Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Business Management (Digital Business) with Placement Year

at University of Westminster - Marylebone Campus United Kingdom

Attitudes to money management have changed since the credit crisis, the emphasis now is on understanding enterprise and broader risks, and managing these appropriately. With its practical focus, our MSc responds to the increased global demand for talent in both investment and risk management. You’ll develop a strong sense of market awareness from weekly updates on current market conditions drawn from the same commercial research used by several investment banks and hedge funds.

The course provides a thorough theoretical and practical grounding in the key aspects of investment and risk finance, developing sound analytical, numerical and technological skills. Suitable for experienced financial management practitioners who wish to advance their knowledge and those seeking front or middle office careers, the highly practical nature of the course, together with the unique access to professional insight and input, are key strengths.

Financial economics is all about managing financial assets such as trade and share prices, interest rates and exchange rates. You’ll not only be introduced to financial economics, but also gain a solid foundation in general economic concepts, principles, analysis, techniques and knowledge.

Learning how to predict and advise on the impact of economic, social and public policy issues on monetary activities, you’ll develop your analytical and decision-making abilities, expanding your skills in data gathering, handling and interpretation, quantitative analysis and forecasting.

In our state-of-the-art Bloomberg virtual trading room, you will use industry-standard software, including Bloomberg, SAGE, FAME, Excel and other statistical packages, to analyse data, build models and produce forecasts. You will also develop key soft skills such as communicating complex economic ideas to a non-expert, presentation skills and teamwork.

We enjoy strong links with employers, including the Government Economic Service and Society of Professional Economists, which was relaunched here at Westminster Business School in 2018. Membership of the Society is offered to all final-year economic students and there are opportunities to attend their monthly meetings, conferences and continuous professional development courses.

Internationalisation and evolution of markets have created opportunities for companies to focus on marketing from a global perspective. On our degree, you’ll explore the complexity and diversity facing marketers in the highly competitive and continually evolving world marketplace, incorporating the latest marketing strategy, tools and techniques.

You can also boost your employability by gaining additional qualifications with the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM) and/or the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). Our status as a CIM Graduate Gateway institution entitles you to apply for exemptions from modules on its professional qualifications, while you can gain IDM’s Award in Digital Marketing during the Digital Essentials of Marketing module.

Since our marketing degrees share a common first year, you get to experience all the main areas in marketing whilst retaining the flexibility to change course at the start of your second year.

Focusing on marketing within an international context, you will gain awareness of the global, cultural, social, economic and ethical professional environment within which marketers now operate, and the connections with other functional business areas needed for overall corporate success.

Top reasons to study with us

• Professionally focused course with chance to gain additional professional qualifications from the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
• Marketing degrees share a common first year, giving greater flexibility when choosing your specialism
• Option to spend one semester or one year studying abroad at one of our partner institutions, gain valuable work experience, or a combination of both. For example, one previous student worked as a marketing executive for ICG Medical
• Opportunity to study a foreign language as an optional module in each year of study
• Hear from experts and mingle with marketing students by joining the student-run Westminster Marketing Society or gain professional experience working for Westminster Business Consultants
• Guest lectures from industry practitioners have previously included speakers on Google analytics and from organisations such as IBM, Tableau, Coca Cola and LinkedIn
• Programmes are delivered by a multicultural and international teaching body, who come from professional practice and/or regularly publish in top international journals

Economists tackle anything from interpreting and forecasting market trends or individual business performance by country, region or market, to advising businesses, governments and individuals on everyday and strategic decisions. These can encompass areas as diverse as international trade, profit maximisation, pricing decisions, forecasting revenues or consumer demand, to managing the national health service, tackling unemployment or inequality.

You’ll learn to analyse and predict the impact of economic, social and public policy issues on a variety of stakeholders, including consumers, investors, businesses, and how to source and provide the most appropriate insight to inform future decision-making and strategy.

As the role of data in informing decision-making grows, this degree expands your crucial skills in data gathering, handling and interpretation, quantitative analysis and forecasting. You will use industry-standard software, including SPSS, Excel,Eviews, Minitab and other statistical packages, to analyse data, build models and produce forecasts. You will also develop key soft skills such as communicating complex economic ideas to a non-expert, a logical approach to formulating and solving problems, presentation skills and teamwork.

Tourism is one of the world’s largest and most dynamic sectors and is forecast to continue growing during this century. The sector needs entrepreneurial professionals who can contribute to, lead or create successful businesses that will support sustainable tourism in challenging global circumstances. This long-established course gives you the knowledge, analytical skills and life-changing experiences to make a successful career as a tourism professional.

