Programme Title

MBA Master of Business Administration

Final Award
(exit route if applicable for Postgraduate Taught Programmes)

Master of Business Administration

Programme Code

MGT-MBA-QU

UCAS Code

HECoS Code

100079

ATAS Clearance Required

No

Health Check Required

No

Portfolio Required

Interview Required

Yes

Mode of Study

Full Time

Type of Programme

Postgraduate

Length of Programme

1 Academic Year(s)

Total Credits for Programme

180

Exit Awards available

Awarding Institution/Body

Queen's University Belfast

Teaching Institution

Queen's University Belfast

School/Department

Queen's Management School

Framework for Higher Education Qualification Level 
www.qaa.ac.uk

Level 7

QAA Benchmark Group
www.qaa.ac.uk/quality-code/subject-benchmark-statements

Business and Management (2015)

Accreditations (PSRB)

Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

Date of most recent Accreditation Visit 21-11-17

Does the Programme have any approved exemptions from the University General Regulations
(Please see General Regulations)

No and none are required

Programme Specific Regulations

The MBA will be subject to the guidelines presented in the Study Regulations for Postgraduate Taught Programmes.

Students must pass all taught modules of the programme as well as the compulsory experiential module and a dissertation to be eligible for the award of a Master’s degree.

Students will be permitted to progress to their dissertation module once they have successfully completed modules to the equivalent of at least 100 CATS points.

The outstanding module(s) must be successfully completed before the submission of the dissertation.

Students with protected characteristics

No

Are students subject to Fitness to Practise Regulations

(Please see General Regulations)

No

Learning Outcomes: Cognitive Skills

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

Develop creative solutions to problems by drawing on new knowledge. Tackle problems through the practical application of theory.

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

New knowledge is imparted through academic modules (topics below).

A variety of teaching methods are used including Lectures, Role play, Directed reading, and Breakout sessions.

All modules focusing on core business disciplines have an applied focus to ensure management theories relate to practical managerial challenges students face in their organizations.

Teaching methods focused specifically on problem-solving include the analysis of case studies, consulting challenges, the international study trip task, video and film analysis and guest speakers.

The International Study Trip will comprise a multi-day visit to an overseas location, and incorporate lectures from business leaders, visits to key organizations and other opportunities to explore international best practice in the area of social innovation. The content of these engagements will reflect core areas from the MBA programme including leadership, strategic management, among others. Learning from this Trip will feed into student’s assessments for this module.

Methods of Assessment

Coursework components (group and individual) and reflective exercises in the experiential module will test the students’ understanding of core business disciplines and ability to put management theory into practice in their organizations.

A variety of assessment methods are used including: Individual and group essays, Reflective essays on problem-solving within professional experience, Case study reports, Presentations, the dissertation, assessed consulting challenges incorporating ‘board level’ presentations.


Both formative and summative methods are used.

Learning Outcomes: Knowledge & Understanding

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

Conduct independent enquiry

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Independent enquiry is a key element in all modules. Students will be presented with a range of complex issues, ideas and management theories around core business disciplines and expected to undertake independent enquiry to better understand these. Specific teaching methods include:


1. Independent academic enquiry: Imparted through training in essay preparation, library skills, literature search skills, analysis and review of academic literature
2. Independent practical enquiry: Imparted via training in consultancy skills, qualitative and quantitative methods.

Methods of Assessment

Several forms of group and individual continuous assessment both written, verbal require the student to undertake independent enquiry. These include the dissertation, and individual and group essays and presentations.

Learning Outcomes: Cognitive Skills

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

Critically evaluate, analyse, interpret and apply

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Students will be trained to critique, evaluate and apply management theories to practice using a range of frameworks as appropriate to individual modules.
Class discussion, group activities will encourage students to critique knowledge in a collaborative setting.


Specific training in academic critique will be provided, alongside subjects that incorporate the interpretation and analysis of complex data including Business Analytics, Accounting and Financial Management for Decision Makers.

Methods of Assessment

All forms of continuous assessment whether these are written assignments, presentations or the dissertation incorporate an emphasis on students’ use of their own judgement and ability to evaluate, interpret and apply a range of results and information.

Exercise and develop self-reflection and assessment

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Self-assessment and reflection are central to the year-long Developing as a Manager and Leader module, in which individual leadership development is supported by personality assessments with the results analyzed alongside a qualified personal coach. This module also incorporates skills in managing change and risk; communication; leadership; teamwork; dealing with ambiguity; negotiation; problem solving; critical thinking; and ethical values.


