The University of South Wales’s MBA Global programme is a two-year MBA that offers students the opportunity to gain up to eight months work experience in the UK.
The MBA Global offers specialist pathways in Finance, HRM, Supply Chain Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship. It builds on a strong ethos of helping managers and leaders solve complex business problems while developing professionals who will make a strategic difference within the context of their organisations.
It will develop leadership and strategic thinking skills required to build successful teams and navigate growth within an uncertain, resource-constrained and competitive business environment. You will gain insights into how to prepare, plan and react efficiently to a rapidly changing business world.
The University is host to a vibrant, multicultural environment that provides excellent opportunities for you to gain global perspectives on business and management. As a USW MBA Global graduate, you will become part of a global alumni network:
2021/22 update: Blended learning approach for USW courses.
[Update excludes online-only courses].
The wellbeing and health and safety of our students and staff is paramount to us. We are committed to delivering all of our courses and services as safely as possible. Due to the pandemic, the methods and activities adopted for the coming year may differ from those previously published and may be subject to further change through the course of your study if such change is necessary due to public health concerns, health and safety guidance or in response to Government Guidelines. USW is committed to providing you with a fantastic student experience and a wealth of support, and you can hear how students have benefitted from this approach here: Learn more about blended learning.
What you will study?
MBA Global: BLOCKS 1 and 2 – Taught modules
Core Modules
Strategic Marketing
This module will help students understand and critically evaluate how strategic marketing interfaces with general business strategy. Students will learn the tools and techniques used for international market selection, segment acquisition and entry strategies.
Strategic Financial Management
Students will gain an understanding of the issues and techniques of strategic financial management from both an internal and external stakeholder viewpoint.
Strategic Operations Management and Operational Research
Students will gain an appreciation of operational processes, techniques, planning and control systems with reference to both manufacturing and service industries from a qualitative and quantitative perspective.
Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Leadership in a Global Context
This module examines the knowledge, skills and mindset necessary to be a successful owner or director of an entrepreneurial organisation to support the sustainable development and growth of start-up organisations. It provides a critical understanding of contemporary practice in high-growth firms and entrepreneurial organisations, supported by theory and research, and an overview of the tools and techniques relevant to the practice of innovation and applied entrepreneurship.
Global Strategy and Emerging Markets
Students will learn to use strategic tools and frameworks to develop plans for global or international expansion while gaining a critical understanding of global issues in trade integration. The module will focus on the macro environments within emerging markets while studying the influence of local socio-cultural mechanisms on strategic planning.
MBA Global: Specialist Pathway Modules
The pathway on which you enrol will determine which specialism module you will study from the list below:
Project Management and Consultancy Skills (General)
Students will learn to evaluate the strategy and scope of a project while gaining an understanding of the project management process and the incumbent and emerging structural and leadership issues. Students will also be exposed to the process of identifying and selecting projects and managing projects using appropriate project management tools.
Corporate Finance (Finance)
This module aims to provide an understanding of the strategic issues of finance in a business setting. Topics will include: investment appraisal methods, project appraisal applications, capital investment process and post-completion audit, risk and treasury management, working capital and short-term asset management, capital structure, sources of finance and dividend decisions.
Global Talent Management (HRM)
Modern organisations can only function if they are able to assemble together teams of people with the necessary skills, attitudes and experience to meet their objectives, and of course if they retain these effective performers within the business. This module explores how this is achieved, investigating not only the practical aspects of recruitment, selection and employee retention but also the strategic aspects to equip learners with the knowledge and skills required for resourcing and talent management within a global context.
Commercial Relationships (Supply Chain Management)
This module encourages participants to go beyond the study of theory and become active participants in the debate that is at the leading edge of strategic thinking and practice. The module will help students identify the key drivers and trends that are increasing the globalisation of industries and markets, explore the structure and management of global and international logistics and supply networks, and examine the main activities involved in global and international logistics and supply chain management.
Social and Sustainability Marketing (Marketing)
This module is to designed to enable students to acquire expertise in developing social and sustainability marketing strategies and techniques that address a range of core societal, economic and ecological issues and explores macro marketing situations from a domestic and global context.
The Entrepreneur in a Global Environment (Entrepreneurship)
This module is intended to develop students’ critical awareness of the key contexts in which entrepreneurs and their organisations operate in a global environment and of the strategies they utilise when analysing and reacting to complex and often unpredictable circumstances.
