Course overview
Are you looking to complement your undergraduate studies with a business-focused Masters degree that will enhance your employability? Do you want to explore the latest techniques for analysing ‘big data’ in order to improve an organisation’s decision making?
This Advanced Practice option offers the opportunity to spend three months gaining all-important work experience and employability skills in a professional work setting, whilst the taught programme develops broad business skills while also offering a specialist pathway in business analytics.
Response to Covid-19
Our focus is on providing a safe and welcoming learning environment and ensuring continued access to learning.
As a result of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and resulting social distancing requirements, we are intending to teach this course using a mix of on-campus and online learning activities. We continue to be guided by the Government to ensure our campus is Covid-secure.
NU’s legal disclaimer
All information is accurate at the time of sharing. Courses starting in 2021 are offered as a mix of face to face and online learning. We continue to monitor government and local authority guidance in relation to Covid-19 and we are ready and able to flex accordingly to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff.
Contact time is subject to increase or decrease in line with restrictions, potentially to a full online offer, should restrictions increase in future. Our online activity will be delivered through Blackboard Ultra, enabling collaboration, connection and engagement with materials and people.
Please get in touch using the contact form above for the most up to date information regarding start dates.
Campus locations
Study method
- In-class
- Blended
- Online
Locations
- England
- London

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Duration study load
- January start – 24 months
- May start – 16 – 18 months
- September start – 21 months
Entry requirements
Academic requirements
- A first degree, equivalent to a 2.2 honours classification
- Applicants who do not have such an academic qualification but do have substantial experience of working in a business organisation and/or possess a relevant professional qualification will also be considered
If you don’t meet the academic requirements
Applicants who do not meet the academic requirements but who do have substantial experience of working in a business organisation and/or possess a relevant professional qualification will also be considered. If you are unsure if you meet the entry criteria, please contact us and our team will be able to advise you.
English language requirements
Students require IELTS 6.5 (or above) with no single element below 5.5 or equivalent.
Course features
- Develop expertise in business analysis using contemporary tools and techniques for analysing big data
- Prepare yourself for the SAS Global Certification in the Business Intelligence module
- Newcastle Business School is part of a select group of business schools worldwide, following accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in business and accounting – the first in Europe to gain the double accreditation
- Upon completion of your programme, you will be eligible for the QA Professional Pathways programmes which will enable you to further develop your skills with one of the UK’s largest providers of IT and project management training
- The Advanced Practice includes an Internship or Group Consultancy Project, enhancing your employability with all-important work experience
Assessment
Assessment is based on coursework and our methods include essays, reports, group work and presentations.
Delivery
Your tutors will use a variety of teaching methods including lectures, seminars and workshops, totalling around 14 hours per week. As this is a Masters course there is a major element of independent learning and self-motivated reflection.
You will also be expected to engage in an independent study involving directed and self-directed learning, around 33 hours per week.
Teaching is backed up by a well-designed support system that helps ensure a successful learning journey. We make sure that extensive feedback, from both tutors and peers, is built into the course.
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is embedded throughout the course with tools such as the ‘Blackboard’ eLearning Portal and electronic reading lists that will guide your preparation for seminars and independent research.
Advanced Practice Stage
The Advanced Practice version of this course offers you a valuable opportunity to secure a work placement or complete a group consultancy project, giving you the experience of the workplace environment or live business issues, and an excellent way to put your learning into practice. This stage of the programme will take place between your second and final semester, and is a semester-long (15 weeks) in duration. Internships as part of the Advanced Practice stage may be paid or unpaid. The alternative consultancy module allows you to work in teams with a business organisation working on consultancy-based projects on real business scenarios. Whether you choose the internship or consultancy project you will successfully develop your business skills and further enhance your employability.
Subjects
This module engages you in personal and professional development in order that you develop and hone your team working, management and leadership skills, capabilities and attributes, and in so doing, enhance your employability. On this module, you will not only prepare for your first job after you graduate but also kick-start your commitment to life-long personal and professional learning. In the first part of the module, you will be supported in self-analysis by a range of activities, including the completion of self-administered tool-kits to demonstrate an increased self-awareness and self-understanding.
A key outcome of this process is how you will be able to exploit this development in order to lead, and manage, more effectively in your future careers. The second part of the module contains activities which enable you to build on your self-analysis and explore further your strengths, weaknesses and areas for development in the context of your career development plans.
This will also include the development of knowledge into the global graduate market, (including routes such as self-employment and developing your career with an existing employer) drawing upon local, national and international examples.
This module will provide you with essential knowledge and analytics skills needed for you to complete a high-quality Masters’ Dissertation, or Consultancy Project. By undertaking and reflecting on practical research-based activities you will understand the process of designing and carrying out a research study, also you will engage in activities that involve the understanding of data and analysis of data.