Our Tourism with Business BA offers an interdisciplinary approach, combining expertise in business along with an in-depth understanding of tourism’s influence and how it can be harnessed to create a positive legacy. You will learn how destinations, visitor attractions, transport and accommodation are planned, marketed and managed, along with key business issues such as finance and accounting, managing and leading people, global strategic management, and sustainability.

We enjoy a fantastic location in the heart of London, one of the world’s leading tourism destinations. Your studies will include regular site visits to major tourism suppliers such as hotel companies, transport operators and attractions for behind-the-scenes tours, visits to major tourism events, and talks from experienced tourism professionals. We invite tourism practitioners into the classroom and our students liaise with our industry partners on projects.

Our graduates are entrepreneurial and globally engaged and we encourage you to participate in the international opportunities we offer. You will develop a range of important transferable skills that are sought by employers and that are crucial to business success – the ability to think critically and creatively, to communicate effectively in writing and in person, and to be socially, ethically and environmentally aware. Many of our graduates develop careers in global tourism organisations including online travel agencies, tour operators, hotel companies, and visitor attractions. Others work for smaller more specialised tourism businesses and some set up their own businesses.

You can choose to take part in an optional year-long work placement module, which will enable you to experience a year in industry. The tourism placement year will help you develop employability and transferable skills through increased commercial awareness and professionalism. 

Our tourism teaching team are well known for their research and publications. They present at international conferences and have published academic texts used at universities around the world.

We welcome applications from dynamic, committed and self-motivated individuals who are passionate about travel, tourism and business, and who want to contribute to tourism’s future as a force for a sustainable world.

Whether caused by politics, environmental issues or world health crises, the global economy is ever changing and of growing concern to businesses. Monitoring and predicting the impact of economics on business is now a top priority, raising the demand for graduates who understand how markets work and how local and international issues can affect competition and performance.

Combining the study of economics with general business management, this degree is designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge to analyse individual company and industry performance within the context of global economics. Using live and historical data in our state-of-the-art Financial Markets Suite (FMS), you’ll apply economic theory and practice to real-world businesses, learning how to plan, evaluate economic trends and become better placed to help firms make effective business decisions. 

To help you support future business and management decisions, we’ll examine how and why businesses emerge, exist and expand – studying their global environment, relationship and interactions with employees, providers of capital, customers, competitors, government and other regulatory bodies. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of the economic, qualitative and quantitative techniques and ideas used to analyse and solve business problems in a global marketplace. 

Taught by academics with substantial business experience across the range of business disciplines, through consultancy or knowledge exchange, there is an emphasis on learning through practice, so you graduate with the breadth of knowledge and capabilities to respond proactively and creatively to contemporary business issues and challenges. Throughout the course, you’ll also develop a range of transferrable skills highly prized by employers, such as critical evaluation, self-direction and problem-solving, as well as a sound grasp of analysis, presentations and negotiation techniques.

You’ll be capable of holding positions of significant responsibility and authority in public companies, private businesses and government agencies. Past Business Management graduates have found successful employment as management, marketing and advertising trainees, as trainee accountants and brand managers, recruitment consultants, retail managers and as assistants in market research, PR and global branding.

Looking for a business management degree with a difference? The opportunity to work in sports management is a dream for anyone with a passion for sport, but you don’t have to be a sports fanatic to take this degree. One of the most exciting industries, sport and leisure in the UK alone employs 580,000 people. In 2019, more than a third of those employed in the field of sport in the EU-27 was aged between 15-29.

Developed in partnership with some of London’s leading sports clubs, agencies and governing bodies, including Queens Park Rangers and the MCC at Lords, our BA includes practical, professional work experience with a sports club or agency to get you work-ready.

Whether you go on to work as a marketing manager for a Premiership club, a sports analyst, sponsorship executive or diversity advisor, the career pathways are varied and rewarding.

Our degree provides an innovative, industry-focused programme that develops your knowledge of contemporary business management within the context of the wider sports industry. You will gain an in-depth knowledge of how the industry works. You will also learn to appreciate the internal and external challenges facing sports organisations, such as sustainability, diversity, and the impact of new technologies on sports marketing, management and customer engagement.

Specialist optional modules allow you to tailor your studies to match your interests. They include marketing and management, entrepreneurial enterprise, event management, sustainability, and social media innovation.

Where better to study than a centre of sports excellence? With 12 professional football teams, two premiership rugby team, and two country cricket sides, London is home to iconic sporting venues such as Wembley Stadium, Twickenham, Lord’s Cricket Ground and the Olympic Park in East London.

