BA (Hons) Business Management

You will have the opportunity to learn how to apply practical and realistic solutions to complex business scenarios, through studying subject areas that include, financial decision making, contemporary business issues, international marketing and strategic agility all of which will help you to develop and specialise your areas of interest and set you on the way to becoming a graduate with real-life experience in the field of your choice.

Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?

BNU is a vibrant and diverse University that has student experience at its heart. Our high lecturer to student ratio ensures that you will receive continual and first-hand support throughout your degree, which will allow you to stretch and excel your abilities and graduate with a versatile and in-demand degree.

For the new generation of managers, change is the only consistency. Our industry-experienced academics will support you to develop not only the knowledge and understanding of contemporary best practice in strategic international management but also your personal skills to prepare you for your first roles in management, or for running your own business.

Recently, the global business landscape has had to adapt to a different way of working and trading. More key business activities are now carried out using technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). You will study a variety of subject areas to evolve your understanding of how technology can underpin innovation and improvements to business and organisations, alongside developing key skills, such as empathy, problem solving and creativity, which ensure learners are well placed to enter the employment market.

We give you the opportunity to develop solutions for a wide range of businesses. This allows you to gain real-world, hands-on experience while businesses benefit from having dedicated consultants to carry out research and offer advice tailored to their needs. We’ve previously had students consulting major companies as well as helping start-ups to get their businesses on the move.

Some of the large companies we have worked with include Dreams, Softcat, Enterprise-rent-a-car, Sacla, Dow Chemicals and the NHS. We have also worked with local businesses such as Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and KVA Digital.

Our strong links with industry and knowledge of their requirements for graduates helped to shape this programme. We will also introduce key business speakers and live briefs as assessments throughout the course. We bring in speakers from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, CIPD, to brief our students on the latest developments in the field of HRM.

Opportunity modules are a key part of the BNU curriculum. You’ll choose modules in both your first and second year from a broad selection in areas such as sustainability, entrepreneurship, creativity, digital skills, personal growth, civic engagement, health & wellbeing and employment. Opportunity modules are designed to enable you to develop outside the traditional boundaries of your discipline and help you to further stand out from the crowd to future employers.

How will I be taught and assessed?

Teaching is interactive and student focused where we blend lectures, workshops, independent study, case studies, live briefs and guest speakers to enhance the learning experience. Our approach is to put you in the shoes of a junior executive and ask ‘what would you do?  We want you to have a blend of knowledge, skills and abilities that will allow you to be day one ready graduates who can seamlessly fit into any organisation you choose to join or start as an entrepreneur.  

Our assessments are heavily real world centric with live briefs and cases that challenge the student to produce a result and not simply demonstrate knowledge of a subject. We ask for management reports, business plans, people management strategies as well as marketing campaigns and digital advertising activities that are assessed through a mixture of presentations, short films, as well as management reports, memos and briefings.

In your final year you will undertake an Independent Professional Project, where you will carry out a major piece of independent research focused on strategic business issues chosen by you. During this project you will be supported by an academic supervisor and with regular meetings throughout the academic year.

We organise industry visits to see how the theory is applied in the real world and discuss with business professionals the challenges and solutions they use themselves. Our active alumni network provides guest speakers, live briefs, careers talks and job application advice across all three years of our degrees. Discuss with business professionals the challenges and solutions they use themselves.

Our business management programme gives you the opportunity to choose your specialism for your future career after your experience of the core curriculum in year one. Rather than having to make your big career decision before you join us, we introduce you to various specialisms and offer you the flexibility to choose the pathway which leads to your chosen career.