BSc (Hons) Business Management (2 Year Fast Track)

Graduates follow careers in a wide range of sectors including investment and finance, technology, health, utilities, manufacturing, media, and in management roles including: human resources, marketing, operations, supply chain and procurement, and project management.

All organisations need managers

Studying Business Management at Plymouth will stand you in good stead no matter what career path you follow. Our students graduate ready to face business challenges in all sorts of settings – from retail to finance and cross all public and private sectors.

Find out where BSc (Hons) Business Management at Plymouth could lead you.

Advice from graduate Christopher Cleves

"Read around the subject you’re studying as widely as you can, watch the news and make as much use as you can of all the employability and skills development facilities at the University. What’s being reported in mainstream media can seem a little far away when you’re studying but coming to interview with a good knowledge of current affairs can help to bridge the gap between university and full-time work."

Read more from Christopher in his case study.

Career opportunities

Where could your business degree take you?

• Demonstrate your commitment and ability to work hard, consistently and manage your time to meet deadlines by choosing to take the fast-track route to an honours degree.
• Benefit from reduced costs – you have a year less in terms of fees and outlay for accommodation and living expenses.
• Choose to specialise in your preferred area of interest during your final year and graduate with a named degree in Business Management with: Marketing, Leadership and Human Resource Management, Leadership Practice or International Management.
• Embedded in our programmes is the opportunity to apply your learning to real word scenarios through live consultancy projects with local, national and international businesses.
• Join the Devon Junior Chamber and receive training and professional mentoring.
• Boost your employability with paid, real-world experience during an optional work placement year.
• Learn within a supportive environment where you’ll be mentored by a community of experienced academics.
  

• Year 1
• Gain a solid understanding of management in a business and enterprise context, focusing on areas such as organisational behaviour, economics, accounting, entrepreneurship and marketing. Look into the ethical and sustainability issues of business and complete a consultancy project. In the summer (from early June to the middle of July), you begin to learn and acquire the knowledge and skills required of a practising manager, thereby enhancing your future employability.
  
  
  Year 1 will run from September to June. Information on the University's standard and non standard semester dates. 

  Core modules

  • ACF103 Business Accounting

    Business Accounting introduces accounting as the measurement, recording and communication of financial information for the purpose of business decision making in the context of risk, sustainability and liquidity. Business Accounting exposes the practical application of a range of relevant accounting techniques which enable effective decision making process. On successful completion of the module students should be able to prepare, report and analyse the key financial statements for decision making purposes.

  • ECN1013 Introduction to Business Economics

    This module provides an introduction to economics in a business context. It explores some basic concepts and techniques involved in economic analysis at an introductory level, and considers the relevance of economics and the economic environment, to business decision-making.

  • ENT101 Entrepreneurial Thought and Action

    The module will provide participants with an introduction to the theme of Entrepreneurial Thought and Action, allowing students to explore theory associated with Entrepreneurship before putting it into action through a practical exercise. It will develop a range of academic and professional skills around this theme including: consulting, research; feedback and reflection; professional presentation skills; team working, leadership and project management.

  • HRL100 Organisational Behaviour

    This module introduces you to the study of individuals and groups within the organisational context.

  • MKT110 Essentials of Marketing

    Aimed at Business students this module examines the philosophy and functional activities that comprise the business area known as Marketing. It considers the application of this concept across a range of organisations and markets, focusing on achieving competitive advantage through the development of a marketing mix based around customer centrality.

  • STO102 World of Enterprise

    This module will introduce students to the key concept of enterprise. There will be a consideration of enterprise in the form of organisations and entrepreneurial activity and an emphasis on sustainability.

• Placement year (optional)

• Gain valuable on-the-job experience through an optional placement year. Supported by a dedicated team, you can undertake a paid position within a public or private sector organisation relevant to your interests. While following a training programme agreed with your employer, you’ll also be supervised by academic staff throughout the year. You may even decide to set up your own business. 

  If you choose to undertake a placement, you can do so after either your first or final year.
  

  Core modules

  • BUSM200 People Management

  • BUSM201 Project Management

    The module introduces students to projects and project management in contemporary organisations. It show cases and allows students to practice a selection of recognised best practice tools and techniques, both hard and soft. Students will be required to participate in a real-live project and produce an output. They will evaluate both deliverable(s) and process and communicate their findings.

