Business and Management BA (Hons) Top Up
18 months | Distance Learning | Upcoming Intakes - Academic Year 2020/21: April 21, July 21. Academic Year 2021/22: Oct 21, Jan 22

The module will enable you to extend your knowledge of management practice, particularly in the area of strategic thinking, and to employ your intellectual and practical skills in an organisational context.

In doing so your learning will focus on themes addressing the following broad issues:

• The impact on organisations of the external environment: macro-environment, industry, markets.
• The strategic choices available to organisations to improve strategic position and promote commercial success.
• The alignment of strategic directions with the corporate social responsibility and ethics framework

This module is intended to develop your awareness and critical evaluation of strategic management by assessing the impact of the business environment on organisations. The nature of practising strategy will be evaluated by reviewing the tools and activities involved when formulating strategies. The concept of corporate social responsibility and sustainability will be central when discussing the above topics by assessing the role of stakeholders in organisations.

From both a practical and theoretical view you will learn to think about what project management means, the process of project management and how to manage projects by focusing on several professional project management aspects, such as scope management, cost management, and schedule management.

The module will develop your professional skills and confidence in managing projects using various techniques and drawing on your academic study of contemporary project management literature. You will explore a range of approaches plus alternative views in order to challenge assumptions and identify ways to make project management more meaningful and sustainable. You will become aware of the role of professional techniques and methodologies as an aid to managing projects. Alongside this practical learning, you will develop a critical understanding of the importance of integrating social and ethical criteria into project planning and operation.

This module is designed to develop your skills in understanding how one-to-one forms of marketing communications, across offline and online channels, can be combined into an overall campaign with the ability to generate new customers and enhance existing relationships. To do this, the module is broken into three distinct themes:

Theme One - Principles of Direct and Digital Marketing: In this part of the module you will cover the fundamental practices in the direct marketing field, which will include acquisition and retention strategies, customer profiling and segmentation, database marketing, permission marketing and personalisation, relevant legislation and marketing metrics.

Theme Two - Digital Media: In this section you will explore the range of communications media available, ranging from traditional offline channels (such as direct mail and telemarketing) through to the ever-growing range of digital media options (including social media, email, web design and mobile commerce).

Theme Three - Campaign Planning: Here you will be introduced to the principles of campaign design, from initial context analysis and goal setting through to campaign implementation and evaluation. You will be encouraged to combine different marketing communications tools as part of an integrated campaign.

This module aims to provide you with the knowledge and skills required to explore innovation, new venturing and enterprise creation through the lens of entrepreneurial leadership. You will have the opportunity to develop and demonstrate your skills in innovation and entrepreneurial leadership. You will cover 6 topics;

* Creativity and Design for Innovation
* Future Search
* Making a Difference
* Connectivity
* Managing Innovation
* Entrepreneurial Leadership and Identity

The module will support you in the development of your entrepreneurial effectiveness through the lens of entrepreneurial leadership. Consequently, you will learn about the nature of creativity and its role in innovation and enterprise, and how to use it to support you in developing strategies to identify the driving force of change, idea generation and envisioning the future.

You will develop an awareness of collaborative behaviours and how to build professional networks. You will also be introduced to the theoretical underpinnings of team dynamics and entrepreneurial leadership while also having the opportunity to put the theory into practice by linking the module and its assessment to the workplace and associated experiences.

On completion of this module, you be able to use knowledge of enterprise development models to generate new solutions related of entrepreneurship, venture creation and leadership and understand how it is informed by theory and research.

This module is designed for business students to develop a non-technical understanding of the key aspects of corporate financial theory and practice. The module covers the core aspects of raising capital and determining financing, though to investing capital in major corporate decisions, and finally returning value to shareholders.

Specifically you will study in the module; Sustainable Value Management, Stock Market Efficiency, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Portfolio Theory, International Cost of Capital, Capital Structure Decisions, Dividend Policy, Corporate Valuation and International Merger & Acquisition activity.

The module has a focus on business responsibility of all of those areas, concentrating on professional codes of conduct in areas such as the banking industry, accounting and similar finance areas, and the types of dilemmas that graduates could face in professional practice. This module will develop you as a critical and reflective practitioner, equipping you with the skills to think independently, analyse data, and help you to identify your own areas of interest in relation to corporate finance and practice. In the module you will become more aware of the issues that responsible businesses face when attempting to implement financial concepts and theories into practice.

On completion of this module you will have produced a reflective learning journal (in the form of a Blog or similar platform) based on your evaluation of theory to real world scenarios. As part of that journal you will have watched and reflected on appropriate financial documentaries and movies which explore responsible financial management issues, where you are encouraged to share these with your peers on the module Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Finally you will be apply your academic knowledge to a real world case and be able to critically evaluate the tensions between the financial academic theories as a responsible business attempts to maximise shareholder wealth.