Why study this course

There are no requirements to have studied business previously. This course is open to learners of all disciplines preparing students to integrate with organisations operating on an international platform.

We focus on sustainable practices. Guided by the United Nations Sustainable Goals, we bring challenge to the corporate landscape.

We embrace social and cultural differences and seek to actively recruit diverse cohorts who can become future leaders and managers in a complex world.

Scholarships are available – apply now to see if you meet the criteria!

Course summary

In the modern period, businesses and organisations are often international. It is a situation to which managers and leaders must respond developing new capabilities and capacities to ensure they can successfully navigate the increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments they inhabit.

Key facts

Award

MSc

Duration

1 year

Mode of study

Full-time

Start date

September & January

Awarding institution

Bishop Grosseteste University

Institution code

B38

Apply for this course

When you're ready to apply, the route you take will depend on your personal circumstances and preferred method of study. Click the relevant button below to start your application journey.

About this course

Your MSc International Business (MSc IB) is open to graduates from any discipline and is designed to support you in meeting your future career aspirations, whether that be working within an international organisation, launching your own business or social enterprise, engaging in further postgraduate study, or any other challenging and rewarding careers you might wish to pursue after completion of your postgraduate study.

The degree will ensure you hone your professional, analytical and practical capabilities developing an international perspective for business on a journey of exploration guided by subject-specific experts and business practitioners. Your capabilities will be enhanced through ‘augmented learning’ in which classroom-based teaching is supported by a range of learning tasks available to you through your virtual learning environment designed to support your independent learning. At all junctures, learning on the MSc IB emphasises the ethical, social and environmental responsibilities that should guide the behaviour of all international organisations in the contemporary era.

Modules are taught and assessed using a variety of active learning techniques in which you are encouraged to take charge of your own learning through engaging with academic knowledge and research, tutors, case studies, and your peers.

What you will study

Students on this course currently study some or all of the following modules:

Communication in written form is an essential skill that business leaders must master if they wish to be successful. The aim of this module is to equip you with the ability to systematically organise, synthesise, and communicate advanced information and ideas.

You will explore how to effectively communicate through their writing to specialist audiences within business and academia. It will also develop your systematic understanding of methodological approaches to the collection of data, improving your ability to engage in critical analysis that supports conclusions and recommendations.

Consequently, the module will strategically enhance your learning, work, and professional practice.

The module will explore these issues through classroom-based learning supplemented with activities situated on the virtual learning environment.

Communication via the spoken word is an essential skill that business leaders must master if they wish to be successful. The aim of this module is to equip you with the ability to systematically organise, synthesise, and communicate advanced information and ideas.

You will explore how to effectively communicate through speech to specialist audiences within business and academia. The module will also introduce you to how culture often provides barriers to effective verbal communication amongst people of different nationalities and ethnicities. By improving your ability to communicate and present information and ideas verbally, the module will strategically enhance your learning, work, and professional practice.

The module will explore these issues through classroom-based learning supplemented with activities situated on the virtual learning environment.

International business operates in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable environment. The aim of this module is to equip you with the knowledge, concepts, and theories that will allow you to develop systematic responses and innovative proposals to the strategic issues facing international business in the contemporary era.

The module will examine the nature of modern international business, including the strategies and techniques that organisations utilise to internationalise their operations. Learning will also encompass the ethical and corporate social responsibilities of international business, including its obligation to ensure a sustainable planetary ecology, whilst exploration of the sustainable development goals by the United

Nations will expose the obligations of international business to the poorest in our societies. The module will explore these issues through classroom-based learning supplemented with activities situated on the virtual learning environment.

Natural disasters, pandemics, populist politics, war… it is difficult to consider which of the challenges facing international business from its external environment in recent years is most challenging to its
sustainability.

The aim of this module is to equip you with the knowledge, concepts and theories to make sense of the increasingly complex and uncertain world we live in.

This module will examine the present-day structure of the world economy examining the role that globalisation has played in its formation. The module will also note how international business is mediated by the plethora of political organisations established since the Second World War to govern the world economy, as well as exploring the policy decisions taken by national governments which influence the domestic and world economy.

Throughout, the techniques employed by international businesses to make sense of this complexity will be addressed.

The module will explore these issues through classroom-based learning supplemented with activities situated on the virtual learning environment.

Marketing products and services across the world is a core and necessary operation for any international business. The aim of this module is for you to develop critical understanding about international marketing. We will introduce you to the theories and concepts, principles and tools, that will enable you to design and operate strategic marketing campaigns in a global context.

The module will provide you with an understanding of the principles and tools relating to strategic marketing in a global context and the opportunity to explore strategic marketing issues within a global context (digital and offline).

You will make sense of the decisions, processes and frameworks involved in strategic marketing, as well as develop knowledge and awareness of the factors, issues and challenges which impact on an organisation's international marketing activities. You will have the opportunity to explore international marketing via an array of case studies to develop practical capabilities in the subject.

The module will explore these issues through classroom-based learning supplemented with activities situated on the virtual learning environment.

You will be encouraged to access current insight regarding marketing in a global context from professional bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the American Marketing Association

This module will offer an introduction to international financial accounting and management. The module encompasses two distinct areas of study, namely financial management and financial accounting. It aims to familiarise non-specialists with the foundational principles of financial management.

It will examine the fundamental concepts and a broad understanding of core issues in financial management. Furthermore, the module will enable you to understand financial statements from given data, introduce basic theory on financial aspects of business, and provide practical familiarity with financial information.

