Business and Human Resource Management via Study Centres BA (Hons)

Gain a solid business education with a focus on human resource management. Study for a UK degree from your own country. Graduate and start a rewarding career.

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Overview

If you live in Malaysia or Hong Kong, this course is a way to gain a world-class undergraduate degree from a British university without leaving your country.

Human resource management is an essential part of any successful business. This course will teach the framework of how to manage human resources, how to make informed decisions, and how to lead change in organisations.

Please contact your Study Centre for the duration and mode of this course.

Why us?

Places HRM in a business and management context to allow better understanding of the role of HRM within the organisation
Provides a critical examination of contemporary, global HRM thought and practice

Integrates both the personal and academic development of students
Available as a sandwich year course where you can engage in a 48-week industrial placement

Course structure

Throughout the course, you'll focus on learning by doing and reflecting. One technique is problem-based learning, where you’ll work within a small team to explore issues or decide how to manage a situation. This helps you to dissect, challenge, and debate issues. Other learning techniques include cutting-edge e-learning technologies. A typical week for you will include lectures, seminars, debates, tutorials, and workshops.

Your progress will be assessed by coursework, assessed case studies and business simulations, presentations, reports, essays, tests, and time-constrained assessments.

Course modules

Year 1 (national level 4):

Essential Study and Employment Skills (20 credits)

Gain the key study skills that are critical to your academic development and success. Develop your understanding and appreciation of the importance of transferable employability skills, as well as the importance of engaging in opportunities to develop personally at university and beyond.

Introduction to Marketing (20 credits)

Gain an introduction to the concept of marketing and identify the role it plays in our every day lives, whether that be the products and services we use, the price we pay, or how we’re communicated to. Explore how organisations look to build relationships with their customers to ensure mutual satisfaction and value is received.

Introduction to Human Resource Management and Talent Development (20 credits)

Examine how the effective deployment of human resources is essential to an organisation’s survival and growth through the cornerstones of human resource management practice, namely the key aspects of the HR cycle. Explore key concepts of recruiting and selecting, development, motivation, performance, rewards, and retention. Focus is placed on the use of theoretical best practice models and how they translate in reality to the workplace.

Introduction to Accounting and Finance (20 credits)

Explore and investigate the three key areas within the field of accounting and finance including financial accounting, management accounting, and business finance. Learn the role and importance of how financial information can be utilised by managers and external users within the decision-making process. Create and analyse key financial statements, understand the range of account options used by internal managers, and gain knowledge of various financing techniques that can be used to ensure business success.

Introduction to Managing and Leading People (20 credits)

Gain an introduction to the concepts of managing and leading people within an organisational context. Acquire an understanding of the role of managers and leaders in leading and managing the human aspects within the global organisational arena. Explore the key management and leadership activities associated with managing change to impact positively on organisational performance.

Introduction to Business Operations and Services (20 credits)

Explore the key processes and practices within businesses operations and services. Gain knowledge that will help define the nature of business operations and services by considering various aspects of quality, cost, and delivery. Learn how business operations are interrelated to other functions in business, for example, marketing, HR, and finance.

Some modules have prerequisites. Read more about what this means in our Help and Advice article.

Year 2 (national level 5):

Personal and Professional Development (20 credits)

Investigate the impact that your behaviour has upon your professional success. Engage with and reflect upon experiences and how they inform understanding of personal qualities that underpin your effectiveness. Use a structured environment to focus upon what it is that you want from the world of work and, just as importantly, to increase your chances of achieving it.

Quality Management for Organisational Excellence (20 credits)

Develop the ability to apply the concept of excellence in an organisational context. Gaining new knowledge will support you in appraising the EFQM Excellence Framework (European Framework for Quality Management. Developing your ability to recognise the difference in relationships between enablers and results that support identification of underpinning theories of excellence, leading to summarising of how organisations can be assessed using the excellence framework.

Business Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability (ERS)(20 credits)

Explore the various moral issues and dilemmas facing businesses in an era when people, governments, and media expect them to demonstrate responsible actions, ethical behaviour, and sustainable practices. Review personal values and reflect on how these might apply to businesses. Use case studies to investigate moral issues faced by firms today, examine the diversity of business environments they face, and contemplate the dilemmas they experience when doing business abroad.

