Objectives | Structure and Duration | Course Curriculum | Assessment Methods | Graduation and Degree | Commencement Date | Entry Requirements | Application Procedure | Enquiry

The Master of Business Administration (Strathclyde Business School) is an internationally recognised management qualification aimed at talented, ambitious and well-qualified people with solid business experience.
In particular it:

Self-Development:

The Strathclyde MBA is based on collaborative learning – students share work experience, knowledge, understanding and skills. While the Strathclyde MBA draws on a number of specialist areas, we do not aim to train specialists. Rather, our purpose is to develop you in diverse areas of management. The MBA will shape and guide you as reflective, open-thinking, adaptive learners. This is facilitated through enhanced understanding of the interplay of theory and practice in management. The structure and content of the Strathclyde MBA reflect all these aims.

The Strathclyde MBA is a 180-credit programme comprising four stages, namely; The Reflective Practitioner, Making the Business Work, Strategic Management for Sustainable Success and Personal Development.

The Strathclyde MBA can be completed in 2 years part – time. However, students will normally take 2.5 years to complete and are given up to 6 years to complete the MBA (inclusive of Project).

The programme semesters are delivered in blocks of six months as below. Within each semester a group of subjects will be offered at our centre. The semester starts in October and in April each year. It is important you recognise that the programmes shown are intended as illustrative in order to indicate the minimum time that is required to complete the MBA degree programme.

The Learning Manager
Entrepreneurial Management & Leadership
Comparative Corporate Governance

Financial & Management Accounting – 10 credits
Finance & Financial Management – 10 credits
Operations Management – 10 credits
Managing People in Organizations – 10 credits
Marketing Management – 10 credits
Analytical Support for Decision Making – 10 credits

Exploring the International Business Environment – 10 credits
Strategy Analysis & Evaluation – 10 credits
Making Strategy – 10 credits

Strategic Consulting in Practice – 10 credits
2 Elective Units – 20 credits
MBA Project (inc. Project Methodology) – 40 credits

The programme semesters are delivered in blocks of six months as below. Within each semester a group of subjects will be offered at our centre. The semester starts in October and in April each year. It is important you recognise that the programmes shown are intended as illustrative in order to indicate the minimum time that is required to complete the MBA degree programme.

---

Students who commence the MBA programme in October will proceed through the programme in the following manner:

PROGRAMME A – OCTOBER INTAKE
SEMESTER 1 – OCT
Marketing Management (E)
Financial & Management Accounting (E)
Finance & Financial Management (E)
Exploring the International Business Environment
Programme Seminar

SEMESTER 2- APR
Operations Management (E)
Analytical Support for Decision Making (E)
Managing People in Organizations (E)
Comparative Corporate Governance
The Learning Manager

SEMESTER 3 – OCT
Entrepreneurial Mgt. & Leadership
Strategy Analysis & Evaluation
Making Strategy
Strategic Consulting in Practice
Project Methodology

SEMESTER 4- APR
Elective subject 1
Elective subject 2
Project

---

Students who commence the MBA programme in April will proceed through the programme in the following manner:

SEMESTER 1 – APR
Operations Management (E)
Analytical Support for Decision Making (E)
Managing People in Organizations (E)
Comparative Corporate Governance
Programme Seminar
The Learning Manager

SEMESTER 2 – OCT
Marketing Management (E)
Financial & Management Accounting (E)
Finance & Financial Management (E)
Exploring The International Business Environment

SEMESTER 3 – APR
Elective subject 1
Elective subject 2
Project Methodology
Project

SEMESTER 4- OCT
Entrepreneurial Mgt. & Leadership
Strategy Analysis & Evaluation
Making Strategy
Strategic Consulting in Practice

(The Learning Manager, Entrepreneurial Management & Leadership and Comparative Corporate Governance)
Credits: 20

The Learning Manager (6 credits)
The class aims to develop the managerial capabilities through developing their skills as reflective learners by enabling them to analyze their learning processes and ensuring that they appreciate core aspects of self-awareness and can effectively interact with others.

