Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Business Management (Human Resource Management)

at University of Westminster - Marylebone Campus United Kingdom

Interior architecture is a distinct and separate discipline to architecture. Its specific focus is the creation of innovative and exciting interior spaces, primarily through the adaptation and spatial manipulation of existing buildings.

The course is concerned not just with physical intervention but also with how space is understood and occupied. The course implicitly embeds issues of sustainability, through its concern with reuse, and refurbishment, as well as the critical ability to respond appropriately to a given context.

It is interdisciplinary in its outlook and acknowledges the importance of other closely related areas, including interior design, exhibition design, set and lighting design, retail and product design, interior conservation as well as multidisciplinary and traditional design practice.

The Interior Architecture BA course is designed to equip you with the practical skills and theoretical knowledge required to pursue a career in interior architecture and design-related fields and/or go on to further awards in tertiary education, most typically a Master's qualification.

The design modules promote creativity, aesthetic sensibility and intellectual enquiry, together with the skills needed to work individually and in groups in developing design proposals.

The work produced in the design studios forms the basis of your design portfolio through which you will prepare for practice/employment, or in support of your application for postgraduate study. Technical skills, cultural context, design management and economics, and the commercial aspect of interiors necessary for practice are integrated with design projects.

Top reasons to study with us

• State-of-the-art facilities, including designated studio spaces open 7 days a week at our Marylebone Campus, creating a vibrant academic and creative studio culture. Our fully staffed workshops are equipped with CNC, laser-cutting and rapid prototyping equipment.
• Extracurricular projects – you'll have opportunities to work on live projects with real clients, live competitions and exhibitions beyond the classroom. Recent collaborators have included the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Freud Museum London and Battersea Arts Centre.
• Extracurricular workshops – previous workshops have included a steam-bending workshop with Samuli Naamanka Design Finland, a papercrete workshop with Aberrant Architecture, an art depot workshop and a workshop with local schoolchildren working with Disabled Artists Making Dis/Ordinary Space.
• Expert speakers and workshop leaders to help you develop niche, in-demand skills. Previous workshop leaders have included a lighting designer, a production designer, a motion graphics designer and a filmmaker.
• An International outlook – previous opportunities have included a five-day field trip to a European destination for all third years, a semester-long exchange to Australia, China and Oslo for second years, and one-off travel opportunities such as visiting the VOLA factory in Denmark or a design workshop run with students from the Pratt Institute in New York.

Our design-led Architectural Technology BSc will give you the skills you need to launch your career in design and development. 

From architectural composition and technical analysis to the business and management skills you'll need for contract procurement, we'll teach you how to apply technical decision-making to real-life design challenges.

Learning in our dedicated Architectural Technology studio and working on real design briefs, you’ll develop a sound understanding of the processes of design and construction and the management tools, particularly CAD, for communicating design information.

You'll gain an understanding of the multidisciplinary and collaborative nature of the modern construction industry, and will have the chance to work alongside students from all construction courses in Year 1.

Studying the Architectural Technology BSc will give you the framework to practise privately, or — on successful MCIAT chartership — run a business in the architectural and construction industries. 

All of our courses are delivered using an enquiry-based blended learning approach involving workshops, lectures, tutorials and independent study. We assess your learning through a variety of methods including project work, essays and exams.

Marketing lies at the heart of every successful business. By engaging with and understanding the customer’s needs, marketing managers influence the development of products and services, providing advice on the best point of sale and recommending the most competitive price. They identify and make sure the target market knows what’s on offer – in increasingly more creative and dynamic ways.

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 apply for exemptions from modules on its professional qualifications, while you can gain IDM’s Award in Digital Marketing during the Digital Marketing Essentials module.

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)
• Digital Marketing Essentials module incorporates a professional Award in Digital Marketing from the IDM
• 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: one of our students chose to learn Japanese and spent a year studying at Waseda University and working as an intern at SMEJapan in Tokyo
• 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 the use of Google Analytics, and speakers from 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

The growth in global construction is fuelling the demand for professional quantity surveyors and construction commercial managers who can take a holistic view of construction projects – overseeing costs, contractual and procurement matters – from inception to completion. Our project-based approach to learning exposes you to live and past construction projects from the outset, preparing you to accurately predict and control project costs.

This professionally focused degree will prepare you to confidently and effectively manage the commercial aspects of building and civil engineering projects across the property and construction industries. Whether you’re already working in construction or looking to enter the industry, you can start your journey to becoming a certified quantity surveyor or commercial manager.

Fully accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE), it will equip you with the professional and technical skills to ensure projects are delivered on time, to the required quality and within budget. This involves early cost planning, procurement evaluation, tendering, estimating, contractual routes, project cost control and commercial management.

Our central London location and numerous industry contacts, which include Great Portland Estates, Mace, Lendlease, The Portman Estate, Wilmott Dixon, Multiplex, Transport for London and The Crown Estate, enable us to invite practising professionals to give guest lectures and regularly contribute to the course. They provide buildings as case studies for coursework, learning materials (drawings, reports, clients briefs etc.) and come into the University to give face-to-face formative feedback on students’ work. We aim to create authentic learning activities to ensure you are business-ready for employment or can further progress in your existing careers.

