BCiP and BIP Student Projects

At QMU we offer a Business Consultancy in Practice (BCiP) or Business Incubation Project (BIP) route on many of our postgraduate courses. Both routes offer students practical workplace skills and can be taken instead of a dissertation. 

What is BCiP?

Business Consultancy in Practice (BCiP) allows students to take on a real consultancy project with a third party client and develop workplace skills and practical experience which helps their employability after graduation. 

What is BIP?

A Business Incubation Project (BIP) involves student's developing their own business idea from scratch, like a start-up, including conducting market research, developing a business plan, understanding budgets, etc.

Students doing either BCiP or BIP also complete a self-reflection piece which documents their learning and development through the course of working on their projects in addition to the practical work. 

What are the benefits of undertaking BCiP or BIP instead of a dissertation?

  • Students are able to combine their theoretical academic learning and practical work experience
  • Students experience the dynamics of a real work place and learn organisational, planning and communication skills
  • Students develop self-confidence and self-awareness
  • Students develop practical, transferrable workplace skills not offered by a traditional dissertation route
  • Students enter the job market with demonstrable work experience already on their C.V

BCiP / BIP stories from current QMU Students:

Romana Cerna
Romana Černá

Course: MSc International Management and Leadership

Romana's BCiP project, for an international hospitality organisation, is focused on
how to revive the hospitality industry after the Covid-19 pandemic.

QMU Mujtaba Mahfooz
Mujtaba Mahfooz

Course: MSc Accounting and Finance

Mujtaba's BCiP project was for a financial data science company, identifying ways they could commercialise a new financial index. 

 

Stefan Steinbaecker
Stefan Steinbäcker

Course: MSc International Marketing 

Stefan's BCiP project, for a virtual events management company, is to develop a roadmap of actions to increase their website traffic (thereby generating more business leads).

Lucy Patrick
Lucy Patrick

Course: MSc International Management and Leadership

Lucy's project, for a national tourism board, is to research and propose recommendations to support the organisation's move to a long-term, hybrid working model.

Tobias Leschka
Tobias Letchka

Course: MSc International Management and Leadership

My BIP business idea was to launch an online media website, called Furio Magazine, that is dedicated to alternative music of the 1980s. The aim of Furio Magazine is to deliver high-quality, in-depth content about the bands and artists that defined this decade.

Imogen Trundle
Imogen Trundle

Course: MSc International Marketing

Imogen's BCiP project client was a local tuition provider in Edinburgh needing research and recommendations to support a business expansion into Glasgow. 

Henrik Tienhaarna
Henrik Tienhaara

Course: MBA in Business Management (now called MSc International Leadership and Management)

Henrik Tienhaara's project was for a local Scottish food producer, to research the future of supply chains in the UK and create a set of recommendations based on this. 

Suzanne Beurskens
Suzanne Beurskens

Course: MSc International Management & Leadership

Suzanne's BCiP client was a well-known hotel in Edinburgh, for whom she investigated correlations between the room rates paid by guests and their additional spend on Food and Beverage (F&B) during their stay, to help determine a pricing strategy.

Jamie Robb
Jamie Robb

Course: MSc International Management and Leadership

Jamie's project is helping a book publishing company create a strategy for increasing sales of their eBook portfolio.

Mara Cresta
Mara Cresta

Course: MSc International Management and Leadership

Mara's BCIP project involved helping a local tourism board in her native Italy with developing a new logo and social media marketing ideas to help them attract more tourists.

Admissions

For enquiries relating to Masters Research Degrees please contact admissions.

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Admissions

Master Research Degree - Application Enquiries Admissions Team 0131 474 0000