  • BUSM202 Introduction to Operations Management

    Operations, the activity of producing, delivering and supporting goods and services, lies at the heart of businesses. This module introduces the major themes of how this can be done in practice, describing the challenges faced across the goods-services range of industries. It further develops an appreciation of organisational responses to operational issues and the decisions, techniques and technologies which are used to meet them.

• Final year
• Enhance your employability and understanding of professional development and career planning, and hone your decision-making, project planning and research skills. The final year provides a lot of choice and the opportunity to study topics you are really interested in and/or perhaps want to specialise in. By choosing from a wide range of modules, you can tailor your degree and graduate with a specialist qualification. During the second summer, you increase your understanding of strategic management and complete a research or consultancy project in an area of your choice.
  
  
  Your final year will run from June to August the following year. Information on the University's standard and non standard term dates 
  

  Core modules

  • BUSM301 Project (Management Report)

    The module builds upon skills developed in the Project Management and Professional Development Planning modules and knowledge gained throughout the programme. Students are required to undertake independent research into a management issue. Use should be made of appropriate research methodologies techniques.

  • BUSM302 Strategic Management: Theory and Practice

    The module provides context for students to understand contemporary issues in the field of entrepreneurship. It explores current trends and issues through the lens of ongoing research being undertaken within the field and requires students to actively participate within a developing research project.

  • EPIE200 Placement Preparation

    This module is aimed at students who will be undertaking an industrial placement in the third year of their degree. It is designed to build on skills learned in Stage 1 and helps students in their search for a placement, and in their preparation for the placement itself.

  • EPIE300 Placement Year

    The placement year consists of an extended period of appropriate professional experience in a business or organisation. It allows the student to gain relevant experience to consolidate their studies and prepare for final stage study and employment after graduation.

  • EPIE301 The Placement Project

    This module requires students to produce a project relating to their placement experience.

  • HRL201 Professional Development Planning

    This module attempts to develop students¿ employment related and research skills, in order to prepare them to undertake a final year research project and to manage their future careers.

  • STO202 Management Decision Making

    Evidence has clearly shown that excellent business performance can only be achieved based on the right decisions. Bad decisions often cost the firms dearly and cannot provide enterprise sustainability. The ability to make good decisions is the mark of successful and promotable managers. This module introduces the major themes of management decision making (processes, models, analytical analysis and information support), describing the challenges of decision making with uncertainty, risk and complexity. It further develops an appreciation of Management Science responses to decision making which needs to meet multiple criteria, and the techniques and technologies which can be used to support the multi-criteria decision analysis.

  • STO306 Current Issues in Management

    This module exposes students to current debates within the field of business and management. The content will be fluid as it will draw on contemporary case studies, technological innovation, government legislation and philosophical, ethical or environmental debates.

  Optional modules

  • DEAS300 Academic Skills for International Direct Entry Final Year Students

    This module focuses on the study skills required for the study of business in UK HE for international direct entry final year students, it provides generic skills for students who are new to UK HE, such as information literacy, criticality, different types of assessment, assignment briefs, preparation and planning, and marking rubrics.

  • ENT200 Enterprise and Innovation

    The purpose of this module is to develop the students’ knowledge of enterprise and the key role of innovation. The module explores key issues impacting a growing business, highlighting the importance of innovation to sustainability and competitive advantage.

  • ENT300 Enterprise Creation

    The module offers the opportunity to develop the skills and understanding necessary to write a professional business plan and bid for venture capital funding.

  • HRL300 Organisational Leadership

    This module examines the role of leadership in relation to structural, social, political, cultural and psychological processes at individual, team, organisational and national levels, adopting multiple perspectives. The ethical and moral responsibilities of corporate leaders are critiqued as is the inter-relationship between leadership, governance, decision-making and change.

  • HRL305 Human Resource Management

    Consideration of HR strategy and current developments in the management of human resources in modern organisations operating within complex environments

  • HRL306 Leadership Practice

    Through study, reflection and exercises, this module seeks to develop knowledge and embed the practice of doing leadership. You will explore four different ‘practice’ realms essential to leading: 1) self practices (understanding one’s self as a leader), 2) presentational practices, 3) relational practices and 4) strategic practices. Although theoretical perspectives will provide the substance of lectures, seminars will use arts-based methods to create spaces in which students can experiment with the significance of these ideas for their own enactment of leadership.

