MBA Finance and Sustainability

Rationale and Philosophy

The MBA has been shaped to form what the programme team believes to be a unique curriculum. It allows students to:

• Gain a UK Higher Education Institution accredited MBA.
• Study in their own time (in whatever time-zone in which they live).
• Study at their own pace (within the current period of University of Cumbria regulations for part-time study).
• Attend a residential event in the heart of the English Lake District, with opportunities for further travel in the UK if desired.
• Continue to live in their own country/location without disrupting family life.
• Continue to pursue their existing career without a break.

The MBA Finance and Sustainability programme aims to develop an understanding and critical appreciation of the theories, tools and techniques of leadership and management that will enable graduates to more effectively participate in leading organisational change. In doing so, the programme seeks to improve the quality of management as a profession. In particular, the overarching purpose is, in the context of the specific award, to provide students with:

• An advanced understanding of the management of organisations and the changing external context in which they operate;
• Opportunities for the systematic development of the skills of objective analysis, evaluation, and presentation to enable students to develop confidence in effectively appraising and implementing management strategies;
• An ability to apply knowledge and understanding of business and management to complex issues, both systematically and creatively, and to have a critical understanding of how business and management practice may be improved;
• A stimulating academic environment which is based upon the values of academic openness and critical appraisal.

The programme consists of the standard 180 Level-7 credits that constitute an NQF (UK National Qualifications Framework) Masters award, the content being informed by QAA (UK Quality Assurance Agency) benchmark statements for Business and Management programmes. 60 credits of the programme are provided by a dissertation.

Programme Outline

The scheme has been designed to meet the aims of the online MBA in a flexible manner and can be tailored to the individual preferences of each student. The MBA requires you to complete six courses plus a final dissertation. The programme consists of the following modules:

Introductory

Not-for-credit

Induction

This is the first module of the programme which gives an orientation to the course and the online learning style. It does not carry credits, and students are encouraged to go through the material in this module at their own pace and get accustomed to the online medium.

Stage 1

120 credits - Six taught modules

Core

• Organisational Behaviour
• Sustainable Finance
• Marketing Management
• Enterprise Ethics and Sustainability

Elective

Choose one of the following modules:

• Financial Management
• Information Management
• Money Management
• Corporate Strategy and Competitiveness (Based on material developed by the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School, and includes a mandatory residency in Zürich, Switzerland. This second residency is only required for those students who choose this module as an elective.)

Final Capstone

Strategic Management

Stage 2

60 credits - Individual dissertation

Dissertation Work

As an exit qualification, the Post-Graduate Certificate in Management Studies is awarded to candidates who have completed 60 credits (three modules), while the Diploma in Management Studies is awarded to candidates who have completed 120 credits (all six modules, including the residency) but have been unable to complete the dissertation. Students who achieve the full 180 credits, and have successfully completed the dissertation, exit with the award of Master of Business Administration (MBA).

Module Descriptions

There are no average courses within our MBA programme. We are bound to provide an exceptional learning experience, and there is no better way to achieve this aim than with outstanding courses. They have been carefully crafted by experienced professors and are all meant to make you a more successful and efficient manager.

There are no old-fashioned exams. Instead you are given real-life case studies and essays, which allow you to think critically about your company and your own career. All this might seem too glossy but there is one catch: we do not accept average candidates. Only individuals as outstanding as our values can find their way toward admission at the Robert Kennedy College.

Induction

Not-for-credit module

A not-for-credit induction module will be the starting point of the programme. The induction process is designed to familiarise you with the programme design, requirements and resources, as well as with the way online interaction, learning and grading will take place. After the induction you should be familiar with academic life, including academic writing, library services and library access, OnlineCampus access, and academic support services.

Organisational Behaviour

The aims of this module are to provide an introduction to core concepts of the way people are managed in organisations. To that end it will offer opportunities for study by prospective as well as experienced managers, to consider the history and development of management thinking and theory, using modern ideas to assess and evaluate their own personal experiences of organisations and dynamics. The introduction to the module will act as bedrock upon which other managerial ideas and processes can be developed later in the course.

Sustainable Finance

This module provides you with a comprehensive introduction to the field of sustainable finance. It offers analyses of the environmental, social, ethical and governance dimensions of different financial service sectors, and evaluates related initiatives from both private and public-benefit perspectives. The financial services addressed include: Assets, Debts, Insurance, Derivatives, and Currencies.

Marketing Management

This module aims at providing an appreciation of the marketing concept, and to examine the place of marketing in the business and its contribution to strategic objectives in consumer and industrial marketing operations.

Enterprise Ethics and Sustainability

This module provides learners with the opportunity to conceptualize ethics, responsibility, and sustainability in diverse global and local settings. It allows students to develop an insight into the sustainable development from economic, social, and environmental dimensions of enterprise practices as outcomes of implementing United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Financial Management

Elective module

This module aims to provide an introduction to financial accountancy and managerial economics. It accepts that you may join this programme without prior knowledge of detailed accounting, valuation or evaluation models. You are, however, expected to be conversant with business arithmetic, accounting and principles of finance as laid down in the entry requirements. The module will engage you in reflective and discursive argument on the materiality of different social, environmental and ethical issues.

