Overview
What does it take to be an effective manager? How can marketers maximise return on investment?
To succeed in management and marketing, you must be imaginative, innovative and use your initiative to solve business challenges. You must combine originality with the ability to analyse market data and remain focused on results, even in difficult environments.
At Essex Business School, where this BSc Management and Marketing course is taught, we encourage you to become an independent thinker and act creatively and strategically to help organisations succeed, whatever their challenge.
This course enables you to combine the study of management with the opportunity to develop marketing expertise. You learn what’s involved in managing modern organisations and understand the role of customers, consumers, the service relationship and brand management. We also develop your practical skills in communication, data analysis and critical thinking.
You explore subjects such as:
- digital marketing and social media
- marketing management
- consumer behaviour
- brand management
- business strategy
- organisational behaviour
In your first year, you benefit from a general business education, introducing you to accounting, finance and economics, as well as management and marketing, giving you the flexibility to follow a range of careers after you graduate.
In your final year, you have the opportunity to put your knowledge into practice by completing an in-depth, independent research project or dissertation which can focus on either management or marketing or combine elements from both at your preference. This will give you the chance to further develop vital employability skills in areas of research, time management and critical thinking as well as offering you the opportunity to explore what interests you.
Essex Business School attracts students and academics from all over the world. We are committed to ethical and sustainable business and are a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). By studying with us, you gain more than the foundations for a successful career in marketing management; you are part of a movement that seeks to make organisations better places to do business.
BSc Management and Marketing can also be taken with an optional study abroad or placement year where you can add even more value to your CV through work or international experience.
Study abroad
The four-year version of this course enables you to study abroad during your third year. In all other areas, this version of the course remains identical to the standard three-year variant.
You can study abroad with one of our exchange partners in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, the Middle East, Hong Kong and Japan. In doing so, you experience other cultures and languages, meet new people, and gain intercultural skills that are sought-after by employers.
Placement year
A placement year provides an alternative option, enabling you to develop your practical business skills by working for an external organisation. During your time away from study, you can build key industry contacts that will be invaluable as you progress in your career.
The Student Development Team can offer bespoke support throughout the process of researching, applying and interviewing for placements. However, it is your responsibility to apply, prepare for and secure your own role. In recent years, our students have gained placements with organisations such as BMW, Samsung and Cummins.
Our expert staff
You are taught by a highly qualified, enthusiastic team of academics and relevant business practitioners with wide-ranging research interests. They use their research examples in your lectures and seminars so you learn about the latest innovations and contemporary themes affecting business today.
Our staff specialise in areas including:
- Business Ethics
- Cultural Production
- Corporate Marketing and Corporate Communication
- Social Media Influencers
- Sustainable Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
- Technology and Innovation
- Gender and LGBT inequality in the workplace
- Digital innovation
- Technology in customer engagement and experience
Drawing on his industry experience Dr Amir Homayounfard, Lecturer in Innovation and Strategic Marketing, applies his research in areas such as: the importance of technology for customer engagement and customer experience; and exploring the retailer-supplier relationship, to directly inform your studies in marketing and business management.
Specialist facilities
Our BSc Management and Marketing is based at our Colchester Campus.
In our landmark Essex Business School building – the first zero carbon business school in the UK – you’ll see our sustainable approach to business first-hand. Set around a lush winter garden, which gives the building its own micro-climate, are a wealth of teaching and study zones.
Our new building provides you with superb facilities.
- a state-of-the-art trading floor with Bloomberg Financial Market Labs, where you’ll hands-on experience of using live business data
- modern lecture theatres with ‘listen again’ recording to aid your study
- study pods and innovation booths for group working
- networking opportunities with visiting businesses
- a café and adjacent foyer to enjoy on-site fresh food and drink
- study skills workshops and advice
Our business school is located on the University’s Knowledge Gateway, featuring the Parkside Office Village. Here, student entrepreneurs can access start-up space amongst a group of innovative SMEs, who can also provide valuable opportunities for business networking, placements and internships.
The Students’ Union Creative Studios, based in the Silberrad Student Centre, is home to a collection of sate of the art computers installed with the latest editing software, including: Adobe InDesign and Photoshop; Premiere Pro, After Effects and loads more. You can also access Final Cut Pro, iMovie and Garageband. The suite has a similar feel to the offices of modern marketing agencies and provides you with free-to-use technology that can greatly enhance your assignments.
Your future
The dual disciplines of management and marketing are highly sought after by many graduate employers.
Many of our graduates go on to manage marketing departments or take on specialist consultancy based roles straight after graduation as Essex Business School prepares you for the world of work from day one.
The BSc Management and Marketing curriculum taught here embeds transferable employability skills in analysis, critical thinking, presentation and communication across all modules.
The Study Skills module in year one will develop your academic skills, while the Student Success modules in year two will build on what you learned in year one and so that you can easily step up to meet the growing academic demands of your second and final years. The Successful Futures module in year two will foster your professionalism and introduce you to the graduate recruitment process, including practical advice to excel at interviews and assessment centres.
Recent graduate destinations include:
- Brand Manager at Ringnes AS, part of the Carlsberg Group – the largest Norwegian brewer
- Relationship Manager at Footprint Digital – a fast-growing digital marketing agency
- Buyer at the John Lewis Partnership – the high-end department chain store
- Affiliate Marketing Analyst at KidStart – a save as you shop app for parents and children
- Head of Analytics, Insight and Reporting at Commercial Risk Solutions, RSA – global insurance and risk management experts
The School will support you with a range of skills and careers opportunities, including: skills development workshops; employer talks; skills events and careers conferences.
BSc Management and Marketing students can also take advantage of the services offered by the Student Development Team, including: careers advice; work experience; internships; placements; and voluntary opportunities.
Why we’re great
- Placement opportunities enable you to develop your practical business skills by working for an external organisation.
- We focus on ethical management and sustainable business practice.
- We embed transferable employability skills in analysis, critical thinking, presentation and communication across all modules.
Structure
Course structure
This course allows you to specialise in the areas of both business management and marketing, as well as providing a more broad overview of other important topics. In the first year our current students cover the fundamentals that every business manager needs to know and be introduced to the specialisation of marketing. However, we are planning some changes to our first year and we’ll be tailoring it more closely to your chosen course.
In second and final year your compulsory modules will provide a deep understanding of management and marketing, whilst your optional modules will allow you to follow these themes further or to explore other areas.
We offer a flexible course structure with a mixture of core/compulsory modules, and optional modules chosen from lists. Please be aware that we are planning changes to our first year to make it more relevant to your chosen course.
Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field. The course content is therefore reviewed on an annual basis to ensure our courses remain up-to-date so modules listed are subject to change.
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.
Placement
On a placement year you gain relevant work experience within an external business or organisation, giving you a competitive edge in the graduate job market and providing you with key contacts within the industry. The rest of your course remains identical to the three-year degree.
Year abroad
On your year abroad, you have the opportunity to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. The rest of your course remains identical to the three-year degree.
Teaching
- Teaching includes a combination of lectures, seminars and computer-based lab sessions
- Modules delivered by experts in the field as well as guest speakers
- Contribute and interact in lectures through the use of smart technology
- Lecture presentations and notes are uploaded online beforehand to help you prepare in advance
- Complete your final-year project in consultation with a personal supervisor
Assessment
- Assessed through traditional methods of end-of-year exams and multiple choice questions in class tests and essays
- Plus more innovative and creative assessments include laboratory work, poster presentations, real-business case problems and group presentations
- Your first year marks do not count towards your final degree
