Credits Needed to Earn the Degree

ECTS Credits: 90 ECTS
UK Credits: 180 Credits

MBA Overview

This MBA program includes the following compulsory modules:

1.Global Strategies

In this module participants will develop and demonstrate expertise in their critical understanding of the global business environment in which modern organisations operates. Participants will be able to build their skills in developing and evaluating global strategies and associated marketing plans that harmonise an organisation’s objectives, capabilities and resources within the external opportunities of the market. This module will provide participants a critical understanding of global operations including business entry modes, opportunity analysis and market selection, global sourcing and off-shoring, and emerging economies. Participants will be able to identify, categorise, and assess the factors determining the extent to which strategic business implementation is required for success.

2. Managerial Finance

The Managerial Finance module is aimed at developing knowledge and critical understanding of the principles and concepts of accounting and finance for managers. This module aims to provide a working understanding and appreciation of how statements of profit or loss, statements of financial position and cash flow statements are prepared, interpreted, and analysed for decision making, including points of weakness and their shortcomings. This module is designed to provide participants with a critical understanding of how management accounting can assist managers in planning, control and decision making amongst others. In this context, financial information is used to inform strategic decision making in several ways. It also forms the backbone of many corporate performance monitoring systems. This module explores the synthesis of financial and managerial accounting information in a variety of strategic and performance monitoring contexts. The role of non-financial information is also explored.

3. Leadership and Organisational Behaviour

The effect of globalisation influences many aspects of the business world. Leadership Teams have responsibility to respond and to develop approaches that prepare organisations for the effects of and opportunities offered by globalisation. The purpose of this module is to provide participants with knowledge, critical understanding and to develop their leadership skills, including an understanding of their own leadership styles and how these may change according to situational circumstances. The module will cover: theories of leadership, the effects of leadership on organisational behaviour, situational circumstances and leadership style, an evaluation of published research on leadership and cultural differences as applied to leadership. The module will also cover effective team working and leadership styles, leaders and followers, and the role of leaders in organisational change.

4. Applied Digital Marketing

Top management has a central task to recognise and meet the expectations and needs of stakeholders. In this context, applied digital marketing plays a central role in the efficient running of a competitive organisation. This module is designed to develop in-depth knowledge and critical understanding of fundamental marketing concepts, assess decision-making implications in the digital world as well as offer rigorous training in the skills and techniques that will enable participants to apply theory and concepts in a wide range of practical contexts.

This module introduces marketing as an integrative management function. It draws together the activities of all areas of an organisation concerned with the planning, development, distribution, promotion and pricing of goods and services. This module examines the comprehensive perspective essential to Applied Digital Marketing decision-making, through relationships with customers, suppliers, competitors, society, and other organisational functions. This module covers significant areas within applied digital marketing, such as research, buyer behaviour, product planning, marketing planning, pricing, and distribution, focusing on managing these elements within an overall integrated marketing strategy.

5.Project/Dissertation

Following the successful completion of the taught module assessments and the taught phase of the MBA programme, participants will commence work on a dissertation/project which will be written up and submitted to a set deadline. An MBA dissertation/project must demonstrate a balance between management-related relevance and the intellectual and academic rigour. The dissertation/project aims to develop participants’ ability to analyse management issues of relevance to their work (or hypothetical issues in the case of participants not in work situations). Emphasis will be placed on scoping, developing, planning, procedural and evaluating skills. Participants will be required to conduct their research by prioritising various sources of published information (journal articles, specialist book chapters, website and other publicly available information), utilising quantitative and/or qualitative research methodologies, appropriate data analysis and data presentation, and empirical analytical approaches to discuss research findings and relate to appropriate published research findings.

