Business (inc. International Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management)

 

Responsiveness, dynamism and innovation – these characteristics are key to success in business and management and our courses will enable you to develop your natural talents into sought-after management expertise.

Our full range of undergraduate management degrees are:

BA (Hons) Business Management
BA (Hons) Business Management with Analytics
BA (Hons) Business Management with Digital Marketing
BA (Hons) Business Management with Finance
BA (Hons) Business Management with Human Resource Management
BA (Hons) Business Management (Graduate Apprenticeship)
BA (Hons) International Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management

Why QMU?

QMU’s small scale allows the Queen Margaret Business School’s responsive, dynamic and innovative delivery of high-quality management courses to be coupled with a close student-tutor working relationship where students’ interests, aspirations and concerns are central to our activity.

Our fundamental belief is that profitable business and effective management must have a positive impact on people and on our planet, and this ethos is to be found in all that we teach and in the way that we teach it. Our caring approach begins with the engagement we have with our students.

Students in Years Three and Four of our courses benefit from QMU’s Employer Mentoring programme, which offers the opportunity to meet with experienced professionals who have a wealth of industrial insight relating to all our degrees. The mentee-mentor relationship allows students to develop networks and increase their confidence and employability in their chosen field of study.

Many of our students go on to create their own businesses. Uniquely, we have our own Business Innovation Zone (BIZ) (which hosts start-ups) and Business Gateway on-campus at QMU. These resources, with first-class professional advice they offer, will help you turn your entrepreneurial idea into a reality, and that applies equally to all of our undergraduate degrees.

We are a member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), and our (Hons) Business Management with Finance is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). We recognise the need for ethical, social and ecological responsibility in business and we are a signatory member of The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).

Business Management

Business is one of the cornerstones of society. Equipping graduates to interact with a variety of business sectors remains key to the development of both individual careers and economic prosperity at a national level. The UK will need 1.9 million new managers by 2024, according to the 2016 Working Futures report. Our Business Management degrees are designed to equip students to become these managers of tomorrow: leaders who will make a positive contribution in the public, private and third sectors.

In Year Two or Three of your course, you have the opportunity to spend a semester studying abroad (subject to availability).

Students across the Business Management routes share the first two years of the course at which point they confirm their chosen pathway or continue on the general Business Management degree. In Years Three and Four, the modules will be tailored to your chosen route. Invaluable work experience will be gained on placement
in Year Four, where you will be operating in the best possible environment to learn those higher-level management skills required by tomorrow’s companies, and to consolidate the knowledge acquired throughout your programme of studies.

International Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management

International hospitality and tourism is a fast-moving and thriving industry where you can make a name for yourself. There are fabulous opportunities, many of them on our doorstep! In Scotland alone the sector is worth more than £12 billion and employs more than 218,000 people. Its success has created a growing demand for highly qualified professionals, at all levels, to continue to develop the sector.

Hospitality, tourism and events together make up a global industry and a QMU degree opens doors for our students across the world including a high quality 20-week internship.

We have links with many different hospitality, tourism and events organisations worldwide including Edinburgh festivals, the Institute of Hospitality, the Tourism Society, the Scottish Tourism Alliance and the Hospitality Industry Trust. These connections offer opportunities to attend conferences and workshops, and to apply for scholarships to spend time abroad.

Our approach to learning and teaching: flexibility, strong industry links and variety in assessment methods

Tailor your degree: Our Business Management degrees are modular. In Years One and Two core modules in each degree will give you a grounding in your chosen area. As you progress, you will begin to learn more about your particular area and all of our courses offer the opportunity to select modules in which you have a particular interest in later years. With all our degrees you can tailor some of your programme of study, choosing electives from across the undergraduate suite in the Business School.

Gain industry insights and contacts: You will participate in stimulating learning environments from lectures, seminars and workshops, to field trips and study abroad options. Our courses include workplace experience, and, as industry is extremely supportive of our courses, you will benefit from hearing guest lectures from a range of practitioners and visiting professors. You will gain insights into high-profile companies such as Bacardi, Social Bite, Skyscanner, Google and Edinburgh Airport, whose representatives have joined us as visiting speakers recently. Developing contacts and networks is key to gaining an understanding of the industry, to securing work experience, and to gaining employment on graduation.

Variety in assessment methods: Assessment methods vary and include a balanced combination of examinations, written reports, essays, presentations and peer assessment. Some of our modules specifically utilise group work to develop team working skills and others focus on you as the individual. You will get formative feedback as you study, to provide you with an early indication about the progress you have made and can use this feedback to inform your summative assessments.

Research-informed teaching

You will be taught by active academics who are doing research in their own right. Some colleagues have recently completed their doctoral studies, and others are publishing in mainstream academic journals. Such engagement is key to the relevance of our courses, and helps equip staff and students with the background to make intelligent decisions about their future. You will have contact with our growing number of PhD students as you progress through your chosen route of study. This will allow you the opportunity to interact in an informal and collegiate way with those engaged in the highest levels of academic activity and perhaps to discover that their enthusiasms accord closely with your own. At QMU the door to academic advancement is an open one!

As you reach the later stages of undergraduate study, there are opportunities to develop individual pieces of research through the Honours project, depending on your programme of study, and those students who choose further study at master’s or doctoral level are encouraged to pursue these interests.

Preparing you for successful careers

Our international hospitality, tourism and events management students have progressed to successful careers in a variety of public sector organisations such as Disney World, VisitScotland and EventScotland. Many others are carving a career pathway with Sheraton, Gleneagles, Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, Hilton, RF Hotels, as well as many smaller privately owned companies in tourism, hospitality and events. Some students have started up their own hospitality, tourism or events
business.

Our Business Management graduates are proving their worth to companies in the UK and internationally and have left QMU to embark on a wide range of successful careers in various sectors such as the financial sector in organisations such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Capita, Standard Life Investment and Lloyds Bank. Many of our graduates enter management training programmes in companies such as Diageo, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer. Others have set up their own businesses, entered teaching or taken their learning further as postgraduate students.

Some students decide to undertake further academic study, perhaps at QMU on our MSc International Management and Leadership, MSc International Marketing or MSc Accounting and Finance with CIMA to enhance their business career or as a prelude to doctoral research.

Find out more information on how to apply for a course at QMU.