BA (Hons) International Business Management with Foundation Year

Course detail
Modules

Foundation year (Level 3)
Introduction to Business
Recording of Business Transactions
Personalised Learning
Data Handling and ICT
Managing People and Systems
Academic Performance.
Year 1 (Level 4)
Professional Skills for Business and Finance
Introduction to Human Resource Management (HRM)
Researching Business Data
Business Accounting
Principles of Marketing
Information, Communications and Technology (ICT)
Year 2 (Level 5)
Business Economics
Enterprise and Business Development
Managing Business Operations
Enterprise and Social Responsibility
Cross Cultural Management
Optional modules (choose one optional modules from the list below):
Organisational Behaviour
Managerial Finance
Marketing and Brand Management
Business and Corporate Law
Year 3 (Level 6)
Strategic Management
Research Methods
International Business
International Business Finance
Final Project (Dissertation)
Optional modules (choose one optional modules from the list below):
Global Marketing
Human Resource Management Issues
Financial Management
Contemporary issues in Entrepreneurship
Module summaries

Foundation year (Level 3)

Introduction to Business
This module will give you a basic knowledge and understanding of business organisations and the way they operate in the UK economy.
Recording of Business Transactions
The module is about the methods of book-keeping and financial accounting used by organisations to record their financial transactions.
Data Handling and ICT
The module gives you a basic but solid introduction to the use of mathematical and statistical techniques in solving business problems. It will also train you in the use of IT programming.
Managing People and Systems
This is a management module that explores business structures and how they lead to the fulfilment of business goals.

Year 1 (Level 4)

Professional Skills for Business and Finance
The material covered in this Module will help you to become more critical, evaluative, self-aware, self-confident, skilled and capable in the use of information and resources. These are essential skills required for effective research and study in Higher Education. It will also help you to improve your ability to make sense of new information and improve your skills in questioning, data-gathering, reasoning, drawing valid conclusions and spotting bad arguments.

As with any other module on our degree course there will be regular participation and contact with your community of peers, contact sessions, active participation in class discussions, regular visits to the Blackboard site for Module information guidance and support and completion of homework assignments for each weekly session.
Introduction to Human Resource Management (HRM)
The module is designed to provide you with an introductory knowledge of Human Resource Management and the approaches that can be taken to the management of human resources in a variety of business settings. This will be achieved by discussing the nature of human resource management. Functional aspects of managing people are selected to illustrate how contextual factors influence managerial behaviour. The major contexts considered are economic, legal and technical.

Researching Business Data
This module deals with the collection, analysis and interpretation of business data. One of the requirements of an effective manager is the ability to handle numerical information. The aim of the module is to help you make sense of numbers in order to arrive at meaningful conclusions and make informed decisions.

You will be provided with a range of research and analytical methods for:
gathering primary and published data
summarising data
measuring change and
measuring association.
Business Accounting
Business Accounting consists of two broad basic areas – Financial Accounting and Management Accounting.

Financial Accounting is concerned with recording the day to day activities of a business and producing periodic summaries. The module will involve producing final accounts for an organisation and interpreting them.

Management Accounting is concerned with the supply of accounting information to internal management thereby enabling management to plan and control its future business activities. At this foundation stage the module will involve areas such as cost classification, break even analysis and preparing cash budgets.

Principles of Marketing
This module introduces you to the environment in which marketing operates and to marketing as both a business philosophy and a set of operational tools.

Most business organisations have a goal of making profits for their owners; marketers seek to help them to do this. Marketers believe the route to organisational success is through keeping customers happy and doing this more effectively than the competition. The module aims to introduce you to this idea and show how marketers can do this by:
designing and making products which customers want
informing customers of the products' benefits
selling the products in a convenient location
Offering the products at a price which customers are prepared to pay and enable the organisation to fulfil its profit objectives.
Information, Communications and Technology (ICT)
Information is a valuable asset for any business and if collected, organised and used in an efficient manner, it can give a business a competitive advantage. This module introduces information systems and technology which can assist businesses to achieve this. It also provides the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge in software applications commonly used in office environments.

