Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Course summary

Our innovative Westminster MBA is designed for ambitious business professionals – and recent graduates from any discipline – who don’t want to wait until they have extensive work experience before taking the first steps towards a management career.

Setting you apart in a competitive job market, you’ll graduate with direct experience from a three-month internship and the holistic business knowledge, capabilities and cutting-edge digital expertise demanded by today’s employers.

In the fast-moving global business environment, employers demand multi-skilled, digitally competent graduates with a sophisticated understanding of business and its changing context, one which cuts across the traditional business disciplines that include human resources, management and marketing. To succeed you need a ‘big picture’ approach. You must be capable of adapting to emerging business models, creating new enterprises, leading and managing people effectively and improving processes with digital solutions.

At Westminster Business School, we recognise that future business professionals need the full range of technical and personal development skills – more responsible, resilient, adaptable and versatile than ever before. Our aim is to help you become an aspiring leader and entrepreneur, someone who can add value to any type of organisation. But we believe it’s essential for this transformation process to start early, before you have extensive working experience or have adopted the mindset of one particular employer or business sector. By starting this process early, it’s much easier to develop your skills, learn to think outside the box, and independently lead changes in the business world – wherever your career takes you. It’s also what our employer contacts tell us they’d prefer.

Responding to a shifting market, the Westminster MBA offers a practically oriented, cross-disciplinary, advanced education in modern business: it combines academic rigour, accelerated study, stimulating teaching approaches and practical business leadership experiences, including a three-month internship. We'll support you on your journey to becoming part of the next generation of successful business executives and entrepreneurs.

We’ll introduce you to the latest business methods and technologies in a way that more accurately reflects the corporate and entrepreneurial environment – through interdisciplinary, capability-building thematic modules, which span anything from innovation and design thinking to contemporary challenges, sustainability, management complexity, data analysis and finances. You’ll then apply your learning to practice-based business problems and live business projects and, in doing so, gain sought-after soft skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, personal agility, adaptability and resilience.

Recognising the growing importance of technology, and preparing you for careers in a 2020s digital world, we’ll examine some of the latest developments, including blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud technology, AR/VR, disruptive innovations, the growth of ecosystems and the sharing economy.

We expect our MBA graduates to go on to secure management and leadership roles in corporates, start-ups, SMEs, the public sector and non-profit organisations.

Top reasons to study with us

• This MBA is ideal for recent graduates and ambitious early-career professionals with the determination to pursue management careers
• Become business-ready through intensive practical experiences and accelerated study
• Three-month ‘Management in Action’ internship or project at home or overseas to boost your CV
• Week-long consulting project with a client company
• Career development workshops and masterclasses enhance your global perspective and employability
• Taught by staff with expertise in strategic management, entrepreneurship, design, innovation, marketing, consumer insight, social media, operations, digital business, psychology, human resources, organisational behaviour, economics, finance, management accounting and leadership
• Exciting teaching and learning approaches with live case studies, simulations, role-playing workshops and hackathons
• Engaging assessment methods, including simulations, business challenges, investigating briefs, group pitches and video presentations
• Excellent facilities include an MBA Boardroom, digital classrooms and our state-of-the-art Bloomberg virtual trading room

Course structure

The MBA follows a strong narrative with a journey of discovery, beginning with the diagnosis of business problems/issues, the design of innovative solutions, immersion in digital applications and the development of drive, resilience and diplomacy as part of the student’s personal growth. In addition to the module assessment, capabilities learned are applied during the client projects for Entrepreneurial Mindset, the Consultancy Project and the Management in Action internship. You will study problem-solving and capability-building modules for a total of 180 credits.

We begin by learning how to conduct a business diagnostic, developing your skills in analysing financial, performance and market data, as well as critical thinking. You’ll learn to confidently identify the symptoms of underperformance and analyse business problems, using your judgement to make informed decisions to improve future market performance. We’ll examine how design thinking and creativity can reimagine business models and help design new products, services and processes. You’ll also gain a better understanding of digital disruptions and how these impact on business operations, business services and performance.

We move on to business structure and modern strategies in a changing world, as well as the traits, behaviours and management processes needed for resilient, flexible organisations. You’ll consider some of the contemporary challenges facing business, from the merits of sustainable global growth to the global perspective of business development and the need for sensitive, collaborative working in multicultural project environments. You’ll examine the latest insights in innovation and new business models, before participating in a week-long Consultancy Project advising client(s) to solve a strategic issue/problem.

For the Management in Action Internship or Project, you’ll investigate a problem/issue related to innovation and/or digitisation for a client organisation in the UK or overseas – anything from how a digital start-up can compete against digital/conventional rivals, to the impact of digitisation on an organisation’s operation and performance. It’s an ideal opportunity to demonstrate your resourcefulness and ability to ‘think on your feet’.