Master of Business Administration
On the course you will learn how to integrate cutting-edge research and practice across all key business areas to achieve business transformation based upon a strong ethos of helping managers to solve real problems. The Course is suitable for those working/wishing to work in both public and private sector organisations.
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Key Course Details
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Start Date
September
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Location
Pontypridd
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Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£13,900*
International students
£17,900*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
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Start Date
September
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Location
Newport
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Campus Code
C
Fees
Home students
£1,545*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
The Master of Business Administration (MBA) develops the knowledge and skills needed to be a successful strategic business leader and is designed for professionals who will make a strategic difference to the organisations in which they operate.
Designed for
The course is designed for those who wish to develop a career in senior management in either the private sector or public organisations. Early to mid-career professionals seeking to enhance their skills and knowledge.
Career paths
- Manager
- Senior Manager
- Director
- CEO
- Entrepreneurs
Skills taught
- Leadership and Management
- Analytical and critical thinking
- Strategic Planning & business acumen
- Collaboration and Teamwork
- Communication
Course Highlights
Module Overview
The course is designed for professionals who will make a strategic difference to the organisations in which they operate. You will learn how to integrate cutting-edge research and practice across all key business areas to achieve business transformation whilst developing skills crucial to personal and business success, such as problem-solving and leadership. It is designed to be a challenging and engaging programme, blending academic studies with practitioner experience.
Year One - Full Time
Leadership Practice and Consultancy
Strategic Management Tools and Frameworks
Contemporary Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Strategic Operations Management, Logistics and Supply Chain Optimisation
Strategic Financial Analysis and Economic Perspectives
Strategic Business Analytics: Driving Decision Making
Sustainable and Strategic Project Management
Management Project Integrating Theory and Practice
Year One - Part Time
Leadership Practice and Consultancy
Strategic Management Tools and Frameworks
Contemporary Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Strategic Operations Management, Logistics and Supply Chain Optimisation
Year Two - Part Time
Strategic Financial Analysis and Economic Perspectives
Strategic Business Analytics: Driving Decision Making
Dissertation
The course is comprised of seven specialist modules designed to develop your knowledge and skills in different areas of strategic management and leadership. In the third term you will start your Management Project, which is designed to challenge you to think critically, solve complex problems and demonstrate your readiness for work in the field.
Leadership Practice and Consultancy
This module aims to develop a comprehensive and holistic understanding of theoretical approaches to leadership and management, enabling the application of sustainable, ethical, purpose-driven, and innovative practices while effectively managing stakeholders and addressing contemporary challenges.
Strategic Management Tools and Frameworks
This module aims to equip students with comprehensive knowledge of strategic analysis frameworks and foster the ability to critically assess competitive environments and their impact on strategic business decisions and the application of theory to real-world business scenarios, enhancing decision-making skills.
Contemporary Marketing and Entrepreneurship
This module aims to equip students with a deep understanding of entrepreneurship principles to foster innovative thinking and effective problem-solving in business and explore the integration of sustainability, ethics, and societal impact within marketing practices, in alignment with global trends and challenges. The module will enhance students' practical skills in contemporary marketing and entrepreneurship through the application of theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios and projects.
Strategic Operations Management, Logistics and Supply Chain Optimisation
This module aims to provide a comprehensive examination of Operations Management and Supply Chain and Logistics within contemporary business contexts, aiming to equip students with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills essential for navigating the complexities of these domains.
Strategic Financial Analysis and Economic Perspectives
This module aims to develop knowledge and understanding of contemporary accounting terminology and frameworks, and the main principles of financial & management accounting and financial management, in order to enable students to produce, interpret and critically evaluate financial calculations and reports relevant to monitoring, control, compliance and strategic decision-making processes for managers and/or business owners.
Strategic Business Analytics: Driving Decision Making
This module aims to explore the analytical methods required to understand, interpret, research, and manage complex data. Students will learn to confidently draw insight from data and identify patterns and trends of interest for future exploration.
Additionally, students will develop the skills necessary to navigate through emerging and disruptive technologies within the context of business data, equipping them to adapt to evolving technological landscapes and leverage innovative tools for enhanced decision-making and strategic planning.
Sustainable and Strategic Project Management
This module aims to holistically develops skills in leading, consulting, and managing complex projects to align with organisational goals and sustainability. Combining theory and practice, it fosters critical thinking and strategic decision-making, empowering students to tackle challenges at all project stages.
Management Project Integrating Theory and Practice
The module aims to equip students with advanced strategic thinking skills for devising and implementing sustainable management strategies within modern business environments. It endeavours to integrate theoretical frameworks from the course into real-world management scenarios, enabling students to critically assess and apply management theories within a sustainability context.
The first year of study comprises four specialist modules designed to develop your knowledge and skills in strategic management and leadership. These foundations are used to study business fundamentals through the domains of strategic models, financial management, and strategic marketing optics.