Year 2 (Level 5)

Business Economics
This module enables you to develop an understanding and awareness of the environment in which business operates, particularly from the economic perspective and develop the ability to use a range of skills to diagnose and solve problems.

Enterprise and Business Development
This module provides an introduction to entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and the enterprise culture both in the UK and in an international context. It defines and develops the personal and professional skills and abilities required for success in new venture creation through the development of a detailed business proposal with supporting operational and financial planning for a business start-up.

The module develops analytical, planning, and presentation skills relating to personal and business development as follow:
You will identify and analyse potential opportunities for enterprise and innovation.
You will apply concepts drawn from different business disciplines to develop a cohesive Business Plan. This will extend your commercial awareness and deepen your understanding of the concepts underpinning business theory.
You will be introduced to the key features of work and Career Planning and Management.
Managing Business Operations
Every product or service you buy will probably have been created as a result of business operations. Managing Business Operations is about managing the processes that produce or deliver goods and services.

This involves issues such as designing processes, making decisions about location, layout and capacity management, managing the supply chain, and managing quality. The emphasis will be on practical examples and case studies with assessments in groups and/or individually in the form of presentation of research findings and a written final exam.

Enterprise and Social Responsibility
This module critically examines current debates addressing the nature of the enterprise and its role in society. The implications of creating and sustaining an 'enterprise culture' are identified and examined, and diverse approaches to entrepreneurship appraised.

Society relies on entrepreneurship for wealth creation but at the same time increasingly expects the entrepreneurial venture to be accountable for its actions the implications of this trend are examined for both the individual and the different forms of organisation.

Contemporary concerns relating to the need for effective corporate citizenship and governance structures are addressed and discussed, together with the causes of emerging calls for improved corporate accountability. These issues are examined in the specific context of the nature and purpose of wealth creation, and the contemporary environment created by an enterprise culture and the enterprise economy.

Cross Cultural Management
In this module, you develop understanding of current theories relating to cross-cultural management, the ability to apply such understanding in the context of multicultural project work, and self-awareness relating to your own cultural values and assumptions. In particular, you study concepts relating to culture, to intercultural communication and to multicultural team management.

These concepts include cultural dimensions and related applications and criticism, as well as overarching issues such as prejudice, stereotyping and mindfulness, and developing and sustaining cohesion in multicultural contexts. Working in teams, you investigate relevant concepts and related controversy, as documented in the literature, and prepare a poster presentation. In addition, working individually, you will reflect on the group work experience and produce a report in which you analyse and evaluate the learning experience, drawing on the theory studied during the module to facilitate your analysis.

Optional modules (choose one optional modules from the list below):

Organisational Behaviour
This module provides you with critical knowledge on how organisations work and how individuals and groups impact on organisational success or failure. It explores the emerging workplace realities of self-leadership, networks, knowledge management, and virtual teams, organisational learning and working within culturally diverse work-place communities.

Theory will be linked to reality through analysis of students’ own experiences using specific sectorial issues such as employee motivation and retention, performance enhancement, intra and interpersonal development and developing effective teams and groups.

Marketing and Brand Management
This module builds on the knowledge and skills learned in the Level 4, Principles of Marketing module and focuses on managing products, promotion, price and distribution. The emphasis is on management at the operational level and deals with the type of decision making experienced by marketing and brand managers. The module stresses application of knowledge and understanding through the extensive use of mini case study materials mainly in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) markets.

Managerial Finance
This module will provide an insight into the workings of Management Accounting and Finance.

It starts by looking at the basic principles of arriving at a cost of a product and then goes onto looking at the various management accounting techniques as well as sources of finance and investment appraisal techniques which will be useful to a manager working in business.

Business and Corporate Law
In the area of Business Law this module examines the essential requirements of a valid contract: the distinction between offer and invitation to treat; acceptance, consideration, discharge through frustration and remedies for breach of contract.
In the area of Corporate Law this module will examine the consequence of incorporation, the company’s constitution, raising of finance and management of a company limited by shares.