This will place you in a strong position to undertake your own Masters’ level research or Consultancy Project. At the end of the module, you will write a research proposal, this will be assessed and will contribute to your final mark. In the dissertation you will work under the supervision of a member of academic staff and your proposal will also help to ensure you get the most from this relationship.
This is a 40-credit core module running in the first semester of the MSc Business with programme and is developed for those of you who have little or no prior business and management subject experience. The aim of the module is to introduce you to the main business functions – Finance, Marketing, HRM, Operations, Strategy – and show how each can contribute to the competitive advantage of a firm and hence enable the firm to achieve its strategic objectives. The content of the module comprises six key parts which are listed below.
In this module, you will explore the important role of the website in an organisation’s digital marketing strategy.
You will learn the principles of website evaluation and will use analytic tools for the analysis of web data to help measure the effectiveness of web marketing and improve the user experience.
In this module, you will explore the important role of business intelligence to support an organisation’s effective decision making.
You will be introduced to data management strategies and the use of business analytic tools for the analysis of organisational data.
The aim of this module is to equip you to:
- Develop an appropriate organisational strategy for data-management, including its storage, accessibility and readiness for decision making
- Identify the applications for, and critically apply, business intelligence across a range of organisational contexts
- Employ various analytics tools to organisational data analysis and decision making
- Develop and critically evaluate data-management processes
- Develop critical decision making and communication skills
- To be in a position to take a SAS certification as part of your broader Continual Professional Development
The aim of this module is to support your study, language and communication skills for academic purposes in the study in your chosen discipline at the postgraduate level.
The module is designed to enable you to become an advanced independent learner. The module is supported by a teaching and learning plan which outlines the formal sessions. Interactive workshops will be tailored to address some of the specific issues that you meet within your discipline.
You may also be asked to complete some preparation tasks for some seminars but these will be kept to a minimum. You will be expected to identify those skills which you need within your postgraduate programme, and to develop these independently through a range of learning activities that might include extended reading, and reflection.
Within this module, you will record your learning experience gained by undertaking a semester outside of the University as part of your Masters’ programme by means of Internship at an external organisation and it will enable you to assess the learning that has taken place in the University with a “real-world” business experience.
In this module, you will gain an understanding of the academic skills that are required to produce a Masters Dissertation. By the end of the module, you will have written a 3000-word dissertation proposal and a 15000 word Masters dissertation.
As a student enrolled on one of the 2-year Advanced Practice Programmes you may undertake a group consultancy project within the first semester of your second years of Masters’ study (the alternative is an Internship). Through your work-based experience, you will develop abilities as a problem solver with valued investigative, theoretical and practical business skills. This work-based experience will last the length of the semester and involve the examination of a complex organisational problem or commercial opportunity.
By undertaking this module, you will have enhanced your individual skills, knowledge, effectiveness and employability by locating learning and development within a work-based context and will have critically reflected and evaluated upon organisational practices and the relation with academic theory.
You will undertake a group consultancy project within the Business Clinic during the first semester of your second year of Masters’ study. Through your work-based experience, you will develop the ability as a problem solver with valued investigative, theoretical and practical business skills. This will last the length of the semester and involve the examination of a complex organisational problem or commercial opportunity.
This second year, the second-semester module will involve the development of the client-oriented management report and presentation alongside an individual literature review and personal reflection.
In this module, you will gain an understanding of the academic skills that are required to produce a Masters Dissertation. By the end of the module, you will have written a 3000-word dissertation proposal and a 15000 word Masters dissertation.
About Northumbria University London
QA Higher Education works in partnership with Northumbria University to deliver courses at the Northumbria University London Campus. The London Campus offers industry-focused Business, Computing, IT, Cyber Security and Project Management courses amid the buzz of London’s business and financial district.
Our academic experts and professional support staff are committed to giving students an educational experience that will set them up for life. We offer cutting-edge courses that are at the forefront of current knowledge and practice and are informed by global perspectives.
Response to Covid-19
Our focus is on providing a safe and welcoming learning environment and ensuring continued access to learning.
As a result of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and resulting social distancing requirements, we are intending to teach this course using a mix of on-campus and online learning activities. We continue to be guided by the Government to ensure our campus is Covid-secure.
NU’s legal disclaimer
All information is accurate at the time of sharing. Courses starting in 2021 are offered as a mix of face to face and online learning. We continue to monitor government and local authority guidance in relation to Covid-19 and we are ready and able to flex accordingly to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff.
Contact time is subject to increase or decrease in line with restrictions, potentially to a full online offer, should restrictions increase in future. Our online activity will be delivered through Blackboard Ultra, enabling collaboration, connection and engagement with materials and people.