Master of Science in Sustainability Management and Innovation

at University of Westminster - Marylebone Campus United Kingdom

On our exciting Master’s programme, you’ll experience first-hand what it’s like to innovate, solving real-life problems and coming up with smart solutions. Inspired by serial entrepreneurs and our academic experts, you will cultivate your entrepreneurial mindset, improving your ability to identify viable business opportunities – whether you launch your own enterprise or support others to do so.

Individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit don’t always start up a new business, but they repeatedly come up with ideas that change the way we live and work, inspiring new products, services and activities that create jobs and spur economic growth. Their innovation, big picture outlook, willingness to take calculated risks and ability to build positive relationships make them an asset to any employer.

On this course, your journey begins in the pre-start-up phase, with the formation of ideas on a possible business venture, right through to potentially pitching your plan to prospective investors or raising money via crowdfunding campaigns. You will be mentored and coached throughout, developing the personal and professional skills needed to envision new products or services capable of attracting investment, then guide them to completion.

Commercial managers play a key role in the commercial and financial success of construction projects, by monitoring activities to ensure projects are delivered on time, on budget and on quality. Our innovative course delivers the people and project management skills, professional and technical knowledge required to tackle the technical, organisational, commercial, legal and financial issues that can arise.

Fully accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), this course will be of interest if you are a graduate in or with previous construction-related employment and if you are seeking a senior position in the field of commercial management.

It will develop your awareness of the importance of construction projects to clients, and the context within which projects are procured and undertaken, in particular the economic, financial, corporate, legal and regulatory constraints. You'll gain greater knowledge and understanding of the theories, concepts, principles, techniques, and intellectual and practical skills needed for effective procurement, financial control, risk assessment, supply chain management and more.

Incorporating the latest digital and analytic marketing practices, the broad curriculum of our Master’s degree reflects the rapidly changing global marketing environment. Whilst at Westminster, you can also secure two internationally-recognised professional qualifications – the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM) Certificate in Digital Marketing and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Global Foundation Certificate, as well as joining the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

Here at Westminster, we’ve been teaching postgraduate degrees in marketing communications for over 20 years. Our goal is to prepare you for professional life in the increasingly complex and dynamic marketing communications industry, incorporating the growing content of digital marketing and new innovations.

Economics is more relevant than ever to understand contemporary events in the global economy and provide the tools and techniques for business and governments to analyse and interpret the issues and problems they face. Reflecting the needs of both private and public sector employers, our highly practical MSc prepares you to assess business problems, interpret public policy and effectively communicate the insights that economic analysis can provide.

Aimed at those with a genuine interest in the application of economics to real-world situations, this course aims to provide you with an in-depth knowledge of the latest theories, practices and key concepts in economics that underpin public sector policy and business decision making. This includes the various scenarios where we explore opportunity cost, equilibrium and disequilibrium, strategic interaction, market failure and the related concept of externalities.

The focus is very much on developing the practical skills needed by a working economist – the ability to apply economic techniques to complex, multi-faceted business problems and provide specialist advice. You’ll gain hands-on experience of the industry-standard computing and econometrics software used to analyse and manipulate data.

This exciting specialist accounting degree is designed specifically to meet the needs of a talent pool for the changing accounting services sector. Education in this subject area is in high demand in a wide variety of sectors and industries where accounting specialists manage budgets, prepare financial and annual reports and also are involved at Board level to inform the development of strategy and guide business decisions. Our degree is the first step to becoming a qualified accounting professional with potential to develop a rewarding career in large and small firms as a consultant or in a business start-up.

This professionally accredited degree offers a rounded business education designed to develop your understanding of accounting theories and practice, together with the business acumen, team-working, problem-solving, communication skills and the commercial awareness needed in a complex global financial world.

Raising your awareness of the global, social and ethical professional environment within which the accounting profession operates, you’ll learn to appreciate accounting issues within the wider business context, able to guide decisions on anything from cost-cutting and outsourcing to operational planning and environmental policy, for example.

