Management

Entry requirements

You will need at least a second class honours degree or overseas equivalent qualification in order to apply to study the programmes. If you have appropriate professional qualifications or relevant work experience you may also be considered.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

Please note, all course information including entry requirements relates to the 2022/23 academic year.

If you’re seeking to get a head start in your management career, our career-focused MSc will help you become a well-rounded, thoughtful, active, reflective and practical professional with a genuine appreciation of the strategic and operational challenges in running different organisations. Engaging with businesses through study trips, factory visits, live projects and guest speakers, you’ll relate management theory to real-world practice from day one, putting what you learn into context, while actively developing leadership and other essential management skills through team building, group work, individual assignments, report writing and presentations.

With almost 2.5 million untrained ‘accidental managers’ in the UK alone, the need to upskill future business leaders is widely accepted as one of the top organisational priorities. Poor management costs this country around £84bn in lost productivity each year, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Grounded in theory and practice, our MSc will equip you with the necessary knowledge, skills and techniques to overcome some of the problems associated with substandard management – low staff morale, loss of talent, inadequate budgeting, reduced productivity and missed commercial opportunities.

Instead, we’ll prepare you to perform executive duties in ways which motivate others and achieve business objectives successfully, with the flexibility to adapt and thrive in rapidly changing and uncertain external environments.

Referring to real-life business examples and hearing direct from businesses, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the strategic and operational challenges that can arise, in areas such as leadership, ethics or sustainability, for example. The Business School’s Grand Challenges lecture series invites key speakers to provide fresh perspectives on the political, ethical and intellectual problems we face as a world today, while our Lunchtime Lectures centre on leadership in the context of complexity and inclusion.

Your final project will give you the opportunity to directly transfer your learning to the workplace by researching a current management topic, responding to a specific business issue or undertaking a ‘live’ work-based project.

Through our focus on ‘real-world’ situations and teaching which proactively relates to contemporary issues, for example, the many management challenges posed by the current global pandemic, we’ll ensure you leave with a greater appreciation of the social, environmental and global implications of business. All of this will help you develop as a responsible manager, averting crises as much as possible and making appropriate contingency plans so that you can promptly resolve problems when they inevitably occur.

Team building, group work, research, presentations and projects will help you develop vital management skills, such as business planning, decision-making, problem-solving, communication, delegation and time management.

Management skills are needed in all types of jobs and industries – from sport and leisure, the arts and entertainment to social work, engineering and the natural sciences. We therefore welcome applicants from a wide range of undergraduate disciplines; past students have joined us having studied subjects as diverse as music and law, as well as business.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

This exciting master’s course aims to equip you with these necessary knowledge, skills and techniques to be able to understand how business is conducted and the various challenges facing managers from a strategic and operational perspective.

Core topics covered on the programme include leadership, international operations and supply chains. A large range of optional modules give you the choice to retain your focus on aspects of business and management, such as accounting, entrepreneurship, people management or strategy, or broaden your scope of study to include computing or sustainability.

Depending on availability, you can also choose to study a modern language as your optional module, from absolute beginners to advanced level in British Sign Language, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish or Russian. Those for whom English is a second language may also choose Advanced Business English.

Information for international students

Anyone applying from a country where English is not the first language is required to take an official test of English language obtaining at least IELTS 6.5 with a minimum of 5.5 in each subtest.

Fees and funding

For information related to fees and funding, please visit the individual course page on the Keele University website.