Leadership Practice and Consultancy
This module aims to develop a comprehensive and holistic understanding of theoretical approaches to leadership and management, enabling the application of sustainable, ethical, purpose-driven, and innovative practices while effectively managing stakeholders and addressing contemporary challenges.
Strategic Management Tools and Frameworks
This module aims to equip students with comprehensive knowledge of strategic analysis frameworks and foster the ability to critically assess competitive environments and their impact on strategic business decisions and the application of theory to real-world business scenarios, enhancing decision-making skills.
Contemporary Marketing and Entrepreneurship
This module aims to equip students with a deep understanding of entrepreneurship principles to foster innovative thinking and effective problem-solving in business and explore the integration of sustainability, ethics, and societal impact within marketing practices, in alignment with global trends and challenges. The module will enhance students' practical skills in contemporary marketing and entrepreneurship through the application of theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios and projects.
Strategic Operations Management, Logistics and Supply Chain Optimisation
This module aims to provide a comprehensive examination of Operations Management and Supply Chain and Logistics within contemporary business contexts, aiming to equip students with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills essential for navigating the complexities of these domains.
The second year of study begins with traditional and contemporary insights into leadership and management theories focussing on finance and analytics. Towards the end of your second year, you will start your Dissertation, which is a major piece of self-directed work focussing upon a current management subject or issue of your choice. Key fundaments of operations management will be your final module, exploring the operationalisation of businesses’ physical and intangible assets.
Strategic Financial Analysis and Economic Perspectives
This module aims to develop knowledge and understanding of contemporary accounting terminology and frameworks, and the main principles of financial & management accounting and financial management, in order to enable students to produce, interpret and critically evaluate financial calculations and reports relevant to monitoring, control, compliance and strategic decision-making processes for managers and/or business owners.
Strategic Business Analytics: Driving Decision Making
This module aims to explore the analytical methods required to understand, interpret, research, and manage complex data. Students will learn to confidently draw insight from data and identify patterns and trends of interest for future exploration.
Additionally, students will develop the skills necessary to navigate through emerging and disruptive technologies within the context of business data, equipping them to adapt to evolving technological landscapes and leverage innovative tools for enhanced decision-making and strategic planning.
Dissertation
This module aims to immerse students in the practical and strategic complexities of business management through a rigorous, research-oriented academic exercise.
Course Highlights
How you'll learn - Full-time
Delivery for each module typically comprises of a one-hour lecture and a three-hour interactive Worksop session delivered by a subject specialist each week for ten weeks.
Typically, each module has two assessments of differing types. Across the whole course these include, essays, reports, presentations, and portfolios. Some assessments require you to work as part of a group or team.
For your management project you will attend a series of 15 workshops where you will be supported by tutors.
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How you'll learn - Part-time
Delivery for each module typically comprises of a series of lectures and seminars delivered on campus over 4 weekends throughout the year with a 2 hour weekly online session one evening during the week.
Typically, each module has two assessments of differing types. Across the whole course these include exams, essays, reports, presentations, and portfolios. Some assessments require you to work as part of a group or team.
For your dissertation, you will initially attend a series of workshops designed to equip you with the skills needed to complete your project before being allocated an individual supervisor to direct your work.
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Accreditation
In addition to your MBA qualification, you will also have the opportunity to gain the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership.
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Assessment
The MBA qualification is assessed through written assignments, presentations and project work. The MBA involves the completion of a business research project which will develop your communication and consulting skills.
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Research
Your studies will be underpinned by the latest research undertaken by the South Wales Business School Research Group. This means you will be taught by academics who are at the forefront of their specialist field.
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Teaching staff
- Peter Murphy
- Moizzah Asif
- Davina Evans
- Bharati Rathore
- Tiansheng Yang
- Lucy Corcoran
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Accredited By
Why USW?
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Why USW?
Top in Wales
Business, Management and Marketing is top 5 in UK and top in Wales for Teaching Quality.
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Typical qualification requirements:
A minimum 2:2 Honours degree from a UK university or recognised international equivalent qualification.
The course welcomes international applicants and requires an English level of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component or equivalent.
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 4 overall and a minimum of 4 in each component 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
£13,900
per year*£13,900
per year*£17,900
per year*£17,900
per year*£1,545
per 20 credits*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.
The Course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management with the Level 7 Diploma embedded into the curriculum. Students can gain this qualification by payment of a £360 registration and moderation fee.
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.
Studying at USW
Our courses are designed with industry leaders and provide the practical skills and experiences industry demands. Our flexible courses reflect the need for life-long learning. If you value education in practice, not just in theory, then USW is for you.
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How to apply
There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).
- February 2027 Full-time
- September 2026 Part-time
- September 2027 Full-time
- September 2027 Part-time
- September 2026 Full-time
International admissions
Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.
