Master of Science in International Development Management

at University of Westminster - Marylebone Campus United Kingdom

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.

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.

In today’s fast-paced global business environment, strategic marketing influences every aspect of business, informing decisions about how to create and maintain consumer demand, increase profit, build reputation and stay ahead of the competition. Incorporating the latest digital and analytic marketing practices, our Master’s reflects the ever-changing nature of this exciting profession.

Internationalisation and digitisation have fundamentally shifted marketing contexts: types of businesses, products and services, channels and communication media, and consumer behaviour are changing rapidly. Businesses of all shapes and sizes – large or small, global or local, innovative or traditional, public or private – now compete for the same market. Marketing professionals can steer a company toward success through innovative product development, savvy pricing strategies, creative communications and timely market insight.

The aim of both the MA and MSc is to improve your managerial effectiveness in the increasingly digitised, automated and globalised field of marketing. It will deepen your understanding of the relationship between marketing and the wider organisation, as well as the organisation and its customers, enabling you to adopt a holistic forward-looking approach to marketing to achieve long-term sustainable competitive advantage.

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.

Digital transformation is one of the most important strategic challenges facing businesses. Creating new ways to connect, collaborate and conduct business, digital technologies have the power to transform the delivery of existing products and services and inspire new. By combining digital business with general management, our degree prepares you to guide businesses through digital evolution.

We offer an all-round business education, deepening your understanding of business essentials including accounting, business management, data analysis, marketing, HR and supply chain. At the same time, you’ll explore how to take advantage of technology and effectively manage business functions from both traditional and digital perspectives: the business process; the supply chain; systems integration; and the management of information, quality, demand, capacity and resources.

You’ll develop the skills and knowledge to analyse the role of digital business models based on disruptive technologies, digital and social media marketing, digital transformation and project management. We’ll look at current digital trends, emerging technologies and their implication for business practice, such as the importance of developing a holistic approach, including big data, blockchain and mobile computing.

Developing a mix of business and technical skills, you’ll gain hands-on experience of problem-solving within the digital business area, solving real-world business problems with 21st century technology. We’ll also look at best practice in existing digitally-powered and disruptive businesses like Uber and Amazon, with the opportunity to attend guest lecturers and field trips within the degree programme.

Taught by academics with professional experience, 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, professional presentation, team working, leadership, communication and problem solving.

There is a global shortage of digital skills, so the demand for graduates who possess them is high.

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. Students are prepared for problem-solving disciplines, such as digital analytics, web analytics, business analysis and consultancy.

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.

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.

Modern organisations increasingly rely on digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things, Big Data, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and data analytics, to improve their business processes and provide increased value to customers. However, integrating these new technologies into existing operations can prove complex and costly – it requires a unique skillset that combines business acumen and digital competence.

Open to graduates from any subject area, this course is ideal for aspiring digital business professionals who want to enhance their skills and career prospects by becoming business oriented, but with sufficient understanding of the latest technology to envisage, plan and manage digital initiatives successfully. It will prepare you to manage digital business challenges and lead at the forefront of digital transformation. 

This course develops your ability to initiate and implement advanced analysis and research in transport policy, planning and management. You will learn the techniques and methodologies you need to take decisions, or to provide the necessary information for others to take policy decisions. The MSc course has been running successfully for many years, and is offered by the Department of Planning and Transport. The course is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), and graduates are exempt from the Institute's exams. The Course also forms part of the pathway to the Transport Planning Professional (TPP) qualification.

The course will enable you to understand the causes and motivations of personal travel and goods movement; to analyse transport problems and develop, and implement policies and measures for resolving such problems; to evaluate transport projects, plans and policies, taking into account the need for stakeholder participation and recognising the political, social, health, environmental and economic issues involved.

The MSc course balances theoretical and practical applications in the three separate components: core modules, option modules and a research dissertation.

Incorporating the latest digital and analytic marketing practices, the broad curriculum of our Master’s degree reflects the rapidly changing global marketing environment. Whilst at Westminster, you can also secure two internationally-recognised professional qualifications – the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM) Certificate in Digital Marketing and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Global Foundation Certificate, as well as joining the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

Here at Westminster, we’ve been teaching postgraduate degrees in marketing communications for over 20 years. Our goal is to prepare you for professional life in the increasingly complex and dynamic marketing communications industry, incorporating the growing content of digital marketing and new innovations.