Year 3 (Level 6)

Strategic Management
The purpose of the module is to build on the concepts and approaches to business policy developed at Level 5. The integrated nature of strategic management decisions will be emphasised and case studies will be used to show how strategic management applies to a range of business and not-for-profit organisations.

The emphasis will be on strategic options, evaluation and choice and on the implementation issues in strategy. You will be encouraged to develop analytical skills, creative thinking and ability to present conclusions based on critical evaluation of information.

Research Methods
This module aims to provide you with the knowledge and skills that are required to carry out a piece of research on a topic that you have chosen, where you decide (with some guidance) on the methodology and approach. In so doing you will take significant strides on the path to becoming an independent learner, and feel able to tackle other research tasks, with minimal supervision.

You will also discuss and evaluate a range of research methods and approaches. The research proposal that you submit at the end of this module will form the starting point of your final year project–see Final Project (dissertation) at Level 6.

International Business
This module critically examines the major issues faced by companies engaged in identifying and developing their overseas operations. The study of International Business straddles a variety of different disciplines, and this module deals with the problems of international operations from the perspective of economics and politics as well as the functional disciplines of finance, marketing, human resource management and operations management. Most importantly, it seeks to show how the international economic and political environment serves to act as a very powerful influence over how company policies are set.

International Business Finance
The module explains and discusses the function and purpose of financial markets and corporate finance with a focus on the international environment. The following areas are explored: capital markets, sources of funds and market efficiency; business valuations and mergers and acquisitions; the management of risk in particular foreign currency and interest rate risk; International investment; The theoretical arguments and models relating to risk and return are examined.

Final Project (Dissertation)
This module at level 6 is designed to further prepare you for the working environment you will be entering on completion of your course (or are currently in), where you will be expected to apply the academic knowledge you have gained to practical situations/problem solving in the workplace. The Final Project, whist challenging, will give you the opportunity to investigate and work on an issue/problem in a way that might be expected of you in the workplace.

This will necessitate the application of knowledge and a variety of skills you have learnt throughout the courses, applying theory to practice within a business context, thus offering another dimension to your learning experience and expectation. The projects will offer concrete evidence of your research with outside organisations, and also an opportunity to work with experienced people and no doubt an addition to your CV.

Optional modules (choose one optional modules from the list below):

Global Marketing
This module adopts a strategic approach to the study of Marketing and Communication in a Global context. The module builds upon the knowledge gained in the level one and two Marketing modules or equivalent and applies these to the Global marketing arena, but with a greater focus on the strategic perspective.

It builds an understanding of the Global trading environment, differences in buyer/consumer behaviour and how Global marketing analysis, strategies, and courses can be developed, organised and implemented.

Human Resource Management Issues
This module builds upon the learning outcomes achieved in Intro to HRM and Organisation Behaviour. The module aims to provide a platform for you to investigate current issues influencing the allocation and effectiveness of people in employment. It will focus on giving you the opportunity of exploring the multidisciplinary nature, complexity of constructing strategies and policies in Human Resource matters.

Financial Management
This module explains and discusses the function and purpose of Corporate Financial Management. Sources of short term finance and policies with regard to working capital are considered. Ways of managing specific categories of working capital such as stock and debtors are explored and investment appraisal and decision making is developed to cover more complex situations including dealing with uncertainty.

Calculation of cost of capital and consideration of when this is an appropriate measure to use in decision making leads on to the capital structure debate and gearing and other ratios used to interpret the financial position of the company. Finally how much of the company’s earning to distribute to shareholders via dividends is investigated.

Contemporary Issues in Entrepreneurship
The purpose of this learning guide is to introduce you to the aims and objectives, the content and the learning resources for this module. It is also intended to help you to decide what you need to do to get the most out of this module and to fulfil the assessment requirements.

Entrepreneurship is a diverse academic discipline and its development stems from a wide range of traditions and schools of thought such as sociology, anthropology, economics, management sciences, and many more. This module will critically explore entrepreneurship in an international context with a focus on key models and concepts, which are relevant to the development of contemporary issues.