MODULES
Foundation Year
CORE MODULES
Developing Academic Skills
The main aim of this module is to equip you and develop the academic skills necessary to study at an HEI. This includes an introduction to the structure of higher education and also the learning and study skills necessary to produce quality pieces of work.
Developing Academic Literacy
The aim of this module is for you to develop confidence and autonomy through ‘learning by doing’ process. It will help you develop your academic literacy, appropriate academic voice and skills and to express argument(s) by using credible academic sources. Additionally, it helps you to apply theoretical concepts/positions in their coursework and also to demonstrate these properly in written form. It is also designed to ensure you understand the concept of academic integrity and associated protocols and the use of Word and referencing tools such as Endnote.
Employability in Hospitality, Events and Tourism (Mental Wealth)
The main aim of this module is to familiarise you with the qualities required to identify, secure and retain graduate employment in the dynamic and customer centric industries of Hospitality, Events and Tourism Management. You will gain an understanding of the skills essential to working in the HET Industries to impact positively on the customer, ways of building relationships with customers and influencing positive experiences for the customer and business. This seeks to identify and meet the "soft-skills" and work readiness skills that most employers demand.
Inside Business
This module is designed to give you a broad introduction to the main functions within a business, and assess how associated decisions are made. The aim is to provide you with an understanding of the relevance of these key topics in preparation for future studies in Business or its associated specialisms.
Global Business and Enterprise
Connecting to Business and Employment through Volunteering
This module provides you with the opportunity to engage in an activity as a volunteer in a social enterprise or charity. The experience will enable you to witness business processes practice and enables you to identify and try different styles of work. The activity itself will offer you with valuable networking opportunities, the development of employability skills, and experience that can enhance your CV.
Year 1
CORE MODULES
Mental Wealth 1: Academic and Digital Proficiency
The module will equip you to succeed in both your studies and subsequent career. This includes the development of individual non-cognitive intelligence; digital proficiency; and cultural intelligence.
People and Organisations
This module will introduce you to the variety of work organizations. You will also understand and explore the psychological, sociological and economic explanations of human behaviour in organisations.
Foundations of Marketing
The main aims of this module are to introduce you to the fundamentals of the Marketing discipline, many of which are developed further in subsequent Level 5 and Level 6 marketing study.
Fundamentals of Business Accounting
This module will develop and prepare you for entry into the professional workplace or further studies in accounting and finance. As part of this module, you will learn and develop a sound basis of theory and principles, accounting techniques and skills necessary as a foundation for further study and practical experience in accounting.
Fundamentals of Economics
The module aims to enable you to develop an understanding of the basic economic concepts, theories, ideas and tools and their real-world application.
Business Statistics and Data Analysis
The module aims to deepen your knowledge of relevant mathematical concepts and statistics used in the business world.
Year 2
CORE MODULES
Mental Wealth 2: Graduate Employment Competencies
This module will provide you with the opportunity to document the development of core employability skills and allow students to acquire tangible evidence to support your employability narrative at interviews.
Marketing Research Methods
The purpose of this module is to introduce you to the process of research in marketing studies. The module will have four specific foci, firstly to outline the research process in terms of strategy, design, literature review and ethics in the context of marketing management studies. Secondly, the module will investigate quantitative forms of research, in terms of sampling, questionnaire design, experimental research, content analysis and data analysis using SPSS®. Thirdly, you will be introduced to the qualitative research paradigm in marketing, exploring topics such as ethnography, interviewing and focus groups as well as data analysis procedures using coding via software such as N-Vivo® and NUDIST®.
Finally, you will be introduced to mixed-methods research, doing research via online techniques such as netnography and the process of writing up marketing research. The module aims to prepare you for the task of conducting your own research project in marketing and will culminate in the development of a research proposal.
Integrated Marketing Communications
The aim of this module is to introduce you to Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) theory and to understand the role that digital media plays in delivering IMC to key organisational stakeholders. The module is structured around four key themes of IMC theory - firstly, the core concepts of IMC are developed and the ways in which marketing communications works with its audiences. Secondly, the ways in which IMC is managed is considered, including the structure of the industry and the ways in which marketing communications activity is measured is evaluated. Thirdly, the critical concept of branding is studied, such as how brand communications are leveraged, corporate branding and the more recent development of employee branding. Finally, the key aspects of the IMC mix are examined, including traditional above and below-the-line media, and the ways in which campaigns are planned and delivered. Crucial to contemporary IMC is the use of digital media, and the module will integrate a digital perspective throughout the content. This module will be pivotal in helping you to understand how organisations build and sustain relationships with their customers, employees, regulators, and industry partners and how digital technology supports and enhances traditional marketing communications tools.
Consumer Behaviour
The main aim of this module is help you to understand the behaviour of people as consumers by analysing the practices and processes involved in the act of consumption. This understanding precedes all marketing actions and is one of the critical components of marketing analysis essential for strategic decision making within a business context.
OPTIONAL MODULES
Digital Marketing
The aim of this module is to evaluate how marketing principles are applied within the virtual and digital realm and the challenges faced by managers in developing and implementing digital marketing strategies.
Managing Sustainable Operations
The aim of this module is to develop students’ interest, knowledge and understanding of how the processes of designing, producing and delivering products, services are carried out. This module has close relationships with other modules on the programme including those in the areas of competitive advantage, innovation, entrepreneurship and marketing.
Introduction to Accounting and Finance
Marketing Internship
The module will allow you to obtain an internship at Level 5 (which must be marketing in a role that would be considered as engaged with professional marketing practice in some way) where you will complete the placement and write a report reflecting upon your experiences and examining the relationship between the theory and practice of marketing. The theoretical lens for all internships will consider contemporary marketing theory and you will also be required to consider issues such as the nature of marketing work, the impact of their presence within the workplace, the relevance of contemporary marketing theory to everyday marketing practices (and practitioners) and the implications (academic and personal) of your time spent in the field of professional marketing. The purpose of the module is to enable you to understand the everyday nature of marketing practice and conscientiously reflect upon your position as a marketing practitioner, particularly from a professional as well as societal perspective.
OPTIONAL MODULES
Optional placement
This course offers the opportunity of year-long placement between years two and three. If you choose to take this option, you’ll spend your third year on a placement with a relevant company or organisation, adding valuable practical experience to your growing academic knowledge.
The extra placement year means it will take four years to complete your studies, instead of three.
Year 3
CORE MODULES
Mental Wealth 3: Global Enterprise and Consultancy Practice
This module will develop core employability skills and allow you to develop and demonstrate skills in (i) the analysis of a problem (ii) planning and organising a task, including time management (iii) exercising judgement in the light of observed and published data (iv) compiling a report, (v) teamwork and collaboration and (vi) use of appropriate technologies.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics
The aims of the module are to develop a critical appreciation of the key principles of business ethics, corporate responsibility/citizenship and sustainability, and the relation of these to the workplace and encourage you to critique theories of management and leadership from the perspective of ethics.
Marketing Applied Project
The purpose of this module is to offer you two potential final year project options - a traditional marketing research dissertation or a marketing consultancy report. For the dissertation option, you will conduct an independent academic research project. For the marketing consultancy report you will be given a company scenario, which can either be a live local company or charity, an assigned company based upon the CIM competition "The Pitch" or a simulation based on software such as Mymarketingexperince or Markstrat and develop a coherent marketing plan for the company. There is also flexibility within the module for you to work on an alternative assigned marketing project, such as developing a digital marketing campaign, depending upon the range of projects offered to students at Level 6, this will be left to the discretion of the module leader. You will be assigned an academic supervisor to help you to develop your marketing plan for the client or your independent academic dissertation.
You will be encouraged to work in teams if assigned the same company/live project scenario, and teams who work well together will be advised to submit their work to the CIM student competition entitled "The Pitch" which takes place annually (if the student opts for this final year project). You will also be advised to conduct some form of primary customer marketing research within this process, to develop a useful insight into customer behaviour and attitudes within the assigned sector. It is envisaged that this module will provide you with both an academic and managerial final year project that will develop your skills in the areas of academic research, marketing planning, project management and consultancy depending upon your choice of project.
Contemporary Issues in Marketing
In this module you will locate the development of both marketing ideas and applications within the wider global, social and economic contexts. It is less driven by textbook and more driven by journals, special reports and sundry publications such as professional marketing periodicals. Its aim is to get you to actively participate in your own learning, take responsibility for your learning, enhance currency and balance of knowledge, relate learning to everydayness of marketing practices/ challenges and develop the capacity to trailing/analyse/synthesise latest marketing issues.
Brand Management
The aim of this module is to introduce you to the practice of brand management from both a strategic and socio-cultural perspective drawing from the latest research in the field. We seek to develop your knowledge in a holistic way and incorporate the most relevant scholarship in the area of branding.
Social Media Marketing
The aim of this module is to introduce students to social media marketing, a relatively nascent yet vibrant field of contemporary marketing research and practice. The module seeks to evaluate how social media can be harnessed for marketing purposes and consider the role that social media can have in the co-creation of brand meaning. While social media has unquestionably changed the ways in which people communicate and interact, the processes through which it can be integrated into marketing strategy and practices are as yet not fully understood, and a range of recently published texts within the marketing literature have sought to address this problem. The module will explore key concepts of online communities and the co-creation of value, as well as seeking to understand how social media can be used as part of an integrated brand management strategy. Social media platforms such as gaming and mobile will be examined, as well as the role of electronic word of mouth in creating meaning and identity for brands. The module will consider how consumer social media engagement is measured and evaluated, as well as its potential role as a marketing research tool. Issues surrounding consumer digital rights and privacy within a social media context will also be embedded strongly. This module, the first of its kind within the school, will help to develop and enhance the social media marketing skills of the millennial generation of undergraduates, who are widely recognised as digital natives, and enable them to understand how to unlock the potential of social media for both marketing and brand management purposes.
