BA (Hons) Business Studies with Entrepreneurship with Foundation Year

Course detail
Building on our foundations, we have made innovative revisions to our curriculum and teaching methods. Our major difference from our competitors is the range and type of modules we offer in our core Business Management programme, along with our links with employers and industry.
Foundation year modules (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
Organisational Behaviour
Optional modules (choose one optional modules from the list below):
Managerial Finance
Organisational Behaviour
Business and Corporate Law
Year 3 (Level 6)
Strategic Management
Research Methods
Contemporary issues in Entrepreneurship
Managing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Final Project (Dissertation)
Optional modules (choose one optional modules from the list below):
Project Management
International Business
Consumer Behaviour
Employee Relations
Module summaries

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.

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.

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


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.

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.
Managing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) constitute the fastest growing sector of both the UK and European economies, a trend which is reflected globally. These organisations also now employ the majority of the UK workforce. SMEs however present a series of unique and specific management challenges which are addressed and critically evaluated in this module. The approach taken encompasses a range of business disciplines, and particularly examines the issues facing SMEs wishing to attract fresh investment capital.

The module investigates business development routes and methods for the entrepreneurial firm, and for organisations with an entrepreneurial culture. Paths to growth and methods of development are identified and appraised. The module also examines how a firm's structure, processes and values affect its capability to build sustainable growth and generate new business.

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):

Project Management
The Project Management module provides grounding in the key skills used by project managers in order to manage projects successfully.

There are many examples of projects ranging from large projects such as Heathrow Terminal 5 and the Channel Tunnel through to medium sized projects such as reorganising a factory or developing new computer software down to small projects such as a new marketing campaign or putting on a rock concert.

The module is not specific to any one industry but covers the basic principles of project management that apply in all industries and to projects of all sizes.
The teaching sessions combine lectures with group discussions to enable the concepts to be fully explored and understood. Individual practical exercises help consolidate the learning of specific Project Management skills. All sessions involve Tutor led class discussions.

You will be required to produce a plan for a project of their choice that is assessed. There will also be an examination at the end of the module.

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.
Consumer Behaviour
To enable students who have acquired an interest in consumer behaviour and marketing decision-making at Level 5 to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills in this area. The module will allow students to focus on buyer behaviour and its marketing applications for specific marketing decisions such as those concerned with products, distribution, pricing and promotion.

Most business organisations have a goal of making profits for their owners; marketers seek to help them 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 show how an understanding of buyer behaviour ie: 'what makes customers tick' can help marketers focus more effectively on customers’ needs and wants.

Employee Relations
The module investigates the factors that lead to regulation of employment relationships. It evaluates the role and contribution the parties make in constructing, implementing rules and procedures designed to promote order, fairness and efficiency in organisations and the wider society.