Information Management

Elective module

This module enables you to develop a conceptual and comprehensive understanding of the manager’s role in relation to the leading of the effective management and use of information, information technology and information systems and to apply these within both organisational and strategic contexts.

Money Management

Elective module

The successful management of financial assets of an individual, a small business or a large corporation demands knowledge of financial markets, how they operate, what instruments and investment vehicles are available, and what macro-economic forces are acting upon them. This module is designed to provide a broad understanding of financial markets (as distinct from a narrow specialist approach) but with sufficient details of their many components so that you can make your own investment decisions and interact with specialist advisers. As an academic course, the module aims at providing the quantitative and theoretical underpinning to investment decisions. However, it also aims to be practical in the sense that you will learn how to make real decisions and interact with financial markets. The knowledge you acquire will be applicable in both your professional and personal lives.

Corporate Strategy and Competitiveness

Elective module including a one-week residency in Zürich, Switzerland

In cooperation with the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness of the Harvard Business School, Robert Kennedy College is offering this outstanding course designed by Professor Michael Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School and the leading authority on corporate strategy and competitiveness. Taught by Robert Kennedy College Deputy Dean and Harvard Business School MBA graduate Professor David Duffill, this course explores the determinants of national and regional competitiveness building from the perspective of firms, clusters, sub-national units, nations, and groups of neighbouring countries.

The course is concerned not only with government policy, but with the roles that firms, industry associations, universities, and other institutions play in competitiveness. It takes examples from both advanced and developing economies, and addresses competitiveness at multiple levels. Students who take this elective have access to the exclusive video lectures of Professor Porter and are required to attend the residential session in Zürich, Switzerland.

Strategic Management

This module aims to develop your knowledge and understanding across a range of appropriate topic areas, to undertake an analysis of inherent strategic complexity with a view to selecting appropriate conceptual ‘tools’ for strategic development. The module will develop your awareness of the complex inter-relationship of organisational problems and develop your critical ability to select and ‘argue’ for alternative approaches emanating from conceptual alternative dimensions in relation to organisational problems and strategy. In addition the module will develop your ability to select complementary approaches and/or techniques appropriate for a stated problem and apply them to resolve or improve the problem. The module seeks to extend your current cognitive and transferable skills applicable across the manager’s role. These include self-appraisal, problem-solving, communication, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Aims and Outcomes

Programme Aims

The overall aim of the MBA Finance and Sustainability programme is to provide you with the opportunity to engage in a Higher Education experience using a flexible and distributed learning approach that will enhance your ability to develop and lead a sustainability agenda that focuses on change in the financial sector. In particular this award will:

• Provide a comprehensive introduction to the field of sustainable finance with an analysis of the environmental, social, ethical and governance dimensions of different financial service sectors, and evaluating related initiatives from both private and public-benefit perspectives. The financial services addressed include: Assets, Debts, Insurance, Derivatives, and Currencies.
• Enable you to engage in a critical engagement with contemporary discourses in sustainability and the social responsibility of organisations, that will promote a personal and professional reflection on leading change, in the finance sector.
• Develop relevant management and organisation knowledge, both academic and professional, in line with postgraduate standards/benchmarks.
• Develop critical reflection skills and engagement with organisation and professional theory to understand, and where appropriate, challenge existing individual and organisational perspectives and practices.
• Develop, and where appropriate, apply new knowledge to add value by enhancing organisational capability.
• Develop understanding of the organisation’s strategic focus and environment and the impact of the inter-relationship between resources, customers, clients in a changing context.
• Develop further commitment to continuous personal and professional development, independence and reflective learning.

Learning Outcomes

This programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding

• The role and function of organisations and the context in which they operate, including the key drivers of change.
• The core disciplines of business and management including finance, human resource management, marketing and strategic planning at middle/senior management level.
• The range of research methods that can be applied to the study of business management and leadership.
• The application of strategic thinking to the successful management of organisations including a critical understanding of the processes of strategic problem-solving and decision-making.

Employability Skills

• Practical and theoretical understanding in the field of management, Sustainable Finance.
• Leadership and critical analysis skills.
• Advanced analytical skills: Applied learning acquired to the extensive use of case-study analysis.

Qualities, Skills and Other Attributes

• Critical thinking and critical appraisal used for problem solving applied to complex issues in business and management.
• Interpreting and abstracting meaning from a variety of sources .
• Exercising judgement and understanding in relation to various issues and practice.
• Engage in information retrieval, organisation and effective dissemination, including presentation skills.
• Effective performance within a team environment and the ability to recognise and utilise individuals’ contributions in group processes; team selection, delegation, development and management.
• Demonstrate an ability to conduct independently managed research into international business issues.
• Numeracy and quantitative skills including effective use of ICT.
• Two-way communication skills, e.g. negotiation and persuasion.
• Personal effectiveness: self-awareness and self-management; time management; sensitivity to diversity in people and different situations; the ability to continue learning.
• Numeracy and quantitative skills including the use of models of business situations; qualitative research skills.