Self-assessment relating to students’ individual progress on the programme is also embedded in module teaching methods for example through reflective essays.


Reflective practice is emphasised in each academic module through for example group discussions.

Methods of Assessment

Students are required to reflect on their own managerial and leadership capabilities through reflective assessments within taught modules, dissertation and particularly through the Developing as a Manager and Leader module. Assessment is via the production of reflective essays.

Learning Outcomes: Knowledge & Understanding

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

Understand the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the major functions of the organization, with a focus on management and leadership and application to practical organizational scenarios

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Modules focus on teaching the core principles behind major organizational functions including accounting, marketing, strategy and leadership. Acquisition of knowledge and understanding, across modules, is through structured exposition based on lectures, tutorials, breakout sessions and master classes, directed reading, student presentations, group projects, reflective development, and private study.
Learning from across all modules is brought together during the integrated dissertation, ensuring that students learn about and are assessed on a holistic appreciation of the organization alongside the role of its component parts.

Methods of Assessment

Continuous assessment elements to assess knowledge and understanding include written assignments, presentations, individual and group project reports (including the Consultancy Project) and in-class consulting challenges.

Understand the main research methods that are used in research pertaining to core business disciplines, including relevant quantitative and qualitative techniques to applied managerial contexts

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

In each of the modules, students will become familiar with a wide range of research methods that are used in the core business disciplines studied through exposure to key research via books and articles.


More specifically, the dissertation allows the student to select an appropriate research method for researching and investigating practical challenges. Full training is provided in research methods during the dissertation training week. An individual academic supervisor is assigned to each student for the conduct of the research.

Methods of Assessment

Students will have opportunities to engage with a wide range of research methods in the continuous assessment across modules on the programme.

This will be critical to the completion of the dissertation, where students will be able to use at least one or a combination of these methods in much more detail to apply theoretical frameworks to a practical managerial context.

Understand how relevant theory can be applied to a variety of current and historical managerial challenges and contexts within core business disciplines

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

The teaching material in each of the modules has been specifically developed to expose students to methods for putting management theory into practice in contemporary organizations. This is provided through the use of historical examples, discussion of classic case studies, contemporary case materials and research studies.

Methods of Assessment

Assessments will require students to apply theory to current and historical managerial challenge, to be demonstrated through the use of examples and references. Methods include case reports, and individual and group essays.

Understand the academic research process from inception to publication

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

All modules incorporate an emphasis on leading edge academic research and so students are able to appreciate the outputs. The dissertation and associated training week provide opportunities to appreciate the research process first hand, enabling the development of the student’s understanding of core business disciplines with an emphasis on putting management theory into practice.

Methods of Assessment

Students will have opportunities to develop their ideas into more structured research through continuous assessment for each of the modules. Students completing the dissertation will require a clear insight into the academic research process, with a focus on practical application.

Learning Outcomes: Subject Specific

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

Construct, interpret and critically evaluate core business concepts and ideas with an emphasis on putting management theory into practice, even in the context of changing environmental influences

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

The MBA, in line with best practice, offers a suite of core academic subjects that focus on key areas of business and management leadership including strategy, accounting, economics, and marketing.



In each taught module students will develop skills in critically evaluating the core concepts within each of these areas but also mastery in application of these to practical challenges in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.

Methods of Assessment

Continuous assessment methods, as described above, are used throughout all modules to assess students’ knowledge and understanding of core discipline specific skills with a particular requirement for putting relevant management theory into practice.

Group work, presentations and written individual assignments will form the basis for continuous assessment.

Students will be required to be able to apply a range of management theories and concepts to a variety of organizational scenarios including in the context of their chosen consulting partner organization, or dissertation topic.

Acquire significant understanding of the major areas of knowledge which underpin general management.

