BA Philosophy with Business Management (Including Foundation Year)

Overview

Our four-year BA Philosophy with Business Management (including foundation year), will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entrance requirements for the three-year version of this course and you want a programme that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your academic skills in order to support your academic performance. Our five-year version of this course enables you to study abroad during your fourth year of study.

Our course will feed your intellectual curiosity and challenge your thinking. It allows you to dig deeper into ideas and question received wisdom. At the same time, you will acquire the skills to manage organizations and gain an understanding in how business works in an increasingly complex world.

At Essex, we take philosophy back to its roots in everyday existential, social, and political problems. We embrace the relevance of philosophy to other forms of enquiry – political, cultural, legal, medical, aesthetic – and bring it to bear on urgent issues in public life, such the moral status of capitalism or public policy regarding mental health and end of life care.

With our BA Philosophy with Business Management, you’ll explore a range of subjects enabling you to develop the widest possible understanding of complex philosophical issues and challenge your way of thinking as you obtain a grounding in management.

During the course you’ll cover key areas including but not limited to:

Capitalism
Ethics
Political philosophy
Existentialism and Phenomenology
Human Resource Management
Organisations
Marketing

Our School of Philosophy and Art History has been ranked in the top 20 in the UK for research excellence (REF 2014, mainstream universities, THE 2014). We are involved in many exciting and interdisciplinary research projects and have active links with other subjects including Political Science, Law, Sociology, Psychoanalysis, and Art History.

Essex has more start-up businesses than any other county in the UK. We teach you to take control of your career in business and create ideas, products and services with real value, and with our global understanding of business in established and developing markets, you’ll have the best foundation for your future career.

The Essex Business School is an intellectual community of more than 2,000 international researchers, students and entrepreneurs.

Please note this course is subject to approval.

Our expert staff

Our courses are taught by world-class academics. Over three quarters of our research is rated “world-leading” or “internationally excellent” (REF 2014), which puts us fifth in the UK for research outputs.

Current research includes work on capitalism and competition, autonomy in mental health care settings, the foundations of hope in end of life care, and much more.

Our academics bring their expertise to the class room, and there will be opportunities to get involved with our research through internships and placements.

You will also be taught by a highly qualified, enthusiastic business management team with wide ranging research interests and proven academic track record.

Our Essex Business School staff specialise in areas including the management of organisational space and architecture, psychoanalytic approaches to management and marketing, creativity and organisation, events and festivals and the impact of ‘fun cultures’ on employees.

Specialist facilities

Take advantage of our extensive learning resources to assist you in your studies:

An exciting programme of research seminars, reading groups and our annual Essex Lectures in Philosophy that help you expand your philosophical knowledge beyond what you learn on your course
A comprehensive student support system which will direct you to the best source of advice and support in the case of personal or academic difficulties
A variety of philosophy textbooks and journals in the Albert Sloman Library

Our landmark Essex Business School building is the first zero-carbon business school in the UK. Set around a lush winter garden, the Eden-style dome will give the building its own micro-climate.

Our building provides you with a stunning new work environment, offering:

A virtual trading floor with Bloomberg Terminals offering direct use of Bloomberg data, information and analytics
A light and spacious lecture theatre, with seating for 250 students
Study pods and innovation booths for group working
Dedicated office space for student entrepreneurs
A café with an adjacent sun terrace

Your future

Through our BA Philosophy with Business Management you’ll gain an all-round education, acquiring a diverse set of skills and a wide range of knowledge. We know that the world of work is changing. Employers want graduates who can think laterally logically and creatively about practical problems and are effective communicators, combined with a broad understanding of business management.

Our course provides you with an excellent basis for going onto a career in many areas which might include law, PR, the Civil Service, journalism and the media, charity work, human resource management, banking and the NHS.

We also work with the university’s Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.

Why we’re great

We focus on the existential questions of human life, and provide a critical perspective on the social, political and economic challenges we are facing today.
Our courses can also be taken as a four-year option including a year of study abroad.
We combine Anglo-American and European Continental philosophy.

Structure

Course structure

We offer a flexible course structure with a mixture of core/compulsory modules, and optional modules chosen from lists.

Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field, therefore all modules listed are subject to change. Your course structure could differ based on the modules you choose. To view the compulsory modules and full list of optional modules currently on offer, please view the programme specification via the link below.

Teaching and learning disclaimer

Following the impact of the pandemic, we made changes to our teaching and assessment to ensure our current students could continue with their studies uninterrupted and safely. These changes included courses being taught through blended delivery, normally including some face-to-face teaching, online provision, or a combination of both across the year.

The teaching and assessment methods listed show what is currently approved for 2022 entry; changes may be necessary if, by the beginning of this course, we need to adapt the way we’re delivering them due to the external environment, and to allow you to continue to receive the best education possible safely and seamlessly.

Teaching

Teaching typically takes the form of lectures and seminar sessions
Seminars allow your lecturer to explain new arguments and ideas in more detail, while giving you sufficient time for questions, collective discussion and active engagement with the material
We believe that discussion is the lifeblood of philosophy, and we try to keep our classes as small as we can for this purpose
In the second and final-year of your degree, we add an additional contact hour to each module
In the Summer term of the second and final-year of your degree we offer additional modules which cover additional topics and develop your research skills