|Full time||1 year||See attendance and timetables||
|Part time||2 years||See attendance and timetables||
|Part time||2 years||Six long weekends (normally six days in length) per year||September 2016|
|Part time||2 years||Six long weekends (normally six days in length) per year||September 2016|
Whatever you are currently doing – from working as part of a large international organisation to laying the groundwork for your first business startup – a Kingston MBA will accelerate your career, giving you the cutting-edge tools you need to succeed at a price you can afford. We provide the personal support that gives your career that extra push and makes for a life changing experience.
"In certain City jobs, the ability to use Bloomberg terminals is as important as being able to use Microsoft Office." – Dr George Alexandrou, principal lecturer, Department of Accounting and Finance.
The Kingston MBA is also delivered with our partners in Moscow at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RPANEPA). We offer two programmes: an MBA and an Executive MBA. The programmes are identical to the MBA delivered at Kingston University, but with some additional workshops and input from local regional practitioners. The core curriculum is delivered by Kingston University academics, supported by colleagues from RANEPA. Find out more about these two MBA programmes.
The Kingston MBA allows you to study a wider wide range of topics than you are offered on any other conventional MBA course, specialising in the areas most relevant to your career path.
Our assessment methods reflect the skills and experiences you will value the most when you graduate. We will make sure you are thoroughly prepared for your assessments, which include written assignments, discussions, group work, presentations, case studies, role plays and game simulations.
Kingston Business School offers a number of bursaries for our MBA students. Find out more about this and other funding opportunities for the Kingston MBA.
The Kingston MBA is a highly flexible programme of study. You need to gain 180 postgraduate credits overall, but you select your modules from a wide range of possibilities. This means you can specialise in the areas that are most relevant to your current and future career.
Your 180 credits break down into separate components:
Elective modules: please note that this list is indicative. Option modules will only be run if enough students wish to study them and therefore not all of these will be run every year.
This module introduces the concept of the international business environment and how it can be analysed for strategic decision-making. You will investigate how differences in economic, technological, cultural and ethical factors play a role in the development of strategy by organisations. You will examine the geo-political factors between US, Europe and emerging economies such as China, India, Russia and Brazil, and assess their impact on the future development of international business trends.
You will learn to apply appropriate micro and macroeconomic concepts that underpin key business factors and affect an organisation's environment to evaluate risks that affect organisations in international contexts. This module also looks at how shifts and changes in these factors affect organisational performance in advanced, emerging and transition economies.
This module includes lectures, workshops and action learning to enable you to meet your individual development needs and progress your career. It is the key to your future career development, and helps you build a portfolio that will show future employers who you are and what you can do.
This module will help you develop your critical understanding of a range of topical issues associated with financial management. You will do this by reviewing and analysing the position and performance of organisations based on financial statements and stock market indicators (for listed companies) or key performance indicators (for not for profit organisations). You will also explore recent academic literature on financial management issues and learn to apply it in practice. You will engage with a broad range of issues such as financial reporting, accounting for management decision-making, and decision making that considers responsible capitalism and sustainability.
Marketing identifies and tracks customer and consumer expectations and needs, then gears the organisation to meet those needs – it is an essential business skill for every organisation in both the private and not-for-profit sector.
Today, marketing strategy and practice is dominated by the internet, which continues to transform the way marketing is practiced – for example, the internet is not a one-way broadcast medium; it allows two-way communication between marketers and customers.
This module introduces the concept of marketing at both a strategic and tactical level and offers insights into fundamental marketing principles and practice. It then compares and contrasts traditional marketing practice with more contemporary marketing issues.
This module will examine how effective operations management contributes to organisations. You will look at how the operations functions in both public and private sector organisations can successfully integrate with other organisational features, and evaluate and differentiate key operational processes in both service and manufacturing sectors.
You will develop an understanding of innovation, creative and entrepreneurial approaches to improving and developing operations, and propose operational improvements in an operational context.
This module introduces a systemic approach to identifying, understanding and analysing macro, meso and micro issues, set within the global context, which have significant implications for the successful management of organisations and the people within them to produce appropriate detailed recommendations for organisational implementation. You will develop an in-depth understanding of human behaviour in organisations and how to manage it effectively to enhance managerial performance.