Taught by academics with professional experience as accountants and managers, there is an emphasis on learning through practice, so you graduate with the breadth of knowledge and capabilities to respond proactively and creatively to contemporary business issues and challenges. You’ll develop practical skills, receiving hands-on training in specialist accounting software such as Sage, Bloomberg and SPSS. In our state-of-the-art Financial Markets Suite (FMS), you’ll also have access to live and historical financial reports, experiencing the same Bloomberg platform used by leading global investment banks.

Changes in technology and regulation mean that the accounting industry is constantly evolving. On our course, you’ll have the chance to focus your studies from the start, blending a conceptual theoretical framework with practical 'real-world' application as the curriculum progresses from basic to more specialised and advanced applications. Upon completion, you will be part-qualified, eligible to apply up to nine exemptions with ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and up eight exemptions with CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants).

Our programme will equip you with the required skills and attributes needed for an engaging and successful career in accounting or related fields in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. It will assist you in developing excellent conceptual knowledge and technical skills in financial accounting, management accounting, corporate finance, taxation, auditing, and financial analysis, as well as the required attributes to excel in the modern global business environment. Past graduates have gone on to a range of accounting and other professional posts in the private and public sectors, including ACCA and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) training contracts, and finance posts in the public sector.

Core management skills are in high demand in our rapidly changing environment. Successful managers need to know how people behave, the nature of leadership and sources of power and influence within the workplace. They must also plan, prioritise, develop new processes and identify new opportunities. That’s why our MA provides a broad understanding of business – from finance and people management to operations, communications and marketing. You’ll graduate with the all-round expertise and decision-making capabilities required to lead modern organisations.

Whether you aim to be self-employed heading your own company, work for private businesses, or not-for-profits or government agencies, this course is designed to develop the necessary management skills to succeed in a rapidly changing economic environment. This course will therefore open flexible career avenues or will enable you to take the next step to progress your career.

Blending theory and practice, our teaching is designed to equip you with the knowledge, competencies, analytical and problem-solving skills around the management of organisations and how to apply these to management problems and situations. As the course progresses, you will study operational, tactical and a more strategic approach to management.

Career-focused, our degree incorporates general business management as well as the tools, techniques and specialist knowledge to manage human resources (HR) effectively. You will put theory into practice coaching other students, designing assessments, conducting interviews and more. This provides valuable experience and a genuine appreciation of how HR fits within the broader business landscape, preparing you to make a positive impact for your employer from the get-go.

How an organisation manages its people has a direct impact on both their mindset and productivity, making HR Management (HRM) a core function in every business. This course will equip you with the breadth of knowledge, skills and capabilities to develop positive working cultures and respond proactively and creatively to contemporary business issues and challenges, such as change management.

Our emphasis is very much on experiential learning. You will be taught by staff who are or have been HR professionals, bringing their real-life case work into the classroom, showing you how the HR theories, tools and techniques you are learning can be put into practice. You will also hear direct from industry practitioners, such as experienced HR Directors, Heads of HR and HR Consultants. Where possible, we also take you on field trips to see HR strategy in action at a range of different organisations.

Your learning is fully informed by current professional practice and you will be encouraged to act as an HR professional from day one. We will introduce contemporary tools and techniques and give you the chance to gain the practical experience you would in work – sometimes several years into a career – while you study. For example, you will experiment with psychometric tests such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator, participate in mock disciplinary hearings, interview panels, act as a mentor and receive mentoring yourself. In doing so, you also develop valuable transferable skills, such as communicating effectively, team-working and problem-solving skills, thereby enhancing your employability.

Past graduates have found successful employment as an HR advisor, HR operations assistant, career consultant, professional development and training advisor and employee service advisor. They work for major employers including Accenture, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Trainline, The Body Shop, Waitrose, the Metropolitan Police and the NHS.