Participants will be provided with one-to-one and small group supervision whilst conducting their dissertation/project. Participants are expected to show a high level of independent, self-directed study in their work with guidance and critical discussions with their tutor on their progress over the timeline of this module

Each of the five pathways consists of two additional 10 ECTS modules which are pathway-specific:

MBA in Global Investment Banking:

1.Mergers and Acquisitions

This module is designed to address the importance of an organisation’s mergers and acquisitions decisions. Such decisions are highly valuable and to some extent can damage value in an organisation. This highly important decision cannot be made without the critical and incisive analysis by financial and business-analysts in the mergers and acquisitions. This is taken one step further with the consideration given to private equity investments and the similarity and conceptuality of how they achieve their strategies through mergers and acquisitions.

Participants initially will be exposed to the analysis of financial statements and data using both hypothetical and real-life data. This module is meant to crystallise such early formative learning using a more advanced level of analysis to analyse and value companies in a mergers and acquisitions scenario. As such, this module has been designed to embrace the above topical areas in mergers and acquisitions and private equity.

2.Advanced Corporate Finance

Global capital and investment professionals must have a working knowledge of advanced corporate finance and equity instruments to carry out insightful analysis for value creation. In this module participants will be taught with a practical hands-on approach, problem solving and investigative enquiry skills in Advanced corporate finance and equity instruments. Participants will carry out critical analysis and evaluation with a view to designing and undertaking critical investigations into value claims. The aim of this module is to examine a range of topics and issues in corporate finance including capital budgeting, capital structure, cost of capital, dividend policy, long-term financing, corporate governance, corporate restructuring, and short-term financial management to equip participants with tools and techniques to undertake independent and advanced investigations in corporate finance. Emphasis will be placed on how investment and financing decisions interact with each other and how those decisions have implications on capital structure, takeovers, and corporate bankruptcy.

This module also provides participants with the technical and cognitive skills for undertaking critical analysis and valuation of simple and complex Corporate Finance and Equity Instruments, required for strategic planning, control and decision-making.

MBA in Marketing Management:

1. Contemporary Issues and Practices in Marketing Ethics

These are challenging times for the practising marketing manager. With economic uncertainties impacting marketing budgets and technological change outpacing managers’ capabilities in keeping up, there is a real need to re-evaluate the role of the modern marketing manager and to understand how to achieve efficiency, effectiveness and enhanced credibility in that role going forward.

This module engages participants in an active learning environment through exploring and examining contemporary marketing practices in organisations through interactive teaching sessions (for example, interactive lectures, team activities and workshops). Teaching sessions will include a number of marketing topics presented by academics, including practitioner guest speakers. Teaching sessions will engage participants in a series of advanced contemporary issues in marketing practices and related ethical considerations. Marketing ethics which will be discussed, and participants will critically reflect on their key learning, research and transferable employability skills. This module examines the typical remit of a contemporary marketing manager and the skills and competencies required of the job in today’s challenging environment. Using modern technology can help marketing managers better communicate with customers and make more and better-informed decisions.

2. Marketing Management Practices

The Marketing Management module provides participants with a critical understanding of key contemporary theories and approaches of marketing management practice. This module will enable the building of knowledge together with the application of the tools and techniques required to analyse different markets and factors that affect them. Participants will identify target groups and formulate appropriate marketing mixes within the marketing planning framework. The module explores the functions which embrace developing, planning, and coordinating marketing decisions to reach marketing goals and objectives required to build competitive advantages. Additionally, participants will gain an in depth and critical understanding of marketing strategy development, marketing auditing, marketing planning, service marketing, marketing management and domestic and global marketing environments.

MBA Project Management:

1.Procurement, Leading and Management of Project Teams

This Procurement, Leading and Management Project Teams module allows participants to evaluate projects and develop proposals for project management in industries of interest or within their own industries. Participants will learn about the nature of project management along with appropriate approaches, skills, tools, and techniques that can be applied as a project manager. Participants will consider projects within the wider context of programmes and portfolio management and on the process aspect of the curriculum by evaluating these and formulating and presenting proposals for the application of theory and for managing a project. Participants will consider the people aspect of the curriculum by evaluating related factors and how to formulate an individual report considering a specific project scenario.

2. Executing, Controlling and Closing a Project

The Executing, Controlling and Closing a Project module provides a comprehensive level of key skills used by project managers to manage projects successfully together with a critical understanding of project management. The module is not specific to any one industry but covers the core principles of project management that apply in all industries and to projects of varying sizes. Participants will consider the evaluation and application of appropriate strategies for the delivery and management of projects at intra- and inter-organisational levels. An important aspect of this module is the identification and evaluation of standards used in project management, together with an analysis of the importance of planning, controlling, and closing of projects in a particular environment. This will enable participants to identify practical applications of project monitoring, control systems, and the management of control issues, such as, scope creep, risk, quality, baseline changes in the context of project outsourcing, oversight, and contract closure.

MBA Management Consulting:

1. Management and Practice of Consulting

Management and Practice of Consulting: Facts, Theories and Issues, and Lifecycle module is designed to explore the relationship between top management consultant teams and their clients. This module takes a wholistic view of management consulting ranging from both the private and public sectors, best-practice consulting at the sharp end of contemporary management across all management disciplines. The module will require participants to deconstruct and negotiate a new consultancy project task, apply a range of frameworks to structure analytical thinking, apply techniques to complete the required research, and demonstrate effective presentation skills in communicating the final results to their client. The principles of effective consultancy and project management will be introduced alongside the barriers to successful intervention and how consultants manage risk. Case studies will be used to explore unique business situations and how businesses overcome and respond to challenges and the unexpected lessons they learned. The case studies are embedded within an explanatory framework that draws out common themes, relates the case studies to generic models, and discusses how their approaches can be applied in other businesses.

2. Behavioural Strategy and Cross-Cultural Management

As today’s business landscape becomes increasingly global, organisations need leaders who can operate effectively from anywhere in the world. Securing an international advantage requires executives capable of rapidly adapting to an ever-evolving, highly competitive global marketplace, mastering cross-cultural relationships and creating winning strategies that integrate both local and global perspectives.

This Behavioural Strategy and Cross-Cultural Management module enables participants to gain a critical understanding of behavioural strategy in a complex, cross-border, multicultural environment. In this module culture is defined and reviewed in its various classifications in business (and to a lesser extent in areas such as anthropology, psychology and political science). This module also identifies and evaluates the role of culture in business theories, and discusses a variety of conceptual, methodological and practical issues relating to the measurement of culture at various levels (national, industry, corporate, individual). This module also considers the complex task of capturing and assessing the cultural encounter, presents empirical evidence, provides illustrations, and sample cultural combinations. Participants will explore the skillsets of successful global leaders and discover what it takes to build a cohesive global multi-cultural team, negotiate international deals and lead at scale.

MBA Entrepreneurship:

1. Managing Entrepreneurial Ventures

The Managing Entrepreneurial Ventures module provides participants with an integrated strategy framework for entrepreneurs, knowledge on how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and managing entrepreneurial ventures. This module identifies the skills and competences required for an effective entrepreneur and managing entrepreneurial ventures in dynamic environments.

The module is structured around three areas: Strategic Planning and Management; Human Resource Management; and, Entrepreneurial Teams and Experience, Learning and Innovation. The building blocks put in place by this module will enable participants to develop management strategies based on SMEs and larger companies’ organisational and business requirements.

2.Entrepreneurial Finance

Entrepreneurial Finance module provides participants with knowledge and a critical understanding of the principles and concepts of private equity, venture finance, accounting and finance for managers working in an SME business or larger organisational environment. This module will provide a working understanding of how key financial statements are prepared, interpreted, and analysed for decision making, including points of weakness and their shortcomings. This module also aims to provide participants with a comprehensive critical appreciation of how management accounting can assist managers in financial planning, financial control and decision making.

Assessment  will be through a range of different types of coursework. Across the core and pathway modules of this programme the range of coursework assessment will include:

• Essays
• Case studies
• Literature reviews
• Individual reflective learning log
• Portfolios
• Group presentations
• Critical reflection of group/team work
• Posters
• Project proposal
• Project reports

Formative and summative approaches to assessment will be employed. Formative assessment tasks will be used in all modules and will be aimed at supporting participants to understand and prepare for the module summative assessment requirements. In this way, participants with different learning styles and abilities will be able to gain a good understanding of the summative assessment requirements and on their journey to submitting their summative assessments. 
Assignment briefs will be produced for each of the summative assessments required by each of the modules on this MBA programme. Assignment briefs will set out the learning outcomes being assessed, appropriate material, context, etc. for the assignment.