Contemporary Developments in Human Resource Management and Leadership (20 credits)

Gain a critical knowledge base of the contemporary issues in the field of human resource management including equality, diversity, employee wellbeing, reward and engagement. Debate and critique potential external influences and the impact they have on the role, function and profession of human resource management. Consider the modern evolution of human resource management from a research and practitioner perspective.

Employment Cycle (20 credits)

Designing Learning and Development (20 credits)

Optional 48-week placement:

Applied Professional Practice (120 credits)

Gain a strong understanding of a business including the identification and examination of an organisational issue, initiative or process. Examine areas of value to the host organisation. Develop the relevant practical knowledge and skills under the guidance and supervision of an academic mentor and host business.

Year 3 (national level 6):

Developing the Reflexive Practitioner (20 credits)

Consider, diagnose, and express your professional behaviours and values as an aspiring manager and leader in finance, marketing, human resources, or management. Examine the module leader’s research which includes the ‘Developing the Reflexive Practitioner’ toolkit, a web-based guide for developing as professionals in the increasingly complex world of management. Present your reflections as podcasts or vlogs, or as digital reflections.

Managing and Leading Change (20 credits)

Develop the ability to analyse an organisation with particular emphasis on understanding contemporary issues in organisational change. Learn about managing and leading the process and human resource factors associated with identifying, planning, and implementing organisational change. Cover content shaped by challenges currently faced by organisations operating in a range of local, national, and international contexts, as well as relevant practitioner-based and academic literature.

Applied HR Project (20 credits)

Undertake field research in the human resource management field. Research and conduct a mini project which addresses a past, present, or future human resource issue. Base your project in an organisation which can be located within the UK or based overseas.

Exploring Equality and Diversity (20 credits)

Explore contemporary issues in terms of the protected characteristics of the 2010 Equality Act. Gain an introduction to the causes, consequences, and debates around discrimination and harassment in the workplace due to religious and faith identity, trans identity, gender identity, sexual orientation identity, invisible disabilities, and how these interact with racial, nationality, and national identity. Learn how to deal with the diverse nature of managing and leading people in a multicultural workplace. Present your research using a range of options including podcasts, vlogs, websites, and games.

Contemporary Employee Relations (20 credits)

Understand the ‘real’ world of employment relations and how it’s influenced by both the internal and external environments. Explore the differing stakeholders, economic climate, demographics, practices, and availability of talented and skilled workers. Achieve an insight into the complexities of how the contemporary employment relationship is managed and maintained today.

International Human Resource Management (20 credits)

Gain a rich understanding of human resource management within an international context, for example, what HRM is, what the key differences are between domestic and international HRM, what the role of national culture is, and the industry and management of philosophy. Learn about the fascinating impact on the organisational context to consider standardization or local practices, the driving forces that determine the adopted approach, international staffing approaches, and what control mechanisms can be used. Compare and contrast theories and approaches for delivering and managing the human resource management function within a global context.

Facilities

For more information, please contact the relevant study centre directly.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for United States. Please contact the Student Admin team on studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk or 0191 515 3154.

Please contact the study centre for more information on their specific requirements and equivalent qualifications from outside the UK.

Is your qualification not displaying here? For international qualifications, search our full list of international entry requirements for this course.

Fees and finance

Please contact the relevant study centre for information about tuition fees and scholarships.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Career ready

When you graduate from this course, you’ll be ready to take on a human resource management position in a wide variety of organisations. Some of the sectors that our graduates currently work in include technology (Microsoft, IBM), consumer goods (P&G, Nike, Adidas), banking (Lloyds Bank), hospitality (Marriott Hotels, Starbucks), and government departments and agencies.

Related courses

BA (Hons) Accounting and Financial Management (Top-Up) via Study Centres

Contact

Contact the Student Helpline for further information about studying at the University of Sunderland:

0191 515 3000

student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk

BA (Hons) Business and Human Resource Management via SC - prog spec (.pdf)

Page last updated: 23 February 2024

We aim to provide clear, accurate and timely information to prospective and current students. We continuously review and enhance course content in consultation with our students and the information provided on our website is the latest available. If you have received an offer from us to start a course, we will communicate any important changes to you in writing. We will always seek to ensure that our prospective students are fully aware of the basis on which they are accepting an offer.