MBA

Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University

Edinburgh Business School (EBS) is the graduate school of business of Heriot Watt University. EBS enjoys a worldwide recognition in its MBA programme. Heriot-Watt University, founded in 1824, is one of the most established University in the United Kingdom (UK). It was awarded the Royal Charter in 1966, the highest level of accreditation for educational institutions in the UK.

EBS has generated over 9,000 MBA students in the last decades and has student networks across 150 countries. In recognition of its success, the program was awarded the 1994 Queen's Award for Export Achievement, an award that it received for the second time in 1999.

Program Options

Modules List:

1. Full-time MBA

2. Part-time MBA

3. Online MBA

For General MBA (7 core from List A + 2 elective modules from List B)

Entry Requirements
*subject to matriculation by university

Singaporean and International Students

Admission: A first or second class honours degree or its equivalent.

Special Routes (alternatives)
•  Professional qualifications (CIM, ABE, ACCA, IAM) or its equivalent.
•  Conditional Entry (passing the Postgraduate Cert.)

Assesssment

Each module is assessed by a 3 hour written examination. Students are permitted a maximum of two examination attempts for each module.

All scripts are graded by Heriot-Watt University examiners and are subjected to review by external examiners from other leading UK Universities.

Fee Structure

Examination Period

Exams are held every June and December each year. (Registration of exam closes 1st March for the June Exam and 1st September for the December exam.)

Achieving Milestones Along The Way

Intermediate postgraduate awards can be collected en route to your final MBA degree. Edinburgh Business School offers the awards shown in the diagram.

Certificate of Achievement awarded - For every module passed

Postgraduate Certificate in Business awarded - Passed 3 modules (include 1 core)

Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration awarded - Passed 6 modules (include 1 core)

CORE MODULE SYNOPSIS FROM LIST A

Accounting
The thrust of the Accounting course is managerial in nature. A successful manager needs to cut through the information system to reach the accounting numbers that really matter, i.e. those that could influence a decision. But first the manager must understand how these numbers are put together before being in a position to spot which ones are critical. The course will provide you with the background and the cutting tools. The mystique surrounding accounting will be removed!

Economics
The objective of the microeconomics section is twofold: to spell out the strengths and weaknesses of the free enterprise system in a politically unbiased fashion and to highlight the economic principles and tools essential for rational decision making in a company. Major microeconomics topics include: economic concepts, issues and tools; the price mechanism; demand; productivity, costs and supply; markets, economic efficiency; organisation of industries; public goods and externalities; income distribution; international trade and exchange rates. The objective of the macroeconomics section is to clarify the national and international economic environment within which firms operate. It is concerned with inflation, unemployment, exchange rates and the potential impact of monetary and fiscal policies. Major macroeconomics topics include: national output, expenditure and income; potential, real and money gross national product; fiscal policy and the multiplier; investment expenditure.

Finance
The principal objective of the course is to capture the most important modern ideas in corporate finance. It has been structured as a logical progression of ideas, starting at a rudimentary level and progressing to an advanced level of financial sophistication, Finance is a theoretical subject with important applications to decision making. It establishes the link between company decision-making and the operation of capital markets.

Marketing
The course deals with the marketing management process, focusing particularly on the steps in the analytical and decision - making process involved in formulating, implementing and controlling a strategic marketing programme for a given product-market entry.

Organisational Behaviour
The objective of the course is to provide students with an understanding of the importance of individual differences, work attitudes and their antecedents and consequences, and the role of process and content theories of employee motivation and performance. These are the fundamental aspects of human behaviour in work settings.

Project Management
Project Management tools and techniques are amongst the most widely used in managing change. Whether a bunch of materials and resources are being changed into a house or some other construction, a cultural change initiative is being undertaken, an IT system is being developed and implemented or a wide range of other changes are being pursued, project management tools and techniques are likely to be employed to provide control and completeness from inception through to implementation. The aim of this course is to provide participants with an understanding of the main elements of project management. It will consider the organisational and people issues surrounding projects and will give a practical insight into project management tools and techniques. Finally, the course will look at the functional and general management skills and knowledge required by successful project managers today.

Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning is a process which involves setting company objectives, choosing among alternative courses of action, allocating resources and evaluating outcomes. While Strategic Planning is an evolving subject, it is firmly based on the concepts and ideas developed in other compulsory courses. The course aims to demonstrate how these ideas and concepts can be applied within a Strategic Planning framework; while there are no 'correct' answers to strategy issues, the Strategic Planning approach provides a structure within which complex problems can be resolved.

ELECTIVE MODULE SYNOPSIS FROM LIST B

Alliances & Partnerships

Competitive Strategy
This elective is about strategic choices. It looks at alternative directions (such as vertical moves, new markets and technologies, international expansion) and alternative means for pursuing these directions (such as internal expansion, acquisition, alliance). Competitive Strategy develops a set of analytical approaches and tools to help formulate and evaluate these strategies on a topic by topic basis. The objective of this elective is to provide a unified and integrated framework to assist in the process of strategy formulation

Consumer Behaviour
Consumer behaviour is something we all engage in every day. We buy and use goods and services constantly - to eat, to wear, to read, to watch, to play, to travel in, to keep us healthy, to make us wealthy and, if not wise, at least better educated. The prevalence of consumption is such that we are often unaware of its importance in shaping our lives and this elective adopts a psychological approach to its subject matter. Exploring the implication this view of consumer behaviour has both for individual consumers and for marketers provides us with the major objectives of the course. Why consumers buy what they buy and how they respond to marketing and advertising influences are the crucial issues dealt with in this course.

Corporate Governance

Decision-Making Techniques
The fundamentals of good decision-making are, first, a clear understanding of the decision itself and, second, the availability of properly focused information to support the decision. Decision-making techniques help with both of these problems. Their value has been greatly increased in recent years through PCs which have made the power of the techniques available to general managers. However, the techniques should be thought of as aids to decision-making and not substitutes for it. The course covers a variety of techniques, namely decision analysis, advanced decision analysis, linear programming, simulation, project planning and computers and decisions, aimed at providing support for a wide range of decisions: from timing the launch of a new product, to portfolio management, to managing a hospital construction project.

Govt, Industry & Privatisation
The objective of this course is to make you aware of the important influence exercised by government on the actions of companies. The coursework is designed to explain what happens when a government deliberately and systematically tries to alter the behaviour of companies. It performs this task by using a framework derived from economic analysis in which the government is the 'principal' and companies are its 'agents'.

History of Financial Markets
There are important lessons from history which are typically locked up in the heads of older practitioners in the field and which each succeeding generation appears to find it necessary to learn afresh. The intention of this course is to set out these important lessons and provide fund managers with an historical context within which current events can be interpreted. It is much more than a chronology of events and attempts to explain the mix of factors that make up the dynamics of financial markets in a historical context (valuations, regulation, taxes, development and role of institutions etc).

Human Capital Management

Human Resource Management
Human resource management (HRM) is concerned with the effective management and utilisation of human resources in organisations. For most organisations, human resources are their greatest assets and the optimal utilisation of these resources is the key to competitive advantage in today's increasingly harsh economic environment. Moreover, because effective human resource management is now so crucial for success, many organisations regard HRM as the responsibility of all managers, not just specialists in personnel management, as was often the case in the past. By the end of this course managers will understand HRM from both a strategic and an operational perspective. From a strategic point of view, HRM policies and activities are designed to support and reinforce more general business strategies and objectives. At an operational level, HRM is concerned with the design and implementation of procedures to optimise the day-to-day management of people in organisations.

Influence
Influencing is the process by which we obtain what we want by affecting the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of others over whom we may have limited or no authority but who are able to make decisions that affect ourselves and our organisation. It is about understanding how managers deal with other managers upwards and sideways in, across and between organisations. Influence or be influenced, that is the iron law for working with other people. This elective explains how people are influenced, how to exert influence, how to develop relationships with those around us to achieve personal and organisational goals and how to recognise influencing games played by other managers. These are essential skills for anybody wishing to put into practice the outputs of all the other courses in the Edinburgh Business School MBA.