Suggested reading  will include book chapters, published articles and published research, weblinks to companies, and case studies, as appropriate, to the assignment brief. Each assignment brief will include marking/grading criteria so that participants have a clear understanding of what is required to pass the assessment and what is required to achieve higher grades. Grading of a participants assessment will be made using the pass, merit, distinction and fail criteria common to MQF/EQF Level 7 programmes of study.

Feedback will be provided to each participant on their assessed work identifying both areas of strength and areas that could be improved. Where a fail grade is awarded the participant will receive detailed feedback on the reasons for awarding such a grade and the areas that would need to be addressed for improvement.

Generic learning outcomes:
The learner will be able to: 

1. Understand and provide a critical evaluation different conceptual strategy frameworks and their application
2. Identify a range of contemporary issues in global strategic management
3. Describe and identify principles of corporate finance
4. Identify and demonstrate a critical understanding of managerial finance and risk measurement
5. Identify and and demonstrate a critical evaluation of theories of leadership and research on leadership
6. Describe and provide  a critical analysis the importance of leadership for effective organisational functioning
7. Understand and provide an analysis of digital marketing as a integrative management function
8. Describe the idea of product life-cycle and and applications to organisational planning
9. Understand and provide a critical analysis of quantitative and qualitative research methods as applied to organisational management
10. Describe, analyse and provide a critical analysis research findings and their relevance within the context of published research.

Skills learning outcomes: 

1. Demonstrate critical thinking, analysis, synthesis and problem solving in management as applied to different types of organisations
2. Demonstrate a high level of ability in decision-making using quantitative and qualitative research skills
3. Show abilities in locating, extracting and summarising data from multiple sources to address problems and issues in management
4. Apply accounting and finance terminology accurately and appropriately in a range of management and organisational settings
5. Show how information technology can be applied  and used in management and appreciate limitations and shortcomings
6. Apply a holistic approach to the analysis or organisations and challenging situations that may arise within organisations and require effective management
7. Demonstrate and practice effective group and team working and the importance of inter-personal skills to successful outcomes
8. h) Demonstrate time management skills, the ability to act independently in planning tasks and be able to arrange time and prioritise tasks
9. Show effective communication in English language (written, spoken and comprehension)
10. Demonstrate high level skills in the appreciation of published research, application of theories to management practice and critical literature reviews
11. Practice and develop leadership, management and professional skills to be able to pursue a career in senior management

Education
To be offered a place to study on the MBA programme prospective participants would normally be required to meet the following admissions criteria:

1. Possess the equivalent of a good UK honours degree – normally equivalent to a 2:2 or above.
2. Possess the equivalent of a UK degree below a 2:2 standard whilst being able to evidence an aptitude and/or relevant work/management experience to successfully complete the MBA programme of study.
3. Possess appropriate professional body qualifications (for example, ACCA or CIMA) at a level equivalent to UK undergraduate degree.

Recognition of Prior Learning
Prospective participants with relevant work experience, for example, having been or are working in a junior or middle manager role would also be considered for recognition of prior learning. Evidence of in-company formal training, professional development through attendance at external courses/training, for example, would also be considered and could substitute for the admissions criteria given in (a), (b) or (c) above. Recognition of prior learning for entry to the MBA on a case-by-case basis with evidence required to be provided by the prospective participant.

English Language requirements

To be offered a place on this MBA, prospective participants would be required to meet English language requirements. Prospective participants who do not initially meet these English language standards can take an English language course offered by GBS HE Malta to support participants to meet this English language standard, generally within three months.

Below are the scores required for our programmes for each of the tests that we accept:

*All test components taken within 2 years of start date

Other requirements
Commitment to study and achieve the MBA qualification in their chosen pathway.