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Specific key areas are covered by academic modules as follows:

(i) Marketing: the concepts, processes and Institutions involved in the marketing of goods and / or services;

(ii) Accounting and Financial Management for Decision Makers: the concepts and applications of accounting, of quantitative methods and analytics, and management information systems including digital innovations;
(iii) Leadership Change and Organization: organization theory, behaviour, HRM issues and interpersonal communications, the impact of environmental forces on organizations, including: legal systems; demographics; ethical, social, and technological change issues and risks, explicit skills development in responding to and managing change;

(iv) Strategic Management: The processes and problems of general management at the operational and strategic level;
(v) Economic Environment: macro and micro economics;
(vi) Dissertation: business research methods and consultancy skills;
(x) Entrepreneurship: Leadership creativity, enterprise, and innovation, and the financing of business enterprise or other forms of organization
(xi) Business Analytics: Utilising data to make informed strategic decisions and improve business processes.
(xii) All modules including dissertation: An understanding of the impact of sustainability, ethics and risk management on business decisions and performance, and on society as a whole;

Methods of Assessment

A wide variety of assessments to include:
Academic literature evaluation e.g. via emails, Individual essay, Group essay, Reflective essay on professional experience, Case study reports, Presentation, Dissertation, Consulting challenges in-class, Board level presentations

Provide leadership to themselves and to others in order to achieve organizational goals

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

This area will be the focus of an integrated and cross-programme module Developing as a Leader and a Manager, encompassing individual assessments of leadership and group work styles, personal coaching, personal change management and continual reflection.


To complement this, the module Managing Change and the Organization will focus on Leadership drawing on key academic research along with examples and visits from distinguished Leaders to share experiences with students.
Across the programme, significant opportunities to engage in group work, and to lead teams, will be provided via group assignments. Continual mentoring and improvement will be undertaken with the help of an assigned CLI mentor throughout the year.

Methods of Assessment

The Developing as a Leader and a Manager will be assessed via reflective assessments, while Managing Change and the Organization will encompass reflective essays.

Use applied case studies to illustrate a wide range of managerial and business function problems/opportunities for relevant analytical purposes

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Effective analysis of case studies illustrating management and business function problems/opportunities is crucial for developing the capacity to apply theories into practice. Consequently these skills are developed across modules in both academic years, complemented by the reflective development in the Developing as a Manager and Leader module. These will also be critical skills for the dissertation.

Methods of Assessment

Assessments include case reports, consulting challenges and individual and group essays and presentations.

Understand how to assess and maximize resources

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Targeted focus on this topic will be provided in the relevant subjects’ particularly accounting, operations management, business analytics and marketing.

At MBA level the focus will be on developing robust understanding of relevant processes in order to make strategic decisions on behalf of the organization.

Students will be presented with case studies and integrated consulting challenges to help develop their skills. Guest speakers will provide insight into real-life practices.

Methods of Assessment

Relevant modules will be assessed via Individual and group essays and reports, Presentations and the dissertation.

Know how to effectively work in cross-cultural, globalized settings

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

The MBA will have a specifically international focus, with a diverse student cohort. Targeted coaching in cross-cultural issues in the context of both academic and practitioner working will be provided via the Developing as a Leader and Manager module.

In addition, each taught module will specifically encompass case studies, examples and learning from international settings and topics including political risk and contemporary processes of regionalisation, emerging markets, global governance and globalisation.
Finally, students will be exposed to international best practices as part of the International Study Trip.

Methods of Assessment

These skills are tested via Individual and group essays and reports, Presentations and reflective essays for example in the Developing as a Leader and Manager module.

Integrate business ethics into practice

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

The MBA, in line with the wider School vision of QMS, places an explicit emphasis on business ethics and sustainability. Business sustainability refers to the process by which companies manage their financial, social and environmental risks, obligations and opportunities (the integration of profits, people and planet).

These topics are explicitly integrated in all taught modules, and are the focus of a targeted component of the Developing as a Leader and Manager module that emphasises responding to ethical challenges.

The Consulting project for example is aimed specifically at working with partner organizations on addressing issues pertaining to ethics and sustainability.

Methods of Assessment

Assessments (individual and group) relating to relevant aspects of each taught module incorporate a focus on ethics and sustainability while reflective assessments within the experiential module will encompass an emphasis on this topic.

The dissertation will encompass a major assessment of this area, given its focus on ethics and sustainability as detailed below.

Comprehend and evaluate academic literature in core business disciplines

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Up-to-date literature is integrated throughout the programme, and emphasis is placed on the on-going development of the students’ skills in order to effectively communicate, debate and critique this literature within the applied context of their own organizations. This is facilitated through group discussion and individual directed reading.

Training is provided in literature searching and critique of academic work as described above.