In a turbulent, rapidly changing business environment, the demand for HR professionals who can strategically manage and develop staff potential – while overcoming issues such as redundancy, flexible working and the recent challenges of furloughed staff and social distancing – has never been more fundamental to business success.

Our career-focused MA is fully accredited by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), the only professional body in the world that can award Chartered status to HRM or Learning and Development professionals. It is designed to build your understanding of the theory, practices and policies associated with evidence-based Human Resource Management (HRM) as they relate to real-world situations, equipping you with the knowledge, competencies and analytical skills to effectively manage organisational strategy and operations from an HR perspective.

Our problem-based approach to teaching means you’ll get to apply what you learn to management problems through assignments and projects based on actual situations. We’ll draw on everyday HR issues in the news, case studies and current examples, at times addressing some of our own students’ workplace experiences. You’ll learn to collect and analyse relevant data and information, developing your ability to identify, evaluate and propose the most appropriate solutions looking at issues ranging from flexible working to employee engagement, managing change or reward management.

This academic course is carefully designed for students to explore how an accounting and reporting education, as well as advanced study of accounting, will equip you for exciting careers in the business and finance sectors.  

Practical in focus, fully accredited and professionally oriented, our MSc in Finance and Accounting will equip you with the high-level skills, knowledge and expertise to advance your career as a qualified chartered accountant or as a specialist in a corporate services role.  

Course content has been designed to equip you with the technical, professional, analytical and ethical skills required for a successful global accounting career. Using Bloomberg data available in our state-of-the-art Financial Markets Suite (FMS), you’ll evaluate real-world scenarios, enhance your critical thinking, learn to explain the impacts of financial transactions and how to make the most appropriate accounting decisions. In doing so, you’ll gain a detailed knowledge of analytical techniques associated with accounting research, together with the key principles and practices in taxation, financial management and corporate valuation, managerial accounting and financial accounting.

Case studies, research and finance skills workshops, projects and guest lectures, from current practitioners and CEOs from multinationals, will help you appreciate how these principles are applied by professionals working in accountancy, analytical or research environments, better preparing you for the business and finance world that awaits. We’ll consider contemporary issues in financial reporting, management accounting, auditing and governance, such as fair value accounting, auditors’ independence, corporate valuation and risk management.

Internationalisation and evolution of markets have created opportunities for companies to focus on marketing from a global perspective. On our degree, you’ll explore the complexity and diversity facing marketers in the highly competitive and continually evolving world marketplace, incorporating the latest marketing strategy, tools and techniques.

You can also boost your employability by gaining additional qualifications with the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM) and/or the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). Our status as a CIM Graduate Gateway institution entitles you to apply for exemptions from modules on its professional qualifications, while you can gain IDM’s Award in Digital Marketing during the Digital Essentials of Marketing module.

Since our marketing degrees share a common first year, you get to experience all the main areas in marketing whilst retaining the flexibility to change course at the start of your second year.

Focusing on marketing within an international context, you will gain awareness of the global, cultural, social, economic and ethical professional environment within which marketers now operate, and the connections with other functional business areas needed for overall corporate success.

Top reasons to study with us

• Professionally focused course with chance to gain additional professional qualifications from the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
• Marketing degrees share a common first year, giving greater flexibility when choosing your specialism
• Option to spend one semester or one year studying abroad at one of our partner institutions, gain valuable work experience, or a combination of both. For example, one previous student worked as a marketing executive for ICG Medical
• Opportunity to study a foreign language as an optional module in each year of study
• Hear from experts and mingle with marketing students by joining the student-run Westminster Marketing Society or gain professional experience working for Westminster Business Consultants
• Guest lectures from industry practitioners have previously included speakers on Google analytics and from organisations such as IBM, Tableau, Coca Cola and LinkedIn
• Programmes are delivered by a multicultural and international teaching body, who come from professional practice and/or regularly publish in top international journals