Business Management - Higher Diploma

Program Overview

This one-year HDip in Business Management is designed for non-business graduates, providing them with the skills and knowledge to transition into the business world. Through a blend of theoretical concepts and practical applications, the program equips students with a comprehensive understanding of business principles, analytical abilities, and management techniques. Graduates are well-prepared for careers in various business functions, including marketing, human resource management, and strategic management. The program also offers a pathway to further studies in business at the Master's level.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This one-year postgraduate program is designed for non-business graduates. It aims to provide business management skills for students who have studied in other academic fields at the undergraduate level. The program encourages students to become independent and innovative thinkers with a sound understanding of theoretical issues and the ability to put these theories into practice. It offers a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical skills development facilitated through active learning approaches. The program provides the skills to allow students to convert from other disciplines into the business world or augment their existing qualifications to improve employment prospects.

Objectives:

• To equip students with a comprehensive understanding of business management principles and practices.
• To develop students' analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• To foster students' ability to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world business situations.
• To enhance students' employability in the business sector.

Outline:

Program Structure:

• The program is delivered full-time over one year.
• It is divided into two semesters.
• Each semester consists of six modules.

Course Schedule:

• Semester 1:
• Contemporary Marketing
• Decision Making Concepts
• Enterprise & Innovation
• Microeconomics
• People Management Concepts & Practice
• Strategic Management Concepts
• Semester 2:
• Brand Management
• Decision Making Practice
• Essentials of Organisational Behaviour
• Macroeconomics
• New Venture Planning
• Strategic Management Practice

Module Descriptions:

• Contemporary Marketing: This module provides a practitioner-level understanding of marketing theories and applications in contemporary business environments.
It analyzes marketing management concepts, frameworks, strategies, and theoretical underpinnings.
• Decision Making Concepts: This module introduces learners to the core principles of finance, assisting them in making decisions in the commercial life of a business.
It covers accounting terminology, the production of accounting statements, capital investment appraisal, working capital requirements, and sources of finance.
• Enterprise & Innovation: This module examines the concepts of entrepreneurship as an academic discipline, focusing on the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, the link between entrepreneurship and other business disciplines, and their practical application in small- and medium-sized enterprises.
It emphasizes the role of innovation in entrepreneurship, exploring creative thinking and idea generation processes.
• Microeconomics: This module introduces students to core microeconomic principles and their application in understanding decision-making and behavior in a business environment.
It uses key concepts and models to analyze the cost of individual and firm choices and provides frameworks to understand key microeconomic concepts and issues for business and policymakers.
• People Management Concepts & Practice: This module provides an introduction to the theory and practice of human resource management in the modern workplace, addressing key issues and debates in the field.
It covers conceptual frameworks and best practices for people management and performance in organizations, developing and practicing skills and competencies for managing people. It explores strategic position, the impact of the macro environment, the industry environment, organizational strategic capability, stakeholders, and organizational culture, utilizing theory and application.
• Brand Management: This module provides a practitioner-level understanding of branding theories and applications in 21st-century business.
It examines the importance of creating and managing brands, exploring branding strategies employed across various brand leaders. It also explores contemporary issues in branding, such as the use of social media, brand communities, and the growth of the global brand.
• Decision Making Practice: This module introduces learners to the core principles of finance, assisting them in making decisions in the commercial life of a business.
It covers marginal costing, budgeting, ratio analysis, variance analysis, and the interpretation and evaluation of business performance.
• Essentials of Organisational Behaviour: This module uncovers the conceptual frameworks and theories that underpin workplace behavior.
It explores theories that underpin individual and group behaviors in a work context, probing behavioral challenges encountered in the modern workplace with emphasis on the psychological contract and the impact of culture, social, and political issues on organizational performance.
• Macroeconomics: This module provides a comprehensive understanding of the macroeconomic business environment.
It discusses key macroeconomic variables and policy issues to enhance the learner's ability to analyze, solve, and predict a variety of macroeconomic issues affecting businesses. It provides a unified framework to address these issues and study the impact of different policies, such as monetary and fiscal, on the aggregate behavior of individuals.
• New Venture Planning: This module builds on students' understanding of business enterprise operations by applying that learning to new venture creation and planning.
Students engage in the practical process of feasibility analysis and creating a business plan, bringing together various business topics on the program, including marketing, sales, finance, and operations. Students apply creative thinking, contingency planning, and entrepreneurial behavior in lectures and tutorial workshops to engage with the processes and challenges of creating, sustaining, and growing new ventures.
• Strategic Management Practice: This module examines the theory and practice of strategic management in an organizational context.
It explores strategic analysis, organizational considerations for deciding on exact strategies to follow, and the implications of strategic choices and evaluation in dynamic and global environments. It also investigates how internal leadership styles, varying organizational cultures, and change management styles and perspectives impact the implementation and practice of strategic management.

Careers:

Career Opportunities:

Graduates will have the skills and knowledge to:

• Apply relevant management techniques to effectively manage a range of business functions.
• Develop marketing strategies to be used as part of a firm's overall integrated marketing communications activities.
• Manage people effectively through a strong applied knowledge of HR and general business skills and competencies.
• Conduct environmental comparative analyses of domestic and foreign markets.

Further Study: