COURSE SPECIFICATION
Course Aim and Title Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Intermediate Awards Available Postgraduate Certificate in Business
Management (60 credits)
Postgraduate Diploma in Business
Management (120 credits)
Teaching Institution(s) UEL
Alternative Teaching Institutions N/A
(for local arrangements see final section of
this specification)
UEL Academic School Royal Docks School of Business and Law
UCAS Code N000
Professional Body Accreditation N/A
Relevant QAA Benchmark Statements Subject Benchmark Statement: Master’s Degrees
in Business and Management 2023
Additional Versions of this Course MBA with Placement
MBA (Fintech)
MBA (Fintech) with Placement
MBA (Digital Marketing)
MBA (Digital Marketing) with Placement
MBA (Entrepreneurship)
MBA (Entrepreneurship) with Placement
MBA (Business Analytics)
MBA (Business Analytics) with Placement
MBA (Project Management)
MBA (Project Management) with Placement
MBA (Supply Chain Management)
MBA (Supply Chain Management) with
Placement
MBA (Sustainable Business)
MBA (Sustainable Business) with Placement
Date Specification Last Updated February 2025
Course Aims and Learning Outcomes
The RDSBL MBA is open to the world and challenges you to become the best you can be. It is based
in the vibrancy of East London and led by expert academics to offer an accessible, flexible and
stimulating springboard into your chosen career. Your journey to becoming a Master in Business
Administration will include simulations, experiential and practice-based learning, exposure to
experts from industry and politics as well as opportunities to build your personal capital and global
network for continuous professional growth. The course prepares you for a changing world by
developing your talents in enterprise, decision making, critical thinking and responsible leadership.
You will learn to operate strategically, collaboratively and sustainably, deploying emerging digital
technologies to exploit opportunities and solve society’s problems.
This course is designed to give you the opportunity to:
• Take responsibility for your own professional business practice and career readiness,
guided by the MBA Coach
• Learn in a stimulating and diverse environment, taught by experts in their field
• Develop the essential skills demanded by today’s digital economy - notably creativity,
innovation and problem solving
• Exploit how AI is transforming and augmenting jobs, roles, processes and opportunities
• Apply knowledge and understanding to authentic and complex situations, including
sustainably within a global context
• Enhance your entrepreneurial competences, identifying opportunities and communicating
value propositions
• Grow as a leader, enabling you to generate original, innovative, and impactful responses to
social, political, economic and cultural challenges
• Engage in a range of activities and facilities including the Business Incubator, Bloomberg
Suite and Strategy & Marketing Lab
• Undertake specialisms through a range of pathways or focus on enterprise and innovation
in the core MBA
• Develop lifelong learning skills and become an MBA.
Course Learning Outcomes:
LO1: Value Propositions
Display mastery and innovation in and through value propositions, demonstrating advanced
intellectual curiosity and creativity in specialised areas.
LO2: Communication Skills
Communicate and lead effectively in complex and unfamiliar contexts, both orally and in writing.
LO3: Discipline Knowledge
Synthesise and apply advanced discipline-specific knowledge, research and techniques to solve
highly complex and ambiguous problems autonomously.
LO4: Digital Technologies
Critically evaluate digital technologies to make recommendations which will lead to innovation and
improvement.
LO5: Impact Awareness
Influence through your work a positive impact on the world, demonstrating ethical awareness.
Learning and Teaching
The Learning and Teaching Philosophy of our MBA builds on our commitment to transformative,
dynamic and future-oriented educational experiences. Through active and experiential learning, we
foster an enterprising mindset, challenging students to expand their horizons and reach their
potential. This includes opportunities for students to reflect on their skills, competencies and
ambitions, building their professional capital through a range of additional opportunities. We
promote collaboration, interdisciplinarity, creativity and inclusivity through an environment that
values diversity and shared ownership of the learning process. Our approach prepares students for
their chosen careers by equipping them with the necessary skills, knowledge, and professionalism.
They will also develop their professional business practice, guided by the MBA Coach
Our teaching philosophy is based on the following principles.
• Holistic: centred around creating all-rounded professionals, lifelong learners who are agile
and adaptable, able to think creatively, lead, solve problems and understand social, ethical
and global issues
• Industry Relevant: created with industry experts and leaders, addressing emerging global
trends and real challenges. Students enjoy networking opportunities, industry engagement
and a range of opportunities which they can bring into their learning and use to build their
social capital
• Digitally Affluent: reflecting the role of technology and demand for digital literacy in the
business world. Learning technology is embedded in the curriculum with AI deployed
across subjects reflective of how it is augmenting professional roles and functions.
Consequently, our MBA provides hands-on practical experience incorporating various forms of
applied, active and experiential learning alongside more traditional lectures, seminars and
workshops. These include:
• Flipped Classroom approach: prioritising class time for academic discussions, challenges,
practical application, problem solving and student engagement
• Authentic Business Projects: collaborating with businesses to provide opportunities for
students to engage with live business problems, consultancy projects, industry projects,
and internships
• Active Learning creative challenges, tackling case studies, making data-driven decisions
and working on simulations alongside group/individual presentations, reflective logs and
portfolios
• Business Pitch competitions: the opportunities to pitch innovative business ideas to
academics and industry professionals and potential engagement with RDSBL Business
Incubator and Accelerator
Throughout the learning journey, students are encouraged to leave their comfort zone and enter
their growth zone. Here they develop the confidence, maturity and attitudes that will support
them in becoming valuable contributors to today’s workplace. Students are encouraged to fail fast
and learn from this, as well as from their successes, taking ownership for their work and decisions.
The approach challenges MBA students to engage, network and communicate professionally,
actively seeking feedback. By completing the feedback loop and reflecting upon their work ethic,
they develop resilience, persistence and agility. By learning from doing, students build on, reflect
and connect a range of authentic experiences, allowing them to articulate what they have achieved
and what they offer. There are opportunities for authentic learning through use of the School’s
specialist facilities including the Bloomberg Suite, Marketing and Strategy Lab and Analytics space.
Learning technologies are embedded throughout the curriculum with VLEs built to facilitate active
learning journeys using the Prepare, Engage, Consolidate (PEC) principles. Adopting the Technology
Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) framework, the approach anticipates TEAL Gold alignment across
modules.
Pathway students are organised into Action Learning Sets under the leadership of Pathway Leads
and the MBA Coach and associated with a relevant RDSBL Industrial Fellow. This provides
opportunities to engage in their chosen discipline, understand the challenges faced in the sector
and build further their professional capital.
Assessment
Assessments are designed to be authentic, giving students the opportunity to apply their
knowledge and skills to address real life problems, scenarios and cases. Tasks are varied,
valid and verifiable, engaging students as co-creators of stimulating and interesting
assessments. They are aligned to the Learning Outcomes and integrated across the course.
We provide constructive and developmental formative and summative feedback, offered
by way of a positive dialogue supporting students to act upon it, improve continually and
become autonomous learners. Our strategy encourages students to reflect on their
learning by developing feedback literacy, foster active learning and develop transferable
skills.
Our assessments are inclusive though students with disabilities and/or learning needs
should discuss requirements the Course Leader to ensure they are always able to fully
engage with assessments.
Work or Study Placements
Students on the MBA with Placement route will undertake a 30 week work placement or
Venture Project worth an additional 120 credits. UEL will assist in finding a placement and
will advertise opportunities on the UEL Employment Hub. However, it is ultimately the
student’s responsibility to source a valid placement. To be eligible for placement, the
student must have studied all their taught modules and completed a mandatory
employability module. Academic placements are exempt from National Minimum Wage,
meaning they can be unpaid as they form part of an assessed academic programme. Further
details can be found in the placement handbook.
Course Structure
The MBA is taught at level 7 and comprises six 30 credit modules (180 credits). Students on the MBA with
Placement route will undertake a 30 week work placement worth an additional 120 credits. One credit is equal
to 10 hours of directed study time (this includes everything you do e.g. lecture, seminar and private study). In
addition to the core MBA, there are seven pathways each of which can also be completed with placement.
Students registered on Pathways take the respective core pathway module and are expected to investigate an
approved topic related to their specialism as part of the Business Insight Project.
The module structure of this course:
Available by
Credit
Module Core/Option Distance
Level Module Title Weighting
Learning?
Code
Y/N
7 Strategy & Leadership 30 Core Y
7 Next Generation 30 Core Y
Marketing
7 Mental Capital 30 Core Y
Operating Across the
7 30 Core Y
Business
7 Value Creation 30 Core to MBA Y
7 Business Insight Project 30 Core Y
Advanced Fintech Core to MBA
7 30 Y
Strategies for Impact (Fintech)
Core to MBA
Digital Marketing for (Digital
7 30 Y
Impact Marketing)
Enterprise & Innovation Core to MBA
7 for Impact 30 (Entrepreneurship) Y
Core to MBA
Business Analytics for (Business
7 30 Y
Impact Analytics)
Core to MBA
Project Management for (Project
7 30 Y
Impact Management)
Core to MBA
Supply Chain Strategies for (Supply Chain
7 30 Y
Impact Management)
Core to MBA
Sustainable Business for (Sustainable
7 30 Y
Impact Business)
7 The MBA Placement 120 *Restricted core N
The MBA Venture *Restricted core
7 120 N
Project
A student must have passed all core modules and awarded credit in order to achieve the
relevant named award.
*Restricted core - the MBA Placement or MBA Venture Project apply only to students on
the ‘with Placement’ route, who must take one of those two modules. There is also a
compulsory, non-assessed, ‘Consultancy Workshop’ for these students.
The overall credit-rating of this course is 180 credits (for the standard MBA) and 300
credits (for the Placement/Extended Work Project pathway). Should a student be unable to
achieve this credit, they may be entitled to an intermediate award, the level of which will
depend on the amount of credit you have accumulated. For further information, see Part 1
of the UEL Manual of Regulations.
Course Specific Regulations
N/A
Typical Duration
The duration of this course is 12 months full time study and 24 months for part time study
or 24 months full time study for those on Placement/EWP.
It might be possible to move from full-time to part-time study and vice-versa. Some
students make use of this flexibility which may impact on the overall duration of study.
The time limit for completion of a course is four years after first enrolment.
For September Intake:
Term 1 (Sem A: Sept. Dec.) Mental Capital [30 credits] - Next Generation Marketing
[30 credits]
Term 2 (Sem B: Jan – April) Operating Across the Business [30 credits] - Strategy &
Leadership [30 credits] - Compulsory Consultancy
Workshop [for Placement/EWP route]
Term 3 (Sem C: May – July) Enterprise & Innovation OR Pathway Module [30 credits]
- Business Insight Project [30 credits]
Industrial work placement OR Extended Work Project [2 x
Year 2 (Sem A & B: Sep –
12 weeks] 120 credits
April)
For January Intake:
Term 1 (Sem B: Jan – April) Mental Capital [30 credits] - Next Generation Marketing
[30 credits]
Term 2 (Sem C: May – July) Operating Across the Business [30 credits] - Strategy &
Leadership [30 credits] - Compulsory Consultancy
Workshop [for Placement/EWP route]
Term 3 (Sem A: Sept. – Dec.) Enterprise & Innovation OR Pathway Module [30 credits]
- Business Insight Project [30 credits]
Year 2 (Sem A & B: Jan –
July) Industrial work placement OR Extended Work Project [2 x
12 weeks] 120 credits
For May Intake:
Term 1 (Sem C: May – July)
Mental Capital [30 credits] - Next Generation Marketing
[30 credits]
Term 2 (Sem A: Sept. – Dec.)
Operating Across the Business [30 credits] - Strategy &
Term 3 (Sem B: Jan – April) Leadership [30 credits] - Compulsory Consultancy
Workshop [for Placement/EWP route]
Enterprise & Innovation OR Pathway Module [30 credits]
- Business Insight Project [30 credits]
Year 2 (Sem A & B: May –
Dec)
Industrial work placement OR Extended Work Project [2 x
12 weeks] 120 credits
Further Information
More information about this course is available from:
• www.uel.ac.uk
• MBA course handbook
• Module study guides
• UEL Manual of General Regulations (available on the UEL website)
• UEL Quality Manual (available on the UEL website)
• Placement handbook
UEL courses are subject to thorough course approval procedures before we allow them to
commence. We also constantly monitor, review and enhance our courses by listening to
student and employer feedback and the views of external examiners and advisers.
Additional costs:
Students are usually expected to cover the costs of travel to and from placements.
Academic placements are exempt from National Minimum Wage, meaning they can be
unpaid. Further details on placement are contained in the placement handbook
Alternative Locations of Delivery
In addition to being taught on-campus, this course is designed to be delivered through
franchise partnership, blended/online provision and modules as standalone/stackable CPD
including for Executive Education.
