancy style projects with external organisations to broaden participants' insights into alternative business models and approaches.

The Professional Development programme, included as part of the core courses, is designed specifically to help enhance interpersonal and leadership skills. Unlike some other MBA programmes, we have made this a credit-bearing element in recognition of the importance of this as part of our students' development journey.

In addition to the core courses, you have the flexibility to choose to study two option courses and a 40 credit Capstone Project, or three option courses and a 30 credit Capstone Project.

Learning outcomes

Compulsory courses

Year 1

Year 2

Option courses*

  • Business Strategy for Environmentally Suitable Futures
  • Financial Analysis
  • Financial Aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Global Strategy
  • Marketing Communications and Branding
  • Negotiations
  • New Venture Creation
  • Supply Chain Management

Capstone project

A problem solving assignment where students offer a critique of why an organisation faces a particular problem and a theory driven solution.

Additional Features

  • 24/7 discussion forums
  • Alumni support
  • Comprehensive 'Return to Study' induction
  • LinkedIn/CV review and access to university career resources
  • Live business practitioner engagement
  • Live one-to-one coaching
  • Virtual social and keeping connected meet ups
  • Virtual speakers

*We will notify applicants of any changes to the programme structure and courses no later than 2 months before entrants start year 1 of the programme. We cannot guarantee that all option courses will run each year and occasionally there will be last minute amendments after this date due to unforeseen circumstances such as staff illness.

The content of individual courses and the programme for any given degree are under constant academic review in light of current circumstances and may change from time to time, with some programmes and courses being modified, discontinued, or replaced.

Due to high demand we cannot guarantee students a place on the optional course of their preference. Equally, if there is not enough interest in a given year for an option course then it may not be viable for us to run that particular option course. Some combinations of option courses may not be possible due to scheduling constraints.

Accounting

Business leaders need a solid understanding of how their organisation is performing in order to monitor, control, assess, and report on the contribution being made to shareholders and stakeholders. This course provides the skills necessary to understand, interpret and use financial information in a practical business context, allowing MBA professionals to become more disciplined and analytical in the way they go about planning, executing and evaluating business plans and strategies. To achieve this, the course will look at the components of a set of financial statements and ways of analysing and interpreting that information, providing a basis for the later study of more advanced financial analysis on the MBA. The course also looks at the various tools used in management accounting, developing the skills necessary to analyse a range of financial decisions, which are central to the success of an organisation.

Business Transformation in the Digital Age

Digital technologies greatly impact competition and the way business is done. The route towards digitisation is fraught with great risks and presents the scope for major mistakes, which firms make time after time. On this course, you will learn those risks and discover how they are best overcome.

Data and Analytics for Leaders

This course will give you familiarity with the breadth and depth of data-driven decision-making and data analytics across business functions with special emphasis on integrating these practices to drive strategic imperatives. You will not specialise in detailed aspects of data management or analysis, but rather will focus on how to drive value from data, understand ethical considerations in data, as well as learn techniques for managing an organisation's preparedness for leveraging data to drive strategic decisions.

Finance

This course is intended to improve a foundation in financial decision-making, and an understanding of the techniques of financial analysis. It introduces the key elements of financial management and provides an outline of how to carry out financial evaluations of business decisions.

Operations Improvement

The course introduces how the improvement of operations can support strategic objectives. The course will provide you and other participants with opportunities both in structured online classes and virtual peer-to-peer discussions to share expertise and explore the practical implementation of a range of contemporary techniques for operations improvement.

Organising for Effectiveness

The aim of this course is to develop your understanding of how organisations work. How they can be made to work effectively and why things sometimes go wrong. We cover a wide range of topics, ranging from individual behaviour and team processes up to issues of decision-making, leadership, culture, and organisational design and learning. In essence, the course focuses on developing your understanding of what makes teams and organisations effective and what can impede their effectiveness.

Professional Development

This skills development-based course is designed to help you enhance your leadership capability and professional competence as well as your potential to develop strong employability skills and to successfully pitch for promotion or apply to new senior executive roles in a range of organisations.

Strategic Human Resource Management

Although many organisations recognise the importance of managing the workforce effectively and even 'know' what approaches are effective, it is remarkable how often firms and managers fail to implement these approaches. Consequently, this course has two central themes:

  1. How to think systematically and strategically about aspects of managing the organisation's human assets
  2. What needs to be done to implement these policies and to achieve competitive advantage through people

Strategic Leadership

Strategic leadership is one of the core themes running through our online MBA. The aim of the course is to provide you with the necessary background in the discipline of strategic leadership in order to understand how this contributes to overall management skills and competencies. A variety of elements will be explored on this course from ethics, the importance of strategic communicaiton, to the disruptive or entrepreneurial dimensions of strategic leadership. This particular course will run over two years of the programme.

Strategic Marketing

Adopting a strategic focus, this compulsory course will critically review current theory and practice and discuss how marketing strategies are evolving in the light of changes arising from increasingly sophisticated and demanding consumers, new technology, and globalisation. It considers the nature and scope of marketing in society, the need for a customer orientation and role of segmentation, targeting and positioning, and the management of the marketing mix (comprising products, prices, promotion, distribution, physical evidence, process and people).

Understanding Economies

On this course, you will be developing your understanding of how macroeconomic factors affect businesses. Macroeconomics touch all businesses through: the level of demand for products; interest rates—with their effect on the costs of the firm; and the exchange rate—which tends to intensify or reduce competition even for firms not overtly engaged in trade. Each of these elements interact both with themselves and with other factors, such as government policy.