Postgraduate Courses

Postgraduate study at Newcastle Business School is designed to inspire excellence amongst tomorrow's business leaders. Students find our postgraduate programmes challenging, innovative and relevant enabling them to develop the knowledge, skills and competences essential to 21st century business.

To view our Postgraduate Course listings, please click here

In addition to our Postgraduate Course list we also offer an MA/MSc Multidisciplinary Design Innovation which is led by our School of Design. The course combines the strengths of design, business and technology to create management thinking, innovation and practice for the next generation. 

Our vision for you

We are a business school committed to the development of business practitioners and individuals capable of contributing to organisational effectiveness. Underpinning this commitment is an approach of ‘theory into practice’. We don’t just want you to know more, we want you to be able to do more. Our vision of what we want you to achieve is enshrined in our postgraduate teaching and learning philosophy. At the heart of this is your development as a ‘reflective practitioner’, acquiring a range of critical thinking skills, a high degree of self awareness and a capacity for independent learning. To help you achieve this, we provide a range of learning experiences through the programmes, for instance, the management development residential, group work, study trips, a business simulation exercise and all the ongoing learning processes embedded in the day to day study of the subject modules on your programme. In addition to our learning and teaching philosophy we have established a number of goals that we hope you will achieve by the end of the programme, in summary these are that you will be highly knowledgeable about the theory and practice of international business; that you can think and act strategically; that you have developed a range of leadership skills and knowledge and finally that you have acquired a high level of competence in research and scholarly application. How we do this We ensure that all our programmes are delivered by professional people, highly qualified academics, many of whom bring significant business management experience to the classroom. This is important in the context of theory into practice.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment You will experience a variety of teaching methods including lectures, seminars, workshops and presentations. These sessions are designed to help you apply theory to ‘real life’ and be able to critically analyse and make recommendations for appropriate ways forward, for yourself and your organisation. Classroom sessions facilitate knowledge generation, peer interaction, communication and contextual application. Critical reflection on knowledge, experience and practice underpins the learning and teaching process on our student experience. programmes. Students also undertake directed study and are expected to develop independent learning skills in order to pursue their own area of academic interest.

E-Portal and Customised Learning The e-portal system provides you with electronic access to lecture, seminar and workshop activities, directed learning materials and tests, up-to-date programme announcements, online discussion groups and bulletin boards. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all materials are regularly updated by module tutors and programme leaders and are a valuable source of learning support. For some modules the student learning process is supported by a customised text designed in conjunction with McGraw Hill. Customised texts and learning materials are provided free of charge, and are tailored to meet the needs of our programmes and students.

Induction and Academic Skills Support  You need to be effectively engaged in the learning processes of your programme from day one. Therefore as well as the initial induction at the start of the programmes, we provide ongoing information sessions as the programme progresses as well as academic skills support sessions looking at issues such as report writing, preparing for assignments and exams, presentation skills and getting the most from seminars and lectures.

Management Development Residential Within the first few weeks of the programme you will attend a weekend residential at a hotel near to Newcastle. The residential provides an opportunity for you to mix with and get to know other students, but the primary focus of the residential is to provide you with opportunities for learning about yourself and identifying a set of personal objectives and learning areas for your future development.

Guest Lectures  In addition to our full-time staff, we regularly invite senior business leaders and academics to the business school to share with you their contemporary experiences of managing and the latest management thinking.

Business Game Most programmes incorporate a business simulation exercise. In a small team of your fellow students you will take the role of a senior management team running a car manufacturing business in competition with other teams. The decisions you make about product choice, strategy, finance, human resources, research and development, pricing etc will determine how successful your business is. The simulation takes place over a period of weeks allowing a number of key decision points that affect the business outcome. As well as bringing together a wide range of subjects the simulation requires that you work effectively as a member of a team - a crucial skill in management.

Dissertation The final third of most of our Masters programmes is taken up with a Dissertation. You will explore a contemporary management issue in depth combining academic theory with a real life investigation, using a range of appropriate research skills, culminating in a 15,000 word report. This is a powerful learning experience and demonstrates to us and any future employer, your ability to take a problem, understand it, analyse it, summarise the issues, identify appropriate theory and provide a critical synthesis of the subject.

Postgraduate Student Society (PGSS) The aim of the Newcastle Business School PGSS is not only to enhance the overall educational experience, but also to facilitate cultural friendships and exchanges. There is a varied programme of social activities and events including field trips to York and Edinburgh plus countryside walks, student presentations and a debating society. All present excellent opportunities not only to build a wide range of social contacts, but also to develop a network for future business. Many of the events and activities are organised by the students themselves.

City Campus East September 2007 saw the opening of our new £70 million iconic state-of the-art building in the heart of Newcastle City Centre. Known as ‘City Campus East’ and shared with the Schools of Law and Design, this futuristic development comprises 24,000 square metres of purpose designed academic accommodation including classrooms, lecture theatres, hub areas and exhibition space all of which are at the cutting edge of design and technology. You will be studying in one of the best learning environments in the UK. In 2007 the building won The Journal ‘North East Landmark of the Year’ award.

Newcastle Business School Facilities You will enjoy a dedicated postgraduate suite with teaching rooms, IT labs and a comfortable lounge area where you can work in groups, independently or simply relax over a coffee. If you have your own laptop there is free Wi-Fi throughout the University. In addition there are plenty of desktop PCs available for you to use and the University replacement policy mean that none of the PCs used by our students are more than two years old.

Professional Body Accreditations We have links with professional bodies and accreditations, which are very important to us. Where possible our programmes are recognised by these professional bodies which gives you the potential for exemptions and fast-track membership when applying for professional qualifications later. Examples include CIM for Marketing and CIPD for Human Resource Management, amongst others.