Methods of Assessment

This is central to the MBA. In all modules students will be encouraged to engage with the most current literature in the core business discipline area. Continuous assessment in several modules will assess this skill specifically and require the students to formally analyse and evaluate a range of contemporary and historical literature applying it to managerial challenges.

Learning Outcomes: Transferable Skills

On the completion of this course successful students will be able to:

Synthesise information/data from a variety of sources including from databases, books, journal articles and the internet

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Targeted training in the use of library services, literature searching and reviewing, academic writing practices and plagiarism will be provided.
These methods complement subject-specific teaching in how best to synthesise relevant information, presented in individual module lectures.

Methods of Assessment

The majority of coursework projects require synthesis of information from academic sources, while the consulting project will necessitate a detailed literature review that combines both academic but also practitioner literature from across a range of disciplines.

Reason and evaluate and recommend on the basis of such reasoning

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

There will be many opportunities in the scheduled teaching time for students to work, in conjunction with the lecturer, to evaluate a range of applied business challenges focused on core business disciplines with an emphasis on putting management theory into practice in recommending concrete solutions.
The consulting challenges integrated in to module offerings, plus the dissertation itself, represent examples of these opportunities. In the former case, industry experts provide feedback to students, along with input from academic supervisors in order to enhance reasoning skills.

Methods of Assessment

This skill will be assessed through continuous assessment in group and individual projects and through the dissertation that focuses on evaluation of relevant theoretical frameworks and their application in practice to challenges in organizations.

Organise their work and time manage

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

The MBA programme is an intensive and high-levelmasters degree and time management is an essential skill for the successful completion of this programme.

As part of the experiential module students will be provided with targeted training in Time Management skills, while one-to-one sessions with personal coaches will assist in addressing individual challenges in this area.

Methods of Assessment

The focused nature of group work and other forms of coursework will require students to effectively manage their time over a short span to address specific challenges, both individually and collectively, thus putting learning and coaching into practice.

Effective management of workload and time will be critical to completion of individual assignments and particularly the dissertation.

Use work-based IT, including word-processing and presentation packages

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Students will use IT packages including word processing and presentation packages for certain in-class tutorial and break-out sessions. They will also require these packages when submitting assessed work for consideration, for presenting to class both individually and in groups, and for presenting to client organizations during consulting challenges.

Guidance in using presentation packages will be provided through the Presentation Skills component of the Developing as a Manager and Leader module.

Methods of Assessment

This forms a component of assessment strategies, in particular for the dissertation in which marking criteria encompasses an attention to formatting, clarity and presentation of written work.

The Consulting project also includes a percentage of marks for presentation.

Work both independently and in groups

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Students will have various opportunities both within and beyond the classroom to work as individuals and within groups.
This may involve independently analysing theoretical frameworks pertaining to core business disciplines in relation to challenges within ‘real-life’ firms. It will also involve working within groups to resolve complex functional challenges through application of relevant management theories.
In line with best practice, the MBA programme emphasises the importance of effective group working and so groupwork is integral to the assessment strategy inherent to modules.

Students often find this challenging and to address this, Developing as a Manager and Leader module incorporates MBTI-based testing to assess students’ individual’s styles of working alongside a targeted component on group working, and the development of a Group Charter.

Methods of Assessment

Group work has been specifically integrated into the assessment methods in some modules.

Working independently is an integral feature in others, including the dissertation although this requires significant engagement with the client organization in the case of the consulting project.

The MBA represents a balance between both forms of working.

Communicate complex information in written and presentation form

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

Short interactive class sessions allow students to discuss complex theoretical frameworks pertaining to core business disciplines and present their findings and analysis in individual and group formats through verbal and written forms.

Specific modules focus upon the analysis and communication of complex data including business analytics, accounting for decision makers and marketing.

Methods of Assessment

Through continuous assessment students demonstrate the ability to present ideas, discuss complex and ambiguous information in both written and oral forms within an individual and group-based format. Formative and summative feedback strategies ensure that students can develop their skills over the course of the programme.

Understand how to enhance and progress one’s career

Teaching/Learning Methods and Strategies

The MBA provides a specific year-long career development programme encompassing career coaching,
mentoring, alumni engagement alongside particular practical skills such as CV analysis and development, interview skills and networking strategies.

Methods of Assessment

While this is not formally assessed, attendance and participation is mandatory.