Entrepreneurial Management and Leadership (7 credits)
The aim of this class is to enable students to experience and reflect on entrepreneurial skills and practices that are appropriate to managing and leading organisations in competitive, uncertain and fast-changing environments.

Comparative Corporate Governance (7 credits)
The class aims to develop the managerial capabilities of students through analysing the importance of structural elements in promoting good corporate management.

---

Class title: Finance and Financial Management
Credits: 10

The primary aims of the Finance and Financial Management class are to develop an understanding of the principles of finance and financial decision taking, the nature of financial markets and institutions, and corporate financial theory. The principles of financial decision taking will consider applications covering personal finance, the public and private sectors. The analysis of financial markets and institutions will provide a general introduction to the financial environment. The primary focus of the class will be on corporate financial theory and this will address two basic questions. How should a company evaluate proposals to invest in additional assets (the investment decision)? And secondly, how should funds be raised to finance the purchase of these assets (the financing decision)?

Class title: Financial and Management Accounting
Credits: 10

The unit is designed to provide an understanding of accounting that is essential for any manager and to develop the ability to use accounting information, especially for decision taking purposes. The focus will be on understanding the nature and limitations of the information provided in the financial reports and to ensure that managers appreciate the significance of the financial implications of any decisions or policy initiation being proposed.

No previous knowledge of the subject matter is assumed and the emphasis will be on the needs of managers who are not specialists in accounting and finance. However, the class will also provide the basis required to undertake the more specialised optional classes in accounting.

Class title: Operations Management
Credits: 10

Operations Management refers to those activities which are more or less directly concerned with the creation and delivery of goods and services. Effective operations management gives organisations the potential to improve efficiency and customer service. The course is intended to give you a theoretical framework for thinking about operations in both manufacturing and service contexts and to describe some practical applications of operations management. In the course we will address key aspects of design, planning and control of operations systems, and to provide an understanding of modern operations management in a global context.

Class title: Marketing Management
Credits: 10

Marketing Management introduces major marketing concepts and techniques and the marketing planning process. This includes exploration of what marketing is, understanding of marketing orientation and buyer behaviour. The development of an appropriate marketing strategy for an organisation will be emphasised to enable the manager to make important marketing decisions. The changing role of marketing, within and between organisations, will be studied incorporating information technology, new organisational structures and different forms of market relationships.

Class title: Managing People in Organizations
Credits: 10

The purpose of this unit is to facilitate students in reflecting on the critical issues facing organisations: How do they function and why? Why do organisations take the forms they do? What are the contemporary problems that they face, and how do they respond to them? How do they influence individual behaviour and vice versa?

Organisational Behaviour (OB) is the academic body of knowledge that has been produced by social scientists investigating the preceding questions (and others like them). Human Resource Management (HRM) is the study of professional and strategic practices which seek to implement an understanding of OB in the organisational context. These areas of study are integrated in the Managing People in Organisations (MPIO) unit.

Specifically, OB is concerned with the study of human behaviour (both at the individual and group level) within formal organisations, and the study of the behaviour of organisations as distinctive social entities. HRM is concerned with the guiding philosophy of employment in an organisation and practices such as recruitment, performance management, development and reward.

The aims of the unit are to provide you with a range of concepts, insights and evidence that will enhance your understanding of contemporary organisational events and processes so that you can make judgements about your behaviour, and that of others, and can seek to influence organisational practice and outcomes effectively. In addition, the aim of the course is to provide an understanding of modern organisations in terms of the management of people, the strategies and processes of HRM, and to provide the basis for a critical review of human resource systems and techniques.

In short, the aim is to facilitate students in developing the knowledge about OB/HRM that general managers need when working in current business/organisational situations.

Class title: Analytical Support for Decision Making
Credits: 10

The broad aims of the class are to develop skills in the effective practice of business analysis through the application of basic tools and techniques and to develop an appreciation of the issues which may require careful management if the decisions made are to be based upon valid data and models.

Back to top

---

Class title: Exploring the International Business Environment
Credits: 10

The class aims to help students understand and become comfortable with the inherent ambiguity and uncertainty in the contextual (or macro) environment where the irreducible uncertainties lie and which impacts all organisations but which they essentially have no control over; this is distinct from the stakeholder or internal environments of organisations over which they have varying degrees of control.