Our construction courses share a common ‘Level 4’; the first year of the full-time course or the first two years if studying part-time. Shared core modules allow you to gain knowledge of the different professional roles and the interdisciplinary nature of the modern construction industry. At the end of the Level 4, you’ll be better placed to choose the course-specific modules in later years of study that emphasise the knowledge and skills for your chosen profession. It also means that, should your interests change, you can switch course.

Are you ready to unlock your potential to create, innovate and bring business ideas to life? This exciting degree is designed to equip you with the skills, knowledge, ability and commercial insight to take concepts from inception to implementation, turning ideas into new products or services in today’s fast-paced world of business.

What better way to develop your entrepreneurial skills than to learn from the people who’ve done it successfully – from the likes of Dragons Den’s Levi Roots or Founder/Chairman of State of Flux Alan Day, to name just two of our key supporters. They and others regularly contribute to the programme through guest lectures or real projects, which have previously included creating a business concept using market intelligence from Mintel and devising a strategy to expand the customer base software for State of Flux, a global procurement and supply chain consultancy.

You’ll be taught by staff who have established or run their own businesses, and bring professional experience in marketing, IT, retail, project management, talent development, leadership and management. They have worked in various roles for Cable and Wireless, Coca-Cola, Capital Be, the NHS, Pendragon (subsidiary of Jaguar Cars), Visa International and IBM, to name just a few.

Course content is designed to provide you with an understanding of the theories and practices of entrepreneurship; the factors that influence success or failure from the role of the market to creativity, innovation and knowledge.

In addition, you’ll gain a broad-based understanding of business management and essential knowledge of accounting, risk management, data analysis, marketing, HR, supply chain and business ethics. This will prepare you to take the lead on product and business development either in your own business or for existing small, medium or large employers all over the world.

Our graduates have gone on to work as transformation analysts, business growth strategists and managing directors, while others are responsible for establishing a range of highly successful businesses, including Serena Sartorial, which provides bespoke Italian fashion. Some, like Andreas Tassitro for example, have gone on to become serial entrepreneurs. Founder and the first President of the University’s Entrepreneurial Society, Andreas started the Green Van Company in Switzerland whilst studying and is now Founder and CEO at Foodetective.

Project management, as a profession, has undergone rapid transformation in the last 20 years. The ever-growing consumer demand for complex, customised goods and services and the evolution of worldwide competitive markets for their production and distribution have increased the need for agile project managers who understand organisational issues, human behaviour and have the skills to organise the delivery of such products.

Accredited by both the Association of Project Management (APM) and the Project Management Institute (PMI), our Master’s degree recognises that in today’s competitive business environment effective project management is integral to success in all sorts of industries and sectors.

Skills in planning, benefits management, quality management, risk control and communication are essential to the smooth running of projects ranging from large-scale operational changes in multinationals to the running of hospitals and universities, government policies, engineering projects or one-off launches by fashion houses, advertising agencies and film productions.

Sound and ethical financial management lies at the heart of every successful business: to generate sufficient income, optimise resources, reduce risk and gain a good return on investments. On this course, you’ll learn to strategically plan, organise, direct and control finances in a rapidly evolving global financial sector.

Our Finance and Business Management degree has been purposefully designed to meet the educational requirements of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI). Although exemptions are not available, our Course will provide you with the necessary set of skills to sit several professional exams.

With an emphasis on learning through practice, it provides a solid foundation of finance theories, systems and procedures, developing your skills for complex modelling and analysis. Gaining a greater appreciation of strategic financial decision-making with a specific focus on ethics and sustainability, you’ll be prepared for a fast track and rewarding career in the international financial services sector or in management.

You will learn to analyse financial markets to forecast financial performance, using real data – live and historic – in our Finance Markets Suite (FMS) with its replica trading floor. You’ll also hear directly from current professionals through guest speakers, field trips to financial institutions and professional training sessions.

Business School graduates have gone on to work for large banks and other financial institutions, including Vanguard, Standard Chartered, Citibank, Société Générale and Paribas, and governmental agencies, such as the World Economic Forum.

The Architecture MA offers a unique opportunity for graduates interested in the intersection of architectural design, theory and research, encouraging students to develop their own positions and identities as creative practitioners and thinkers. A range of thematic and contextual concerns are offered and explored through the course using unconventional and imaginative methods of design, research and representation. These include cultural identity, architecture and society, political architecture, contested landscapes and digital design. These diverse fields of inquiry and their impact on our cities are underpinned by integrating ‘other’ voices such as post-colonialism, critical theory, feminist theory and race studies. The course promotes methodological and representational innovation, with participants using techniques such as social mapping, interactive installations, film and conceptual modelling to stimulate projects towards high-levels of spatial, material and formal resolution.

The global environmental and energy challenge facing current and future generations of architects and building professionals calls for a deeper understanding of the principles of environmental design, and their effective application into architectural practice worldwide. Over the last decades Environmental Design as a subject area has developed, responding to new research and experimentation, both in academia and in practice. However, buildings claiming to be environmentally conscious do not perform to the expected standards, still heavily contributing to global CO2 emissions and often providing unsatisfactory comfort conditions to occupants. The same can be said for the existing built environment which is largely outdated and underperforming, requiring urgent implementation of effective retrofit strategies not only to improve energy performance, but also comfort, health and wellbeing. This is due to a lack of comprehensive performance prediction and feedback protocols, which are still not common practice in architectural design.

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.