BSc (Hons)

International Business and Management

An innovative and CMI-accredited course that teaches the next generation of business managers and leaders about the dynamic and multicultural world of international business.

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Key Course Details

  • UCAS Code

    N210

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £9,535*

  • International students

    £15,850*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

Our international business and management degree has been designed so you can move seamlessly into global employment with the skills to succeed. This degree is ideal if you want to work in an international business environment, with options to study or work abroad an integral part of the course.

DESIGNED FOR

Do you have a global mindset and a passion to go far in the world of business? You’ll get a broad foundation of business knowledge on this course, as well as a specialised focus in a variety of areas.

Career paths

  • Consultant
  • Manager 
  • Entrepreneur
  • Business adviser 
  • Analyst
  • Project manager 

In collaboration with

  • The Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

Skills taught

  • Strategic thinking
  • Teamwork
  • Problem-solving
  • Communication
  • People management
  • Cultural competence

Lecturer sat in front of a red backdrop

Course Highlights

Led by industry professionals

You’ll be taught by faculty staff with a wide range of experience in business roles.

Industry placements

You have the option to enjoy a range of international study and work placements within a business context.

Accredited course

Your degree comes with Chartered Management Institute accreditation.

Varied assessments

Use real-life scenarios, podcasts, reports and forecasting as part of your assessments.

Student Satisfaction

100% of BSc (Hons) International Business and Management students at USW were satisfied with their course. (National Student Survey 2024)

Module Overview

Our international business and management degree covers areas of entrepreneurship and leadership, strategy, and intercultural communication, with a focus on operating in a dynamic and international environment.

Year one

  • People, Work, and Society
  • Economics, Law, and the Business Environment
  • Becoming a Professional; Critical Enquiry
  • Principles of Supply Chain Management
  • Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
  • Becoming a Professional; Enterprise Project

Year two

  • Project Management
  • Intercultural Communication
  • Business Analytics for Decision-Making
  • International Study Placement or International Work Placement

Year three

  • International Business Management 
  • Business Ethics and Sustainability
  • Contemporary Global Leadership
  • Strategic Management
  • International Critical Enquiry Project

Your first year of study on the course will include a wider range of business and management topic areas, giving you a good foundation of knowledge for the rest of the course.

People, Work, and Society
You’ll explore the experience of people in the workplace and the impact this has on wider society. The module looks at some historical and modern approaches to management in the workplace.

Economics, Law, and the Business Environment
Learn about the internal and external business environment and how it impacts decision-making and the future direction of businesses.

Becoming a Professional; Critical Enquiry
This will be the first of the skills-based modules, which introduces critical thinking and crucial research skills, providing the foundation for the next three years of study.

 

Principles of Supply Chain Management
Understand the importance of recognising and managing the holistic supply chain as a key part of a company’s ability to deliver value to its customers and stakeholders.

Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
Learn how to understand and market to your customers as fundamental skills in the diverse and fast-paced marketing industry.

Becoming a Professional; Enterprise Project
Become a business creator with this practical module. Make entrepreneurial decisions, work within small teams, and navigate the business environment.

Your second year of study will look deeper into some of the specific topic areas that relate to international business, and you’ll be able to do an international study or work placement.

Project Management 
Explore and examine project management skills in a business context, applying key project management techniques and principles and looking at the impact that they have on business processes.

Intercultural Communication 
An opportunity to enhance your learning by sharing knowledge and understanding multicultural environments. This module is essential for your international placement. 

Business Analytics for Decision-Making  
This module looks at the analysis of financial and statistical data and information, and the importance of confident decision-making.

International Study Placement or International Work Placement 
Choose an international study or work placement for a term, with support from our team and international Higher Education partners.

In your final year of study, you’ll write and research for your dissertation, which can be focused on any area of international business you find most interesting. You’ll also be allocated a supervisor who can support you throughout.

International Business Management 
This module explores a systematic and critical understanding of the global business environment. You’ll be looking at emerging themes in international business.

Business Ethics and Sustainability
Learn about the current ethical considerations for businesses which drive them to be more socially responsible and sustainable bodies.

Contemporary Global Leadership
Develop a solid understanding of the different complexities that come with managing or leading a diverse and international contemporary workforce.

 

Strategic Management
Explore class-based simulation exercises where you’ll be asked to choose and apply a range of tools, techniques, theories and frameworks to address changing, dynamic business environments.

International Critical Enquiry Project
Within this 40 credit module, you’ll choose an international business topic area of your choice with relevance to international business management.