The focus in the class is on the examination of an amalgam of contextual ‘driving forces’, the large-scale fundamental forces in the environment and their causal and inter-relatedness that bring about change in the patterns and trends that we identify as underpinning observable events in the world. In exploring these driving forces the time frame under consideration generally extends to 10+ years, and a wide range of subjects are covered using frameworks encapsulating the primary drivers and known by various acronyms, including PEST, STEEP, STEEPLE, and PESTLED analysis. An understanding of these forces and their interactions provides insight into the long-term dynamics and systemic structure of situations facing organisations, and the path by which the situations may move from their present state to each of several, plausible alternative future states. Such understanding is critical to support future-oriented individual and organisational strategic thinking and policy development. This then links to the two other subjects comprising the SMSS module, namely SAE which introduces a range of tools and processes for analysing the organisation’s stakeholder and internal organisational environments; and MS which explores organisational processes for developing and implementing strategic change within organisations.

Class title: Strategy, Analysis and Evaluation
Credits: 10

The class aims to develop students’ ability to work as managers within complex, dynamic and systematically interwoven organisational environments by providing them with structured opportunities to explore and understand the major management and economic theories, alongside the language of strategy and strategic management.

As indicated by the name of the class, SAE introduces students to an array of strategic frameworks and models used to critically analyse organisations and the competitive threats and opportunities arising from their contextual and transactional environments, which combine to influence business level strategy. Additionally, the class will provide students with tools and processes to develop and evaluate a variety of business strategies, policies and strategic options, relating these to the concept of the organisational ‘Business Idea’ as the key to strategic adaptation and sustainable competitive advantage. The class relies on experiential teaching methods and the goal of the class is for students to gain experience in undertaking rigorous in-depth analyses and formulating cogent, substantive and credible arguments defending the selection of options for a particular business situation. At the end of the class students will have experienced working under conditions of incomplete information, ambiguity, uncertainty, and time constraints, common characteristics of organisational strategic management and strategy development in fast-moving, competitive environments.

In addition to understanding and using strategic frameworks and models, SAE will help students integrate and apply material learned in the various functional subjects studied in the MTBW and RP modules. Students are also expected to apply their learning from EIBE which is more exploratory and open-ended in nature than strategy development specific SAE. The link is then made to MS in the SMSS module, which progresses to exploring organisational processes for implementation and strategic change in organisations.

Class title: Making Strategy
Credits 10

The class aims to develop students’ ability to make strategies for their own department, operating unit, Strategic Business Unit, in contrast to servicing a Chief Executive. It seeks to introduce in theory and practice the principles of negotiating strategy in a small management team.

Back to top

---

Class title: Strategic Consulting in Practice
Credits 10

Class aims
The class aims:

Class title: Electives
Credits: 10

You will be required to complete 2 elective subjects each of 10 credits. You may choose a combination from a particular subject area, hence developing your understanding of a subject to a greater depth, or you can choose electives from different subject streams according to your personal interest.

There is an extensive list of academically-approved elective classes, which is up-dated each year and circulated in January for selections to be made. Elective classes are taught at international centres throughout the year and at the summer school held in Glasgow during June.

Please note that elective classes are offered by subject specialists, who, in exceptional circumstances (e.g. illness, resignation), may be unable to deliver a class. Should this happen we will make every effort to find a replacement lecturer, but this cannot be guaranteed. Equally, a class may be cancelled if the number of students due to attend is insufficient for the meeting to be educationally viable. In either case we will notify you as soon as a cancellation becomes known, but the possibility of such cancellation should be borne in mind when making travel arrangements, as the School will not accept responsibility for travel costs.

Class title: MBA Project
Credits 40

The primary aim of the project is to create deep learning in an area of management chosen by the student. A variety of options are available regarding both subject and method of exploration, for example undertaking an applied managerial project, investigative hypothesis testing, investigative theory deducing or action research.

Project Methodology is specifically aimed at developing an understanding of alternative approaches to undertaking investigative projects and to better equip students to decide on their approach to the MBA Project.