MBA Global: Blocks 3 and 4 – the Work Placement and the Business Research/ Enterprise Project Report
The Placement
Students have the option of a work placement in one of the three placement pathways we offer in the South Wales Business School, all of which are secured through a competitive recruitment process:
An external work-placement
We will provide a range of competitive work-placement opportunities. Students will be required to go through an external recruitment process, attend an interview and demonstrate strong academic performance in order to secure one of these placements. Placements may range from large corporations and MNCs to SMEs. The duration of placements are up to a maximum of eight months in duration.
Note: the course does not guarantee external work placements, as these are limited and secured via a competitive recruitment process.
An internal consultancy-based placement
Students can apply for a business analyst role within the South Wales Business School Business Clinic. If successful in gaining a clinic position, you would work as part of a group, under the direction of the Clinic Manager, to work on a live clinic-based consultancy project for a client company. A range of projects are identified each year and the Clinic Manager will assign students to projects, taking into consideration where possible your interests, specialism and the requirements of the client.
An internal entrepreneurship-based placement
The purpose of this placement is to provide students with the knowledge, skills, capacity and personal outlook required to be a successful entrepreneur, owner or director of an entrepreneurial organisation. It adopts a student-centred approach to innovation and entrepreneurship based on learning through a range of experiential projects that address real-time issues within the industry.
The Business Research Project / Enterprise Project Report
Students choosing an external work placement or an internal consultancy-based placement with the Business Clinic will have to undertake a Business Research Project in which they draw on their placement experience to explore how they have applied knowledge to solve complex industry problems and demonstrate research/investigative skills, project management and consultancy skills.
Students choosing the entrepreneurship-based placement will undertake an Enterprise Project Report in which they are required to develop a start-up business plan for a new enterprise or to further build and grow an existing enterprise.
Teaching
Business Research Project
Depending on the length of the internship or work-placement, this block allows the student time and scope to develop a professional project report based on their work-placement or consultancy project internship to highlight and report their impact on the respective client organisations.
Contact time and independent study hours will vary across blocks.
Our Global Choices programme of talks, workshops and masterclasses will expose you to guest lectures and seminars conducted by industry and academic leaders.
Your studies will be underpinned by the latest research undertaken by the South Wales Business School Research Group. This means you will be taught by academics who are at the forefront of their specialist field.
Assessment
Students undertake a variety of assessments designed to build a portfolio of skills and competencies, from preparing scoping reports and briefings, to applying theoretical knowledge developed on the modules to a range of applied settings and challenges. There is significant emphasis throughout the course on developing your communication and team-working skills to prepare you for the roles you will undertake in your professional careers.
Course details
Accreditations
In addition to your MBA Global qualification, you will also be eligible to apply for the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership.
Placements
The South Wales Business School will provide advice on sourcing placements that reflect your professional aspirations, as well as guidance on preparing a strong application. All placements are, however, highly competitive and it is the responsibility of each student to secure their own placement. Students who are unsuccessful in securing a placement would progress directly to the Business Research Project or Enterprise Project stage.
USW Global
You will enjoy an extracurricular programme that includes masterclasses with leading figures from the spheres of business and government and workshops and simulations on core skills and competencies which are designed to support the development of your high-level awareness of the challenges facing not only business but also societies across the world.
Your studies will be underpinned by the latest research undertaken by the South Wales Business School Research Group.
The MBA Global experience is directly informed by the University’s commitment to the UN Global Compact and to the UN Principles of Responsible Management Education. Our approach is to prepare MBA Global graduates for the ability to lead on addressing the world’s most pressing challenges. Through our Global Choices programme, MBA Global students enjoy access to senior professionals from the business and policy fields. In recent years, our guests have included Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia, and Sir John Major, former UK Prime Minister.
Our Global Choices programme of talks, workshops and masterclasses will expose you to guest lectures and seminars conducted by industry and academic leaders. You will have the opportunity to participate in EU and World Trade Organisation international trade negotiation simulation exercises (normally led by Sir Emyr Jones Parry, former UK Permanent Representative to the UN Security Council and one of the most experienced diplomats in the UK). You will also be able to learn from the experience of entrepreneurs and business leaders in Wales, forging links we hope you will take into your future careers as MBA Global alumni.