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

Our international business and management course spans 120 credits each year with assessments focused on real-life scenarios. Throughout the course, you’ll generate reports and participate in debates and podcasts. You’ll graduate with the CMI Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management, bringing you a step closer to being recognised with Chartered Manager status. This internationally recognised qualification has been embedded into your degree, so no additional costs or work is required. You’ll also be invited to join our active LinkedIn page as a business student, introducing you to life after graduation.

Teaching Staff

All staff teaching on the business and management courses are qualified academics with experience working in several sectors including retail, marketing, accounting and finance, logistics and supply chain, strategy, leadership and management. The team brings their industry experience and active research to lectures and workshops each week and has created a weekly Q&A space after class. This is an opportunity for students to talk with their academics individually about what they've learned during the week and ask any questions they might have, reinforcing our open-door culture.

Placements and work experience

Our international business and management course actively encourages internships so if you choose to take a sandwich year, we’ll support you with applications to help you get your foot in the door. Our team will be on hand during your placement, with regular check-ins for both you and your employer.

This is a great opportunity to become part of an international organisation in your second year of study, with a range of fantastic employers. It will also create experience for your CV, helping to maximise your employability once you graduate.

Facilities

As an international business and management student, you’ll study at our Treforest campus in the heart of the South Wales Valleys. Our Treforest campus hosts our Business Clinic, Legal Advice Clinic, Moot Court Room and Financial Trading Room, which all provide an opportunity for immersive learning and consultancy along with opportunities for placements. Our Business Clinic is partnered with over 100 employers ready and waiting to work with students like you.

image of business student smiling looking towards the camera with a red backdrop
  • 100% of BSc (Hons) International Business and Management students at USW were satisfied with their course. (National Student Survey 2024)

Top in Wales

Business Management at USW is top for Teaching Quality in Wales (Guardian University Guide 2025)

  • 100% of BSc (Hons) International Business and Management students at USW were satisfied with their course. (National Student Survey 2024)


Careers and Employability

Graduate careers

Our careers service team is dedicated to helping you find relevant placements for work experience or a job after graduation. We also have an employability development team who runs a program called Grad Edge, and an enterprise team focused on new business ideas and entrepreneurship.

Industry partners

Being accredited by CMI means that students are developing real skills that employers value and expect business graduates to have.  In recent years students have been on study placements in France, Germany, Finland, and America, emphasising the strength of our higher education partnerships.

Whilst our international students are keen to understand global businesses and their functions, all our placements and industry partners offer roles in English, so language won’t be a barrier to your learning when abroad.

Careers support

You’ll also have access to advice from our careers and employability service throughout your studies and after your graduation. This includes one-to-one appointments with faculty-based career advisers either in person, virtually, or via email. We also have online resources to help explore career options and ensure you present yourself well to employers. These include psychometric tests, career assessments, a CV builder, an interview simulator, and application help. We also have over 2,000 registered employers targeting USW business graduates, so we’ll sign you up to receive weekly email alerts for jobs that match your interests too.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

UCAS Points: 96 (or above)

Typical qualification requirements:

  • A Level: CCC
  • Welsh BACC: Pass the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Diploma with Grade C in the Skills Challenge Certificate and CC at A Level
  • BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Distinction Merit Merit Merit
  • Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma and obtain a minimum of 96 UCAS tariff points.
  • T Level: Pass (C and above)

Additional Requirements:

The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

UK Full-time Fee

£9,535

per year*
UK Full-time Fee

£9,535

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£15,850

per year*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Bursaries Cost of Living Support

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

*Obligatory

Students are encouraged as part of their course to complete work / / study abroad during their second year of study

Cost: £2000

Text books are provided via the USW library but students may wish to purchase their own private copies. This cost is optional.

Cost: Up to £300

The University has computers available on campus and laptops for loan. However, it is highly recommended that you have your own personal laptop, which will be capable of running Microsoft Office 365. As a student you will be able to download a free copy of any software relevant to the course.

Cost: Up to £250

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

THE INTERNATIONAL ASPECT OF THIS DEGREE HAS OFFERED ME ‘ONCE IN A LIFETIME’ EXPERIENCES AND ALLOWED ME TO ENGAGE WITH CLASSMATES ALL OVER THE WORLD. TAKE THAT STEP AND COMMIT TO THIS COURSE

Alicia Smith

International Business and Management Student

Life at USW

Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.

How to apply

All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)

Advanced entry

If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.

International admissions

International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.