Back to top

The programme is delivered by means of open learning materials, textbooks issued by the Strathclyde with tutorials and seminars conducted by Local Counsellors and/or Strathclyde University staff. In each subject, you will be expected to complete assignments which are usually included in the final assessment and there are examinations for subjects marked with (E).

This section specifies the criteria by which you will be assessed on the MBA. The MBA programme is divided into 4 stages with modules, classes and assessment elements defined as follows:

Module	Subjects	Credits	Assessment Element
The Reflective Practitioner	The Learning Manager**	6	Workshop – Pass/ Fail
	Comparative Corporate Governance	7	100% coursework
	Entrepreneurial Management & Leadership	7	100% coursework
Making the Business Work	Managing People in Organizations	10	50% coursework, 50% exam
	Marketing Management	10	50% coursework, 50% exam
	Operations Management	10	50% coursework, 50% exam
	Financial & Management Accounting	10	50% coursework, 50% exam
	Finance & Financial Management	10	50% coursework, 50% exam
	Analytical Support for Decision Making	10	50% coursework, 50% exam
Strategic Management for Sustainable Success	Exploring the International Business Environment (EIBE) *	10	100% coursework
	Strategy, Analysis & Evaluation**	10	100% coursework
	Making Strategy*	10	100% coursework
Personal Development	Strategic Consulting in Practice**	10	100% coursework
	Elective #1	10	100% coursework
	Elective #2	10	100% coursework
	Project (inc. Project Methodology)**	40	100% coursework

• **Compulsory Workshop
• To pass a class where there is an examination, you require to achieve an exam mark of 40% or above.**
• EIBE, SAE and Making Strategy – all assessment elements must be passed at 50% or above.

Students must first be eligible to sit an examination prior to registering. To be eligible a student must have:

There are two examination periods in an academic year:

All examination scripts are marked by University staff. The results are released after the Board of Examiners’ meeting in June (March exams) and in November (August exams)
Back to top

Upon the successful completion of the programme, graduates will be awarded the Master of Business Adminstration by University of Strathclyde.

Graduates have the option of graduating on campus at Strathclyde or attend the presentation ceremony in Singapore.

2 intakes a year.

The standard requirements* for entry to the MBA programme are as follows:

Application Fee of SGD 75 for Singaporeans and Singapore PR or SGD 107 for Foreigners is payable.

Please email us your CV so that we can arrange for a phone interview for you with Strathclyde Business School. Application fee is non-refundable.

For Oct 2012 Intake
Please go to the following webpage to put in your application online. Click on “Apply for Oct 2012 entry to part time MBA Business Administration (Admission Code: MBA 5)”.

Be prepared to answer the following questions: (we suggest you answer the following questions on a word document first and copy and paste your answers to the respective questions when you log in to submit your application)

1) Academic Performance (Do you feel your academic performance to date is an accurate reflection of your ability? If not, why not? (Max 100 words))

2) Provide a list of your extra-curricular activities in college, community and professional activities, in order of importance to you.

3) In no more than 100 words, please provide a critical self-assessment

4) What plans do you have if you are not accepted to The University of Strathclyde Business School?

5) Please explain your reasons for requesting exemption from TOEFL/IELTS test as part of your application (normally its because you have been educated in English)

6) The following 3 Essay Questions (no more than 500 words for each question)

Question 1 : Discuss an event or process from your work experience which has contributed to your personal/professional development, under the following headings:

i) Briefly describe the event or process.

ii) How were you involved and how did you respond?

iii) What were the outcomes?

iv) What did you learn that you could realistically apply in the future?

Question 2: What are your aims for your future career development? How will the Strathclyde MBA assist you in achieving your aims?

Question 3: Describe how your work experience could be used as a source of information for your learning and for contribution of group discussions.

1) Certificates and Transcripts (Academic & Professional)

2) CV

3) 2 References (we can provide you with the Reference template)

4) Digital Photo (high resolution)

Mr. Sean Tan
Tel : 6586 2378
Email : seantan@ymca.edu.sg

University website : http://www.strath.ac.uk/management/mba/
Back to top