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BA (Hons)

International Business (Top Up)

You will study a range of modules which will enhance your management abilities within an international context and earn an undergraduate degree in less than a year with this top up course.

How to apply Apply Through UCAS Book an Open Day Chat to Us

Key Course Details

  • UCAS Code

    NC00

  • 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.

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £785*

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

The BA (Hons) International Business degree gives focus to the increasingly globalised world we live in. Having a good understanding of the key aspects of doing business on a global scale will certainly give you an advantage in the workplace

DESIGNED FOR

Students who have already obtained a HND or equivalent qualification and wish to gain a full bachelor’s degree in international business.

Career Paths

  • Entrepreneur
  • Business manager
  • Management consultant
  • Project manager
  • Account executive

Skills taught

  • Business awareness
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Problem solving
  • Self-management
  • Global mindset

Course Highlights

Complete a Live Project

Here you will have an opportunity to research a topic and organisation of your choosing, giving you the opportunity to develop your skills in enquiry.

Focus on International Context

Explore international culture and communication and international business environment

Work With Specialists

You will be supported by an experienced team of business specialists who will support you to become your very best self.

Top in Wales

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

Module Overview

During your studies, you will gain a better understanding of how international trade works and learn about the different issues facing global business, including how this might affect the traditional business management functions such as marketing, human resources and purchasing and supply.

Term one

Applied Management
Develop the knowledge and skills necessary to embark on a career in middle management.

Business Research: Principles and Practice
Build essential skills and learn about techniques needed to conduct a real investigation into a business problem.

Business Strategy
Gain a holistic and strategic view of organisations and their environments. Explore themes like trading, innovation, and cross-cultural management while learning to analyse global business challenges.

Enhancing Academic Success
This non-credit bearing module is designed to support students to develop their academic and business skills for future employment.

Term two

Live Management Project
Develop your professional business management skills as you draw on your learnings and apply them in a live project activity alongside a supervising tutor.

International Business Management
You will learn to evaluate issues related to international business management from international trading to cross cultural management and understand the diverse environments that firms face globally. 

International Culture and Communications
Learn how to a analyse and evaluate the effects of culture on international marketing communications.

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

This course has been designed to be delivered with live, synchronous teaching sessions in the form of lectures and workshops that are based on active learning techniques, meaning these sessions will be informative, interactive and interesting. This delivery will be supported by a suite of asynchronous materials on a virtual learning environment that will support your learning.  

A variety of assessment methods including formal written examinations involving, reports, essays and group and individual presentations, exams and more will be used to assess learning outcomes across the modules. Assessments will be as authentic as possible, using discipline specific formatting where applicable. This will allow students to have a more realistic experience while becoming familiar with the communication tools of their discipline.   

Teaching staff

Our teaching staff are dedicated to creating a supportive, student-centred learning environment. All are qualified academics with experience working in a wide range of sectors from management to HR, giving students an insight into various industries and helping to connect theory to practice.

Placements and work experience

There is an opportunity for students to engage with virtual internships alongside their studies allowing them to collaborate with a variety of businesses and help them to tackle their real-world challenges. These are extra-curricular opportunities for students and are a great opportunity to develop valuable practical skills and experience for a CV.

Facilities

As a business and management student, you’ll be studying at our Treforest campus in the heart of the South Wales Valleys. We have a range of learning and studying environments that students benefit from as well as the Start-Up Stiwdio, where students with a passion for entrepreneurship can get advice on how to start their own businesses.

Why USW?

An international business academic smiles at the camera side on while sat in front of a red backdrop and leaning on their knees with their hands together

  • 94% of students are in work or further study fifteen months after graduating from USW.

  • Named in the Top 50 UK institutions for research power by the Times Higher Education

Why USW?

Top in Wales

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

  • 94% of students are in work or further study fifteen months after graduating from USW.

  • Named in the Top 50 UK institutions for research power by the Times Higher Education

Careers and Employability

Graduate Careers

Many graduates start their own businesses as a result of studying this course whilst others find themselves in a range of careers from business managers to consultants. Other students go on to complete further study in the form of master’s degrees and other higher education qualifications.

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 programme called Grad Edge, and an enterprise team focused on new business ideas and entrepreneurship.

Industry partners

Our teaching staff have incredible links with industry, allowing you to work with businesses on live briefs and case-studies as part of your studies. This collaboration allows students to gain an insight into the challenges that businesses face and develop practical skills that employers value by applying your classroom learning to real-world scenarios.

Careers support

The University’s Career Services offers a range of advice and guidance to students, and references to the services available to all listed at southwales.ac.uk/careers will be added to the course website by default. However, if there are other important course or subject specific initiatives run at local a level, there is an opportunity to add further details here. Whether this includes connecting with professionals, industry experts or mentors, or strategies to enhance their competitiveness and aspirations in the job market, further details will provide prospects with the confidence, encouragement, and motivation to commit to applying.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Typical qualification requirements:

Successful completion of a HND in Business Studies or Business & Accounting, a Foundation Degree in Business Studies, Service Sector Management or Retail Management, or an equivalent qualification e.g. a Diploma in Higher Education or ILM Leadership and Management (Level 5).

Additional Requirements:

Consideration will be made on an individual basis for alternative qualifications and/or relevant experience, providing students can demonstrate sufficient related knowledge and understanding, to equip them for level 6 study in a business discipline.

Applicants will need to demonstrate 240 credits (or equivalent) and the University’s Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policy may feature in the decision to offer a place on the course. Relevant experience, qualifications and knowledge should be referenced in the Applicant’s personal statement.

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*
International Full-time Fee

£15,850

per year*
UK Part-time Fee

£785

per 20 credits*

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

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

If students want to apply to sit examinations outside the UK and Ireland, there is 50 pounds administration fee per venue. Details can be found from the University link: http://sasstudent.southwales.ac.uk/examinations/overseas/

Cost: £50

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.

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.
 

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.

A student sat smiling and talking to friends off camera in Treforest Student's Union
Student Life
The University's Ty Crawshays building at Treforest, Pontypridd.
Pontypridd Campus, Treforest
A double room at our Pontypridd accommodation featuring a large window.
Accommodation

Related Courses

Business Management (Top Up) - BA (Hons) Learn more

Next Steps

How to apply
Apply Through UCAS
Book an Open Day
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