Human Resource Management

Entry requirements

The equivalent of a UK first or upper second class honours degree. Check the full list of equivalent qualifications.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Our MSc in Human Resource Management focuses on the importance of managing people in the workplace and explores how this function of management makes a major contribution to business success.

This one-year full-time course provides you with the skills and knowledge to achieve a successful career in HR and does not require you to have any background experience in business or in management.

As well as a core module in HR management, you will also cover a wide range of contemporary commercial subjects. These include business strategy, business economics and accounting, individual behaviour in an organisation, employee relations and themes in work and society.

You will also take optional modules and at the end of the course, you will complete a dissertation, which can be a work placement-based business project or a research-led piece of writing.

The course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), which is the largest professional HR and Learning organisation in the world with some 140,000 members, and on successful completion you will become eligible for the award of the organisation’s Advanced Diploma in Human Resource Management.

As a student on the course you will join the University’s renowned Business School. The Business School is one of an elite group of UK institutions to have been accredited by all three major business accreditation bodies, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the Association of MBAs and the European Quality Improvement System.

Course structure

Core modules:

Strategy aims to explain business success or lack of success by considering the relationships between strategy and the external business environment and between strategy and the internal resources and capabilities available.

Business Economics and Accounting enables you to understand the key economic aspects of the business environment and develops your skills in applying economic analysis to business decision-making and planning. You will also learn about accounting, its forms, purpose and the needs of its users.

Organisational Behaviour addresses key issues of individual behaviour within organisations and includes sensitive topics such as an individual’s personal and mental ability, the management of attitudes and work motivation and addressing issues of injustice and inequality.

Work and Society builds your knowledge around trends in work and society such as the changing context of work, globalisation, power and management control in organisations and language, rhetoric, and organisational communication.

Employee Relations develops your ability to understand trends in modern employment relationships and how relations between managers and employees are conducted. You will understand the reasons behind such trends and consider how they vary in a global context.

Human Resource Management develops your understanding of key issues in the processes and practices of human resource management and shows you how to understand and analyse research in the field.

Research Methods and Dissertation (International study route and business project routes available) provides you with the key principles of research design and methodology in business and management and develops your skills in conducting research in order to produce a dissertation. You may opt to do research abroad at a partner university or undertake a business project instead of the dissertation. This may involve either working with a specific host organisation or undertaking an issue-led investigation across a range of organisations on a specific management issue.

Examples of optional modules:

• Strategy Simulation and System Thinking
• Buyer Behaviour and Marketing Innovation
• Consulting
• East Asian Business and Management
• Employee Reward Strategy
• Ethical Leadership
• Global Business
• Global Sport Business
• International Study Tour
• The Science of Leadership
• Competitive Strategies and Organisational Fitness
• Human Resource Development
• Society and Sustainability

A language module such as those offered by the University’s Centre for Foreign Language Study

Information for international students

If you are an international student who does not meet the requirements for direct entry to this degree, you may be eligible to take a pre-Masters pathway programme at the Durham University International Study Centre.

Fees and funding

For further information see the course listing.