The module will explore these issues through classroom-based learning supplemented with activities situated on the virtual learning environment.

Businesses increasingly have to manage their operations and supply chains across international borders. The aim of this module is to provide you with a wide-ranging, critical understanding of global operations and supply chain practices across industries.

You will develop a critical understanding of the strategic and operational challenges faced by businesses in managing their global operations and supply chains emerging from the increasingly complex international environment in which you are situated.

The module will examine a range of concepts and issues that inform decisions about business operations and supply chain management equipping you with appropriate theories and concepts to comprehend complexity. The module will challenge you to engage in critical analysis of the subject through real-life case studies that will also develop practical knowledge and skills.

The module will explore these issues through classroom-based learning supplemented with activities situated on the virtual learning environment.

People are what make international businesses and how they are led and developed is critical to whether an organisation becomes successful or not. The aim of this module is to equip you with an appreciation of the importance of the Leadership and Human Resource (HR) function in your organisational and international contexts, with particular emphasis on the importance of equality, diversity and inclusivity.

You will critically examine the strategic and operational aspects of the leadership management considering the contemporary international business environment. It also considers the social and ethical context of leadership and people management. The practices associated with the management of human resources are examined from the perspective of what constitutes ‘good practice’ across international borders. The leadership and human resource challenges faced by international organisations are also explored.

The module will explore these issues through classroom-based learning supplemented with activities situated on the virtual learning environment.

This module provides you with the opportunity to develop their capabilities as independent researchers for international business, with the format of submissions on the module aligned with the types of communication expected in the business-world.

The aim of the module is to ensure that you graduate from your degree programme having strengthened your knowledge, skills, and mindset to effectively pursue your future career aspirations, whether that be working within an international organisation, launching your own business or social enterprise, progressing to further postgraduate study, or any other challenging and rewarding careers you might wish to pursue after completion of your postgraduate study.

For you to achieve this aim, the module will enhance your ability to undertake and complete high-quality applied research, as well as broaden your appreciation of the importance of research ethics.

You will consequently be supported during this module in the creation of a comprehensive business plan submitted across three submissions.

You will be supported in the creation of this comprehensive business plan through a mixture of taught classroom-based learning on research methods and data analytics, followed by workshops and supervision meetings. In-person teaching will be supported via the virtual learning environment.

Entry requirements

Students would normally be expected to have, or be predicted to have achieved a 2:2 (or NARIC equivalent) in any degree subject.

If you have any questions about the entry requirements for this course, please contact our Enquiries team for advice on +44 (0) 1522 583658 or email courseenquiries@bishopg.ac.uk.

BGU is committed to widening access and participation and we adhere to a strict policy of non-discrimination.

Further information

Click here for important information about this course including additional costs, resources and key policies.

In accordance with University conditions, students are entitled to apply for Recognition of Prior Learning, RP(C)L, based on relevant credit at another HE institution or credit Awarded for Experiential Learning, (RP(E)L).

How you will be taught

You will develop specific subject knowledge and understanding through a diverse range of contemporary teaching and learning styles and methods. This will include innovative practices and approaches, such as storyboarding, role-play, and group activities, where applicable.

All modules are taught with contact time delivered in either lecture, seminar or workshop format.

Interactive lectures are an important element of learning strategy on the MSc International Business degree, with digital technologies utilised to aid communication and the transfer of ideas across cultural boundaries.

During seminar and workshops, you will be encouraged to develop your subject knowledge and understanding, and to build subject specific and intellect skills by assembling evidence, presenting ideas, concepts, and findings, and constructing and defending arguments.

Classroom-based learning will also be supported by integration of appropriate digital technologies within teaching.

Individual support is offered to you across all modules through one-to-one tutorials, often focused on reinforcing understanding of topics and ensuring appropriate preparation is being made for assignment tasks.

Assessment

A range of assessments are used which are relevant to your individual demands and enable you to participate in a varied and engaging work-based learning that also delivers personal development experience. Assessments are used to appropriately test and encourage you to apply different areas of knowledge and demonstrate a wide range of skills.

Each module consists of a maximum of two assessments, with the majority containing only a singular submission.

Group work is not used as a summative assessment strategy although you should expect to work with others throughout the duration of your programme. Furthermore, formative assessment strategies will be employed throughout the programmes duration to monitor your learning and understanding, and to ensure that you are in receipt of ongoing dialogue and feedback on your learning and progress. You will be engaged as partners in this process and will develop skills such as self- assessment and peer-assessment.

What Our Students Say

Discover what life is like at Bishop Grosseteste University from our students.

Support

Studying at BGU is a student-centred experience. Staff and students work together in a friendly and supportive atmosphere as part of an intimate campus community. You will know every member of staff personally and feel confident approaching them for help and advice, and staff members will recognise you, not just by sight, but as an individual with unique talents and interests.

We will be there to support you, personally and academically, from induction to graduation.

At BGU we have so much support available for our students, the type of support that has won us awards recently in the What Uni Student Choice Awards 2023, such as the Chaplaincy team, the Student Advice team, CELT, BGFutures and representatives at the Students’ Union.

sport and fitness memebership

Fees & Finance

A lot of student finance information is available from numerous sources, but it is sometimes confusing and contradictory. That’s why at BGU we try to give you all the information and support we can to help to throughout the process. Our Student Advice team are experts in helping you sort out the funding arrangements for your studies, offering a range of services to guide you through all aspects of student finance step by step.

Click here to find information about fees, loans and support which will help to make the whole process a little easier to understand.