International Business and Management Studies

Entry requirements

• First or Upper Second Class Honours Degree or an approved equivalent award in a relevant discipline

or

• Research or professional experience which has resulted in appropriate evidence of achievement

Please see the University website for full details

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

The MRes in International Business and Management is a research degree designed to enable you to complete an in-depth research project on a topic of your choice within the field of Business and Management.

You can explore a specific research question that interests you whilst benefiting from structured support in quantitative or qualitative research, and a blend of cohort and personalised expert supervision.

Overview

Whether you choose to focus on consumer behaviour, sustainable futures, global business strategies or human resource management, you will be supported by experts in Worcester Business School to deliver a significant piece of research with the potential to impact on business practice in your chosen field.

The course can be a route into further research - many of our MRes students have progressed to undertake a PhD and some from there into academic jobs. However, it also provides you with a contemporary knowledge of business trends and issues and a rich portfolio of transferable skills – project management, critical and creative thinking, problem solving – which will make you an attractive proposition to employers in many areas of business and in the public sector.

We expect applicants to submit a project outline at the point of application which identifies the research question or problem that your project will address. You should explain why this is important to you and let us know how it engages with what other researchers have written about this question/problem. You should also explain why this research is needed, and sketches out how you will do the research: what data you will need to collect and how you will collect it. This proposal will enable us to identify the right person to supervise your project, your Director of Studies. We can offer supervisory expertise in the following areas of Business and Management:

• Business ethics and sustainability
• Consumer Behaviour
• Employee relations
• Entrepreneurship
• Finance
• Human Resource Management
• International Business
• Leadership
• Operations management
• Project management
• Risk management
• Services marketing

Course structure

The course begins with a taught component during which you will receive a strong grounding in project planning and management, develop advanced knowledge of the research skills and methods you will need to complete your planned project, and enhance your knowledge of contemporary trends and issues in Business and Management. During this stage you will develop your project outline into a full project proposal. Throughout the taught component you will receive support from your appointed Director of Studies

You will then progress to the research component of the course during which you will undertake the project that you have designed. Throughout your project your Director of Studies will guide and support you, advising at every step to ensure you achieve the best research outcomes.

Across the programme, you will be able to engage with our Doctoral School’s Research Student Development Programme which offers a range of workshops and micro-courses, online and in-person, for our MRes and PhD students on a diverse range of topics, from masterclasses on specific research methods or analysis techniques, courses to improve your dissemination skills – whether presenting at a conference or writing for publication - and enhance the impact of your research.

Careers

An MRes can be a stepping stone to further study at doctoral level. Students who complete an MRes will often go on to undertake a PhD or a professional doctorate such as a Doctorate of Business Administration. This can lead to a role as a lecturer or researcher in the Higher Education sector or as a researcher in the public or business sectors. The transferable skills developed though the MSc by Research will also prepare you for careers in the business and public sectors and will fast-track you into leadership and management roles.

The 2022 publication “What do researchers do”, based on Graduate Outcome data, shows the clear benefits of completing a research degree with research degree graduates having significantly better employment outcomes than contemporary graduates with only first or taught masters degrees. The report also highlight that two thirds of research degree graduates go on to work in the HE sector with the remaining third working in other areas such as business consultancy, management and teaching.

Information for international students

International applicants will be required to demonstrate comparable prior subject experience and to have an appropriate level of written and spoken English (normally an IELTS score of 6.5 with a minimum score of 6 in written English).