This module looks at how organisations use information systems to add value. You will learn how information systems have moved from day-to-day support activities to playing a critical role in the strategic direction of an organisation. This module emphasises the need to take a balanced perspective that includes business, technology and people's views, as well as the global view necessary in a modern international setting.
This module initially focuses on the strategic approaches that are appropriate to a technology-driven world, then looks at how to exploit those technologies. You will critically examine the management, development and use of information systems/ information technology (IS/IT) by considering some of the key areas of concern to organisations - for example, system development strategies, e-business, managing knowledge, IS benefits and the impact of emerging technologies.
Managers face major challenges in a globalised and rapidly changing business environment. In this module, you and your classmates will reflect on your previous management experience, aspects of the programme so far, and the cultural contexts you have experienced. This will provide a basis for learning from differences and developing leadership.
Responsible management involves going beyond the legal minimum – for example, in relation to corporate social responsibility. This module considers ethical context, sustainability and the role of knowledge, and particularly tacit knowledge. Managers need to develop skills in dialogue and be able to reflect.
The success of an organisation depends on the ability to make frequent fast, widely supported and high quality decisions. Many of these decisions affect the organisation's long-term success and sustainability.
This module looks at how social and economic organisations can assimilate and process information and interpret their environments. It also looks at how they can imitate and differentiate themselves from others – and learn by doing so.
You will examine a number of conceptual and analytical approaches and models to understand the assets and capabilities of an organisation and its relationships with suppliers, customers, regulatory bodies and other firms. You will then consider the issues involved in understanding and designing strategic options.
This module brings together the work you have done on other modules, complementing the strategic decision making module. You will explore how organisations can translate strategy into action. It will help develop your ability to engage with the challenges involved in implementing strategy.
Strategy changes are often needed; this module will introduce ways of executing strategy, and how to relate it to the different activities of the organisation. You will examine how implementation relates to an organisation's people, processes and technology.
You will learn how to design and carry out a business project, then present the results. This module consists of taught sessions on business research methods and a set of activities to support you while you develop your project. The teaching programme helps you choose a business problem, a conceptual framework, a method of investigation and a way of collecting and analysing data. It will also teach you how to make policy recommendations and write a business management report.
This module teaches you how to apply modelling and analytical techniques to strategic decision making in organisations. You will learn to construct effective forecasts and apply these to real business problems and strategies. A large proportion of this module's teaching time will be spent in computing labs, where you will practice applying modelling methods to business problems.
Why do organisations need to change, to become more creative and innovate? How can management help people to achieve their new ideas and practices in a creative and imaginative way? This module explores the epistemological and ontological aspects of creativity and change, and how to manage them.
Finance is based on a set of simple and intuitive ideas and principles, and you need to understand it thoroughly to succeed in the corporate world. This understanding gives you an exciting intellectual challenge as well as enhancing your career prospects.
This module is offers a unique combination of major contemporary theoretical and empirical developments. There is a substantial quantitative element in this module, and students will refresh their knowledge of maths and statistics knowledge. You will work on a real-life case study and collect data from the Datastream and other sources.
Every organisation requires innovation – to create profit and wealth, or to benefit to a certain community. Entrepreneurship can be applied to all organisations, public and private, and it can be taught in the classroom up to a certain point.
This module gives a solid grounding in entrepreneurship and innovation within organisations and nations today. Entrepreneurship is defined using the management approach as a characteristic pattern of management behaviour, which has innovation outcomes.
This module teaches you to analyse the key factors determining competitiveness in different economies and make appropriate strategic recommendations.
You will learn how to interpret the complex system of rules covering international organisations and construct models and frameworks dealing with different circumstances. Studies are divided into three main sections – the global business, the evolution of global industries, and global business strategy.
