Master of Business Administration (MBA)

The Glasgow MBA will empower you with crucial skills and knowledge and provide you with the networking opportunities you need to accelerate your career, either as a manager within the private, third or public sector or in developing your own entrepreneurial ambition. We give you one-to-one support to help develop you into a successful leader.

• Teaching start: September
• MSc: 12 months full-time

Why This Programme

• We have been teaching the MBA since 1976. Our programme is AMBA accredited, which means our MBA is internationally recognised to the highest standard.

• We purposefully recruit a small yet diverse cohort of students. As a result, you will receive dedicated 1-2-1 teaching and support whilst also being able to take the time to learn from your fellow students’ experience and skillset.

• ‌Classes are interactive, striking the right balance between tuition and discussion.

• Throughout the year we host a series of social, networking and guest speaker events to enhance your learning experience and help you get the most out of your MBA.

• We offer an MBA Professional Development and Employability Award. This is a unique initiative that includes an opportunity for you to be mentored by one of our MBA alumni.

Peer to Peer learning is core to the MBA experience and will be pursued, as ever, from the outset, as the programme develops the cohort will increasingly enjoy an impactful experience based on interactions with practice. We have for many years delivered a blended learning experience; this will only be reinforced in a post-COVID-19 landscape, the Glasgow MBA has a unique advantage of enrolling a relatively small cohort which should provide opportunities to embrace the ‘new normality’ with agility as circumstances permit.

A learning journey from remote, synchronous and asynchronous learning, through blended learning to Face to Face. The pace of change will reflect Public Heath guidance and result in a controlled return to ‘normality’; noting that we already live and work in a blended learning environment.

Core learning experiences

The Glasgow MBA begins with laying the foundations of leadership through three core-learning experiences. You are then given the opportunity to specialise in finance, marketing or strategy. You may also explore additional business subjects such as entrepreneurship, international business or supply chain management and business sustainability. An important part of our MBA is the team-consulting project that happens towards the end of the year and is an opportunity for you to bring theory into practice and tackle real-life business challenges. The final stage of your MBA is your graduation project (dissertation). You will work on this from June to August on a topic agreed upon between you and your supervisor.

• Decision making under uncertainty
  You will learn about the intellectual perspectives and methods that underpin the practice of making decisions essential for business management. In this course, you will explore the many different disciplinary and methodological traditions that should inform effective analyses of the business world. You will also learn how informed thinking and analysis will assist you in making decisions and delivering better business outcomes.
• Business strategic management
  This section of the programme covers five key business disciplines from a strategic perspective which is covered in five individual courses. These are strategy (Strategic management), HR and operations (Managing resources), marketing (Marketing management), Finance (Financial information and analysis), and business environment (Global economy). You will develop the skills expected of senior managers and be capable of developing a career in any leading organisation. This learning experience ends with a week-long intense team-consulting project where you will be challenged to cover and to integrate the areas/subjects studied both in the core courses as well as in the electives.
• Strategic foresight
  This course is designed to broaden your perspective by encouraging you to listen and think about tangible strategic challenges, in both local and international contexts, which are presented to you by experienced business leaders, entrepreneurs, consultants and/or public servants. Guest speakers cover issues such as:
  How do risk management and responses to uncertainty present themselves in day-to-day strategic implementation?
  How are Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Environmental Protection and/or Ethical Behaviours embraced and introduced during strategic discussions?
  Through guided discussions after each presentation and case discussions complementing these topics, you will learn to develop skills to articulate previous and potential future responses to strategic challenges and the likely effectiveness of these responses.
  Following the core courses, you will pick five optional courses, enabling you to specialise in finance, strategy or marketing. The courses on offer vary each year and are taught by a range of leading academics and practitioners, based on their research or personal experience of the corporate world.
  • How is technology and innovation shaping organisations? Is it disruptive?
  • Is globalisation still alive in the twenty-first century?
  • How are millennials changing or influencing organisational cultures?
  • To what extent do local (national) procedures and regulations support or inhibit a business internationalisation agenda?

Core courses

• Decision Making Under Uncertainty
• Financial Information and Analysis
• Global Economy
• Managing Resources
• Marketing Management
• Strategic Foresight
• Strategic Management

Optional courses may include

• Business-To-Business Relationship Management
• Change Management
• Digital Marketing Strategy (Specialist)
• Entrepreneurial Finance
• International Financial Management and Corporate Finance
• International Strategy for Multinational Enterprise
• Strategic Human Resource Management
• Supply Chain Management
• ESSAM: MBA Summer School (1)
• ESSAM: MBA Summer School (2)
• ESSAM: MBA Summer School (3)
• The Glasgow MBA shares resources with the MSc Financial Technology and students may have the opportunity to take some elective programmes from this programme.

Professional Development and Employability Award

We know that MBA students’ top priority upon graduating is employability. We run an innovative co-curricular, timetabled Professional Development and Employability Award to enhance your career. As part of this, we have:

• Alumni mentors to support you during the second half of the programme and in the initial months after you graduate
• group exercises
• inspiring guest speakers
• self-directed learning activities
• workshops.

Programme alteration or discontinuation

The University of Glasgow endeavours to run all programmes as advertised. In exceptional circumstances, however, the University may withdraw or alter a programme.

As a Glasgow MBA graduate, you join the ranks of successful and influential professionals making a mark on organisations around the world. Our dedicated MBA Careers Manager supports you throughout the year, helping you plan for the next stage of your career and equip you with the tools and strategies to compete effectively within the global job market. Many of our graduates have senior roles specialising in management, marketing and finance, across all industries and sectors; whilst others have established their own business. Recent alumni have gone on to employment with companies including but not limited to:

• Apple
• Amazon
• Rolls Royce
• IBM
• Unilever
• Clydesdale Bank
• Ernst & Young
• Halyard Health
• Goldman Sachs
• The Scottish Government