MA Business and Management

A range of summative assessment tasks will be used to test the intended learning outcomes in each module. Students will be supported in their development towards summative assessment by appropriate formative exercises. Students who choose an optional module from outside this programme, may be required to undertake a summative assessment task that does not appear in the assessment grid to pass that module. Students will be required to work in their own time to complete research, homework tasks or group work. Self-study is vital to their success on this course and lecturers will provide guidance on how best to approach this throughout the study period.

Assessment methods at GBS are reviewed annually and may be updated based on student feedback, to suit content or based upon feedback from an External Examiner. An External Examiner is an independent academic expert from an external Higher Education Institution that acts as a safeguard to academic assessment standards.

Subject-specific Skills and Knowledge

• The Business Environment: to critically analyse a wide range of the interrelated complex global forces (economic, social, ethical, political, ecological, technological, and regulatory) that shape contemporary organizations, and anticipate and discover new and emergent forces.
• Organisations: to systematically and critically interrogate the way a range of complex organizations work and the theoretical underpinning relevant to their inception, growth, development, and decline.
• Strategy: to critically evaluate key strategic developments and approaches in a range of core business functions such as marketing, managing people, finance, governance, and risk management, alongside the barriers to development and achievement of strategic aims and sustainability.
• Critically evaluate a variety of international business and management related knowledge, practice, concepts, theories, and methods, many of which will be at the forefront of academic and business practice.

Cognitive and Intellectual Skills

• Apply established, new, and emerging research techniques to discover, innovate and apply new knowledge in a selective array of core and specialist management functions, challenging accepted norms, and combining skills of critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis.
• Operate effectively individually and within a team, probably including as a leader, planning, and executing a range of projects and tasks in a logical, intelligent and professional manner, critically reflecting on their own and others’ performance and development.
• Source and manage relevant, and potentially large and complex data relating to several core business and management disciplines; make judgements on discrepancies and absences of data appropriately; and creatively and systematically translate those data and judgements into sound management decisions.
• Reflect critically and constructively on various and complex ethical and social dilemmas at a local, national, and global level.

Skills for Life and Work

• Autonomous learning (including time management) that demonstrates the exercise of initiative, personal responsibility and decision-making in complex and unpredictable situations and the independent learning ability required for continuing professional development.
• Team working skills necessary to succeed in the global workplace, with an ability both to work in and probably lead teams effectively, as well as the ability to act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level.
• Communication skills that show the ability to communicate clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences’ knowledge at, or informed by, the forefront of the academic discipline, field of study or area of professional practice, and the conclusions drawn from dealing with complex issues systematically.
• IT skills and digital literacy that demonstrate the ability to develop new skills to a high level and to approach complex issues systematically and creatively.

Education
You’ll normally have a good undergraduate honours degree in any academic subject.

Please find the right country from our list of accepted international qualifications for each course level — allowing you to clearly check your qualifications against our requirements.

English Language requirements

An accepted English language test must be taken within 2 years of your start date.

Below are the scores required for our programmes for each of the tests that we accept:

*all test components taken within 3 years of start date

Other requirements

All students are required to complete a Personal Statement