Career-focused, our degree incorporates general business management as well as the tools, techniques and specialist knowledge to manage human resources (HR) effectively. You will put theory into practice coaching other students, designing assessments, conducting interviews and more. This provides valuable experience and a genuine appreciation of how HR fits within the broader business landscape, preparing you to make a positive impact for your employer from the get-go.

How an organisation manages its people has a direct impact on both their mindset and productivity, making HR Management (HRM) a core function in every business. This course will equip you with the breadth of knowledge, skills and capabilities to develop positive working cultures and respond proactively and creatively to contemporary business issues and challenges, such as change management.

Our emphasis is very much on experiential learning. You will be taught by staff who are or have been HR professionals, bringing their real-life case work into the classroom, showing you how the HR theories, tools and techniques you are learning can be put into practice. You will also hear direct from industry practitioners, such as experienced HR Directors, Heads of HR and HR Consultants. Where possible, we also take you on field trips to see HR strategy in action at a range of different organisations.

Your learning is fully informed by current professional practice and you will be encouraged to act as an HR professional from day one. We will introduce contemporary tools and techniques and give you the chance to gain the practical experience you would in work – sometimes several years into a career – while you study. For example, you will experiment with psychometric tests such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator, participate in mock disciplinary hearings, interview panels, act as a mentor and receive mentoring yourself. In doing so, you also develop valuable transferable skills, such as communicating effectively, team-working and problem-solving skills, thereby enhancing your employability.

Past graduates have found successful employment as an HR advisor, HR operations assistant, career consultant, professional development and training advisor and employee service advisor. They work for major employers including Accenture, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Trainline, The Body Shop, Waitrose, the Metropolitan Police and the NHS.

This academic course is carefully designed for students to explore how an accounting and reporting education, as well as advanced study of accounting, will equip you for exciting careers in the business and finance sectors.  

Practical in focus, fully accredited and professionally oriented, our MSc in Finance and Accounting will equip you with the high-level skills, knowledge and expertise to advance your career as a qualified chartered accountant or as a specialist in a corporate services role.  

Course content has been designed to equip you with the technical, professional, analytical and ethical skills required for a successful global accounting career. Using Bloomberg data available in our state-of-the-art Financial Markets Suite (FMS), you’ll evaluate real-world scenarios, enhance your critical thinking, learn to explain the impacts of financial transactions and how to make the most appropriate accounting decisions. In doing so, you’ll gain a detailed knowledge of analytical techniques associated with accounting research, together with the key principles and practices in taxation, financial management and corporate valuation, managerial accounting and financial accounting.

Case studies, research and finance skills workshops, projects and guest lectures, from current practitioners and CEOs from multinationals, will help you appreciate how these principles are applied by professionals working in accountancy, analytical or research environments, better preparing you for the business and finance world that awaits. We’ll consider contemporary issues in financial reporting, management accounting, auditing and governance, such as fair value accounting, auditors’ independence, corporate valuation and risk management.

Do you have the ideas, imagination and creativity to spot market opportunities, predict the next big thing and develop engaging communications that cut across the thousands of marketing messages that bombard us 24/7? As advancements in technology generate new marketing channels and trends, businesses are increasingly turning to marketing experts for answers, which is why you’ll find marketing and advertising on almost every list of the fastest growing industries worldwide.

Long gone are the days when traditional marketing was dominated by sales and advertising linked to traditional print and broadcast media. Today’s modern marketing relies on market research and consumer insights, databases and information systems, digital communications, advanced geo-demographic segmentation and a deep understanding of buyer psychology and behaviour. That’s why you’ll find all this and more on our exciting degree, which is continually reviewed to keep up with the fast pace of change in this field.

You’ll cover every aspect of marketing, from costing campaigns and managing marketing budgets to creating a new business, generating market intelligence or developing a new product development strategy. Acknowledging the importance of digital techniques and social media marketing, you’ll have access to our new digital marketing lab, Switch 23, which is set up to mimic a creative agency. It features a large touch screen and individual workstations that students can connect to, using laptops and mobile phones to present their campaigns.

You’ll also relate your learning to real-world marketing practice during a range of exciting field trips and project-based work. Past students have studied tourism marketing in Paris, the most popular city in France, while closer to home, others were tasked with creating a marketing campaign to promote the Tower of London. Expect to be given tasks based on real-life projects, such as developing the marketing plan to launch a small, independent hotel, as an example.

Past graduates within the Business School have found successful employment as management, marketing and advertising trainees, as trainee accountants and brand managers, recruitment consultants, retail managers and as assistants in market research, PR and global brand.

Our course was designed with input from a range of industry professionals from industry sectors including– retail, public relations, marketing, pharmaceuticals, government and the NHS.