Master of Business Administration

Overview

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme, offered by the University of Liverpool Management School, is a thoroughly modern MBA that is designed to meet the business challenges of the 21st century.

Organisations are demanding leaders who thrive in a complex, cross-functional, and globally diverse environment. This MBA programme delivers graduates as leaders who understand themselves, and their organisation, in the context of a highly competitive and rapidly changing business climate.

Developing leadership and personal impact skills are key features of the programme as students not only learn theories of leadership but also how to enhance their own practice. Additionally students acquire the tools to generate creative local and global strategies, evaluate them rigorously, and implement them effectively.

Description

The design of the MBA programme follows that of a ‘developmental’ model for the student.

Throughout the first four modules, this ‘developmental’ model will enable students to develop an enhanced sense of themselves as a manager and as a leader, a deeper awareness of the cross-functional nature of organisations, and an appreciation for the dependencies on and interactions between their organisation and the global business environment.

By the fifth module, students apply their learning to the problems and opportunities of leading and managing through disruptive change, of strategically aligning organisations for the future, and of appreciating and managing an organisation’s “triple bottom line”.

To further enhance the contemporary nature of this MBA and in keeping with the latest technology, eBooks (or printed texts when eBooks are unavailable) will be offered to all students, for all modules, included as part of the programme’s tuition fees.

The University of Liverpool and Laureate Online Education believe that the more accessible the programme is – being able to download the latest version of books onto a compatible device, being able to carry your ‘virtual’ books with you anywhere in the world, having books available in time for modules – the richer the learning experience will be for students managing in a world where having knowledge at your fingertips is key.

Programme Structure:
Students are required to follow two, non-credit bearing, modules (Students Readiness Orientation and Foundations for Academic Success) that will prepare them for their online learning experience. For more information about these modules – full module descriptions including their duration, as well as the additional student support services available – please read the Centre for Student Success document.

The MBA programme then comprises eight modules - five core modules and three elective, - culminating in a dissertation or consultancy project. The first module is nine weeks in length and each subsequent module is eight weeks. Modules are sequenced in an order that is best suited to the students’ development in the programme.

Preparatory Modules:

• Student Readiness Orientation

• Foundations for Academic Success

Core Modules:

• Being a Leader

• The Organisation in Strategic Context

• Finance and Accounting for Managers

• Market Perspectives

• Innovation and Change

• Dissertation or Consultancy Project

Elective Modules:

• Advanced Concepts of e-Business

• Advanced Managerial Accounting

• Business Finance

• Business in Emerging Markets

• Business Leadership

• Consumer Behaviour

• Entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets

• Financial Reporting

• Entrepreneurial Finance

• Global Leadership

• Human Resource Management

• International Business

• International Finance

• Investment Strategies

• Marketing in a Global Environment

• Marketing Research

• Operations Management

• Organisational Learning

• Services Marketing

• Social Entrepreneurship

• Dissertation

Students selecting the “dissertation” path will identify an appropriate research topic; critically select and apply appropriate research methodology and data collection methods to their chosen research topic; and demonstrate a rigorous understanding of the theory and literature relevant to the issues under investigation. The dissertation will be 15,000 – 20,000 words.

Consultancy Project -
Students will work on a specific project for an organisation. The organisation selected will function as the “client” and is normally an employer or another organisation with which the student is familiar. The aim of this path is to enable students to undertake a self managed process of systematic practitioner inquiry within the management domain. The output will be a 15,000 – 20,000 word report in two sections:

1. A management report (approx. 5,000 words) which would normally be presented to the client organisation
2. A report detailing the stages of the consultancy cycle and the research and methodology techniques deployed at each stage. This will also include a reflective piece on the student’s personal development as a consultant (10,000 – 15,000 words)