MBA Educational Leadership

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 Educational Leadership 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
• Marketing Management
• Models and Theories of Educational Leadership
• Enterprise Ethics and Sustainability

Elective

Choose one of the following modules:

• Financial Management
• Money Management

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.

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.

Models and Theories of Educational Leadership

This module provides students with the opportunity to explore and critically evaluate the nature of leadership from both the individual and the collective or depersonalised perspective, and apply them to their own professional context. In addition, students will critically analyse the relationship between leadership, educational purpose, pupil outcomes and tensions created in attempting to measure public value in a service characterized by complexity. Although there may be some bias towards UK practice in particular with respect to case study discussions, the programme should be considered global in terms of its coverage of leadership and education.

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.

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.

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 Educational Leadership 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:

• Further develop relevant business, educational management and organisation knowledge, both academic and professional, in line with postgraduate standards/benchmarks;
• Develop critical reflection skills and engagement with organisational and professional theory to understand, and where appropriate, challenge existing individual and organisational perspectives and practices (with a particular focus on educational management and leadership);
• Develop, and where appropriate apply, new knowledge to add value by enhancing organisational capability (within the Education industry);
• Develop understanding of an organisation’s strategic focus and environment, and the impact of the inter-relationship between the organisation’s resources and clients in the evolving global education environment;
• Develop commitment to continuous personal and professional development, independence and reflective learning;
• Develop particular expertise and understanding in the fields of education, business and management.