Business Management with Foundation BA Honours

You are introduced to the functions of business organisations, the broader business environment, and key management skills and competences, including information gathering and analysis, accounting, economics, marketing and organisational behaviour. We consider business organisations – their purposes, structures and governance in a global context, together with cultural differences and ethical constraints. You’ll be introduced to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, through case studies, discover how environmental, social and governance issues have affected companies including Divine Chocolate, for example. Drawing on real-life data from FAME, you’ll be tasked with analysing the financial performance of an organisation of your choice.

Subjects of study include:

• Global Economies and the Business Environment
• Analytics for Decision Making
• Behaviour in Organisations
• Accounting and Finance for Business
• Marketing for Business Managers

You will also have the opportunity to take an option module that broadens your skills or helps you gain more in-depth knowledge of your specialist area. Your option module may be a foreign language.

Credit Level 4

You will investigate and learn how businesses operate, looking at how people are managed, how you manage business operations and how managers make key decisions. We analyse business operations from both traditional and digital perspectives: the business process; the supply chain; systems integration; and the management of information, quality, demand, capacity and resources. This covers aspects of electronic and mobile services, commerce and business; innovation and design in products and services; and developments in technology and systems. You will select three optional modules.

Subjects of study include:

• Supply Chain, Operations Management and Digital Business
• Leadership and Development
• Sustainable City Economies

You can also choose three options from: Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, Project Management, Web-enabled Business, Legal Aspects of Employment, Management Decision Making for Business, Sports Marketing, Corporate Governance or Entrepreneurial Practice. You will also have the opportunity to study a module from other faculties of the University, including a foreign language.

Alternatively, in place of the option modules listed above, you may be able to take the WBS Study Abroad Experience (subject to eligibility) or the WBS Work Experience.

Credit Level 5

Optional work placement/study abroad year

Between Years 2 and 3, you can take an optional work placement or study year abroad. The work placement year is a one-year full-time business work placement. Past students have completed placements in a variety of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and prestigious organisations, including Barclays Bank, British Airways, Disney UK, IBM and the National Health Service (NHS). The study abroad year allows you to follow a programme of study at one of our partner institutions, giving you an opportunity to experience life in another country and learn Business from a different cultural viewpoint.

You can also choose to split your year abroad into a first semester exchange and a second semester work placement, both conducted overseas.

Find out more about the costs involved in taking a study abroad or placement year.

Developing your specialist knowledge further through optional modules, you will learn to apply critical and reflective approaches to help explore the challenges facing organisations at a strategic level and from an organisational perspective, with a view of the broader competitive environment of today’s turbulent economy. In doing so, you will undertake research on a topic of your choice – anything from e-sport business development to environmental sustainability in business. Your studies culminate with the Global Strategic Management module, designed to simulate as closely as possible the nature of strategic decision-making in the management of a commercial organisation. You will analyse market, financial and human resource information on a weekly basis, making complex decisions.

Subjects of study include:

• Strategic Management
• Contemporary Issues in Business Management
• Developing My Professional Identity

In addition to studying the core modules above, you'll be able to select one track and one elective module (including a foreign language) OR one track and one option from another track.

Track: Finance and Accounting Options

• Global Accounting and Multinational Enterprises
• Banking Theory and Practice

Track: Global Business Options

• Comparative International Management
• Project and Programme Management

Track: Digital Business Options

• Digital Analytics
• Social Media for Business

Track: Marketing Options

• Global Marketing Management
• Interactive and Digital Marketing

Track: Economics Options

• International Trade
• Forecasting for Managers

Track: Entrepreneurship Options

• Social and Green Innovation
• Creating Entrepreneurial Leadership

Track: Sustainable Business Options

• Sustainable Supply Chain Management
• Social and Green Innovation

Credit Level 6