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Teaching

You are taught through a combination of interactive workshops, lectures and seminars. Interactive workshops take a variety of formats and are intended to enable the application of learning through discussion and small group activities. Seminars enable the discussion and development of understanding of topics covered in lectures.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least four occasions during the academic year. You will be allocated a supervisor for your dissertation who will assist you with the selection and planning of a suitable and manageable research topic.

An optional internship (up to 6 months in duration) is available to all students, taking place on completion of the taught modules.  This internship will not be credit-rated but will allow the student to gain first-hand experience within a real business environment to enhance their future employability.  Students may also choose to make use of this opportunity to base their Research Project on a business-related issue arising during the internship. There may be possibilities, with the employer’s permission, to gain access to research participants and primary data, and to apply their understanding of theories and principles discussed within their programme to a live organisational setting.

Contact time

Each module will have a weekly session of two hours. In a typical week full time students will have around 8 contact hours of teaching.  For part time students, this will depend on the number of modules being taken.  Typically, class contact time will be structured around:

• Delivering theoretical content to address contemporary marketing issues
• Practical tasks relating theory to practice
• Discussions and group activities
• Case studies and other exercises

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, a full time student is expected to undertake around 30 hours of personal self-study per week, making this equivalent in total with contact time to working full time. Typically, this will involve reading, researching, preparing for group work, rehearsing presentations, preparing for assessments and exams.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources. 

Duration

• Full time students can finish the course in one year. Students who take the internship option will not be required to take extra modules, but their course duration will be extended by 6 months. 
• Part time students would normally complete the course in no less than two years, but the maximum registration period is 6 years.  They have the option of selecting up to 90 credits of study per year, but the Research Project should be the final module taken.

For September starters – without internship:

• Semester 1: September – January
• Semester 2: January – May
• Semester 3: May – September

For January starters – without internship:

• Semester 1: January – May
• Semester 2: September – January
• Semester 3: January – June

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration.

Please note that whilst we try to be as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week; and some classes can be scheduled in the evenings.

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

Feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test your understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assessments. Formative assessments carry no weighting but are important. They are designed to help you achieve your best in the final summative assessments. Formative assessment can take different forms such as student support teams, informal peer assessment, progress tests or mock examinations. It is also embedded in your ongoing engagement with tutors’ and is part of the personal academic tutorial system.

Each module has one or more ‘summative’ assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade. Assessment methods include a range of coursework assessments such as essays, reports, group presentations and a final year dissertation. The finance module will have an exam in it.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for a full-time student is:

Semester 1

• 1 Research proposal
• 1 Exam
• 1 Individual report
• 1 Individual consultancy report
• 1 Group presentation

Semester 2

• 1 Individual report
• 1 Individual presentation
• 1 Group presentation
• 1 Reflective essay
• 1 Exam

Semester 3

• Research Project

The precise assessment requirements for part-time students will vary according to the modules selected.

All assignments will be internally marked and moderated as well as being externally examined as per the ¾ÞÈéÎÞÂë  assessment policy. 

Teaching staff

Students will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course.

Teaching is informed by research and consultancy, and all lecturers on the course have or are working towards a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.

Further information about staff profiles can be view at the WBS Staff Profile Page.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please