The potential for growth is a defining feature of the entrepreneurial small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This module is concerned with the issues and decisions that the entrepreneur must consider in successfully managing the growth and development of new SMEs. The module is designed to cover four broad and interrelated issues: a) the process of business growth of SMEs, b) barriers to business growth of SMEs; c) internal strategies for the growth of SMEs, and d) external strategies for the growth of SMEs. The course will draw on materials from the literature on entrepreneurship to provide a basis for a critical understanding of the concepts and strategies for entrepreneurial venture growth and development.
For many established organisations, the only significant growth opportunity is through international trade – but success in a domestic market does not guarantee success abroad.
This module helps you understand international marketing issues at both strategic and operational levels, and the full range of interdependent issues that have to be managed simultaneously. You will learn to apply objective and robust methodologies to questions of foreign market opportunity selection and risk analysis and be able to make recommendation.
This module develops your understanding of the management consulting industry from the client's perspective.
It focuses on the strategic issues facing consulting firms, including branding, changes in the client-consultant relationship, and internal challenges. You will examine the consulting process in practice, including the tools and techniques used by consultants, managing projects and clients, and handling problems.
You will master the analytical skills necessary to make positive contributions to operations strategy. You will be assessed through individual, in-class participation and an individual assignment that will require you to apply practical tools and techniques to real business situations. You will be given feedback on your performance in teaching sessions and tutorials.
This module is an elective module on the full time and executive MBA programs. It is delivered in Berlin at the AMBA accredited Berlin School of Economics and Law (BSEL)
The module introduces students to the concept of problem solving in complex unfamiliar environments where the availability of information is scarce. The module adopts a practically orientated methodology and introduces students to a number of models and frameworks that can be applied to business problems. Core factual material is provided via StudySpace with keynote lectures used to explain concepts. The module also provides an opportunity to take the subject further with supported reading materials.
This module explores the challenges facing people who work with and within public and non-profit organisations, helping managers develop a tool kit for addressing these issues. This module draws on the expertise of practitioners in the field, who will be actively involved in teaching the module and supervising coursework.
This module is also supported by the Public Service Management Interest Group, which is a Kingston Business School Alumni association. You will gain direct input from a wide range of practitioners and expand your professional network.
This module will introduce you to project management and the role of project managers in an organisational environment. This encompasses a number of strategic issues such as time planning, cost and quality planning when resources have to be shared amongst a number of demanding projects. You will also look at risk management and the issues that can arise when managing projects.
You will look at case studies and examples of successful and unsuccessful project management from real life situations, and use group discussion to examine the rationale for using different approaches. You will contrast the subjective nature of project management to the scientific approach of project planning, and develop methods to overcome barriers to effective project management.
Venture capital and Business Angel finance has been the driving force behind some of the most vibrant sectors of the economy. Companies famous for receiving venture capital or business angel funding early in their development include Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon. US and Western Europe no longer dominate the industry and emerging countries such as China, India and Russia are fast catching up. Recently, the explosion of Crowdfunding platforms has signalled a new era for the innovation finance industry.
This module analyses all stages of the funding ladder for innovative companies, from Crowdfunding, Business Angels, Venture Capital, Private Equity to IPO or M&A. It examines the main forms of innovation finance and the investment process; how private equity and venture capital funds, business angels and crowdfunding platforms work; how firms become investment ready, raise external finance and how to they finally exit.
Students also learn about wider framework conditions that have a bearing on business innovation, including availability of finance for innovation, public policies and agencies promoting innovation.
This module introduces you to customer acquisition and retention, and analyses them in the context of customer relationship management and key account management.
You will examine the importance of segmentation, multi-channel architecture and new communications media in the process of winning and retaining customers. The module analyses the marketing and financial metrics that need to be used to manage the customer/business relationship effectively. Classes will be a mixture of formal lectures, case studies discussion and exercises.
You will have the opportunity to study a foreign language, free of charge, during your time at the University as part of the Kingston Language Scheme. Options currently include: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
The Kingston MBA course run in Moscow has been ranked number one in Russia in the prestigious 'Secret Firmy' rankings table ('Company Secrets'). The programme gained the top scores for teaching excellence, challenge, practical relevance and theoretical knowledge.
Kingston Business School has once again been awarded 'Excellent' business school status, following a vote by 250 deans and directors from the best Business Schools in the world.