International Marketing
The economic, political and social changes that have occurred over the last decade have dramatically altered the landscape of global businesses. Emerging economies hold the promise of huge markets in the future and in the mature markets of the industrialised world opportunity and challenge abound as consumers' tastes become more sophisticated and complex. As global economic growth occurs, understanding marketing in all cultures is increasingly important. This elective addresses global issues and describes concepts relevant to all international marketers. Emphasis is placed on the strategic implications of competition in different national markets. The course provides an approach and framework for identifying and analysing the key cultural and environmental characteristics of any nation or global region and highlights the importance of viewing international marketing management from a global perspective.

International Trade & Finance
International economic influences are becoming increasingly important to companies in all countries. Obviously companies involved in exporting and importing goods and services operate within the international market place. However, companies attempting to raise finance or undertake investment decisions are also exposed to international influences. The course combines technical and descriptive material with analyses of managerial decision making problems. The objectives of the course are to explain why and how international trade takes place, examine the financial implications of an international economy and discuss the technical questions which managers must face.

Leadership

Making Strategies Work
Today, a key preoccupation of the CEOs of most organisations is how to make their intended strategies work in practice. There is no shortage of good strategic planning. However, the issues surrounding how to implement strategies are less well known. To make the planned strategy work a series of complex monitoring and control tools are required to keep the implementation of the strategy on course.

Marketing Channels
Channel relationships are increasingly important in creating market value and sustainable competitive advantage. This elective provides an up to date perspective of the relationships among marketing channels using the Channel Relationship Model (CRM). Issues considered include challenges and opportunities in the external channel environment, behavioural issues that beset channel relationships (internal channel environment), co-ordinations, conflict, co-operation, the economics of exchange and the development of channel relationships including the implication of acquiring strategic partners.

Marketing Research
The marketing research elective aims to provide students with a solid understanding of the marketing research process as well as the practical skills necessary to undertake marketing research of both a qualitative and quantitative nature, Detailed consideration is given to data collection methods, measurement instruments, sampling procedures and data analysis techniques. The emphasis of this course is on solving marketing problems using marketing research. Extensive case study material provides insights into the problems and practical applications of the research techniques.

Mergers & Acquisitions
As companies grow, develop, and enter new markets choices have to be made on the mode of expansion. The reasons for company expansion, the financial techniques involved in mergers and acquisitions, and the integration of often diverse organisations are typically treated as parts several different disciplines. This course integrates these elements. The focus is on providing the intellectual framework to assist the understanding of the diverse reasons for success and failure and techniques for implementing organisational change in this context.

Negotiation
Negotiation is one of several means available to managers to assist in the making of decisions. It is neither superior nor inferior to other forms of decision-making - it is appropriate in some circumstances but not in others. Deciding when it is appropriate to turn to negotiation, or away from it, is only part of the complexity of management. The course aims to provide a thorough grounding in the science and practice of negotiation. Various academic disciplines (economics, psychology, sociology, politics, anthropology and mathematics) have researched negotiation from their particular standpoints and much of this material forms the basis for the scientific analysis of negotiation.

Quantitative Methods
In order to make decisions it is necessary to have access to information. In the world of business, that information will often be in numerical form. The objective of this course is to enable students to make good decisions and to be able to organise and understand numbers. This is what statistics is about, and why it is important for managers to understand.

Sales Force Management
An integrated approach to sales management has a direct effect on sales performance. As well as providing a thorough and up-to-date overview of the accumulated theory and research evidence relevant to sales force management, this elective considers sales force management from a strategic perspective. Practical actions which sales managers can take to direct, influence and control sales staff are examined together with implementation issues including sales force recruitment and selection, sales training, motivation and reward. Evaluation and control of sales programmes are also key aspects of the course.

Stakeholder Management
Stakeholders include everyone with an interest (stake) in an organisation and range from organisations directors to individual shareholders, customers, suppliers, government and a range of other interested parties. Different stakeholders have different levels of power and influence. Effective stakeholder management is essential to the development and success of an organisation.

Strategic Risk Management
The issue of how to manage an organisation's strategic risks is high on the management agenda. At present there are no widely accepted methods for calculating and managing these risks, although some large organisations are now in the process of trying to develop Enterprise-Wide Risk Management systems to cope with this. However, such efforts are at a relatively early stage of development. The overall objectives of the strategic risk management course are to introduce the ideas behind risk assessment and management in general, provide a model for reducing strategic risk through planning, and to provide a general introduction to operational risk which can be a major component of strategic risk.

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