  • HRL314 International Human Resource Management

    Students are introduced to: the implications of globalisation for HRM and labour, the particular human resource management problems confronted by Multinational organisations and human resource management systems in a range of different national contexts.

  • HRL316 Managing Change

    This module considers the importance, intricacies and sustainability of organisational change and its management. It examines the nature of change, how change impacts upon organisations and the people within them, the tools and techniques available to change managers (models/strategies/structures/policies and practices), and the factors that influence managers’ choices regarding the diagnosis and implementation of change.

  • MAR330 Procurement Management Processes

    This module explores the concept of strategy from theories of strategy to models of the strategic process, relating these models to strategy in the procurement function through the use of SCM relevant strategy analysis tools such as PESTLE, SWOT, Portfolio Analysis. As procurement is an important element of an institutions corporate strategy plans the relevance will be examined.

  • MAR332 International Supply Chain Management

    This module provides a comprehensive understanding of the principles and practices of international supply chain management and the complexities involved in planning, coordinating and operating various business processes in the management of international supply chains.

  • MKT310 International Marketing

    The module introduces students to the key concepts of international marketing. It provides students with an understanding of the environmental factors, international marketing strategies and the international marketing planning process.

  • MKT321 Marketing Management

    The module is designed to provide business students with an understanding of the essential elements of the marketing management process. It explores the way in which marketing strategies can be developed and implemented in business organisations, and the relationship between marketing, and other functional areas of management and the external environment. It will address the potential impact of current issues on the marketing process.

  • STO204 Business Ethics

    An introduction to ethical issues relating to corporate strategy, social responsibility, organisational structure, finance and human resource management, capitalism, markets, international business, the environment, advertising, and trends such as ethical consuming, ethical investments

  • STO205 An Introduction to International Business

    This module explores the changes in the world economy because of globalization and the strategic choices that a multinational corporation must make in such a globalized world. It examines the role of international trade and foreign direct investment in creating a more integrated world economy. Further it addresses the risks associated with foreign exchange transactions as also the advantages of regional economic integration such as European Union. Finally it deals with the firm level issues such as supply chain management, human resource management and financial management in the global context.

  • STO206 Shaping the Future: creating sustainable organisations

    This interdisciplinary module develops students' ability to assess how organisations can adapt, innovate and thrive in response to the macro social, economic and environmental forces impacting society and organisations. The module develops an awareness of the key physical, structural, social and moral challenges faced and encourages students to develop innovative systems thinking approaches to how organisations can adapt to, mitigate against and capitalise on this unprecedented period of intense and unpredictable change.

  • STO300 Global Enterprise

    A module providing advanced study of contemporary international business and theory.

Every undergraduate taught course has a detailed programme specification document describing the course aims, the course structure, the teaching and learning methods, the learning outcomes and the rules of assessment.

The following programme specification represents the latest course structure and may be subject to change:

BSc Business Management programme specification 3756

UCAS tariff

104 - 120

A level: 104-120 points from a minimum of 2 A levels. This course considers general studies.

BTEC: 18 Unit BTEC Extended Diploma: DMM in any subject.

BTEC National Diploma modules
If you hold a BTEC qualification it is vital that you provide our Admissions team with details of the exact modules you have studied as part of the BTEC. Without this information we may be unable to process your application quickly and you could experience significant delays in the progress of your application to study with us. Please explicitly state the full list of modules within your qualification at the time of application.

Access: Pass a named Access to HE Diploma in any subject with at least 33 credits at merit/distinction.

IB: 26 - 30 overall to include 4 at any subject at Higher Level.
English and Maths accepted within: Higher Level = 4   Standard Level = 5

All applicants must have GCSE (or equivalent) mathematics and English at grade 4/C or above.

Applicants are required to attend an informal interview at an offer holder day or open day with the Programme Leader. Further details will be communicated once an application has been received.

Short of the entry requirements for this course? Don’t worry you may be eligible for a foundation year to prepare you for possible entry onto this course for the following year.

We welcome applicants with international qualifications. To view other accepted qualifications please refer to our tariff glossary.

English language requirements