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University of Nottingham Malaysia

Course overview

Our MBA is a programme in general financial and corporate management. Our programme adds value to your first degree by helping you develop an integrated and critically-aware understanding of management and organisations in an international context.

It will help expand your career prospects, earning potential and enhance your CV. An MBA will elevate your employability status making you attractive to the most prestigious employers who require your skillset.

 

Why choose this course?

We are the only UK-based University in Malaysia with a full-time MBA programme. You will join like-minded peers from diverse backgrounds in terms of position (CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, and middle managers), industry (public and private sectors, NGO, entrepreneurs) and experience. The programme also offers an international study experience where students can take up to 2 modules at our Singapore partner institution (PSB Academy) under their Malaysia fees payment. The programme has a block delivery format which allows students the flexibility to pace their study and time (subject to the exact schedule) and customize their study interests by choosing up to 4 optional modules catering to specific interests and selected management project topic.

Top 60 worldwide – 3rd in the UK and 55th in the world for best full-time MBA – The Economist MBA 2021

1st in the UK – for salary increase and top 10 in the UK for salary and potential to network, and 12th in the world for personal development and educational experience – The Economist MBA 2021

5th in the world – for best MBA for sustainability – Corporate Knights Better World MBA Ranking 2020

Top quality school – benchmarked against international standards - EQUIS and AMBA accredited

More than 19,000 – Business School alumni connect you to a powerful global network of business contacts

 

Overseas study

Individuals wishing to study overseas can take up to two approved modules delivered by our overseas partner institutions (subject to the availability of modules).

Course content

You must complete a total of 12 taught modules (8 core modules and 4 elective modules) and a Management Project.

Most modules will involve group work with like-minded individuals from diverse industries and countries. You will also develop the skills to implement agreed solutions effectively and efficiently, along with interpersonal skills to enable you to interact across a wide range of business stakeholders.

We also host a Business Leaders Seminar Series, which serves as a platform for interaction and exchange of ideas with industry leaders from various sectors. You will also have the opportunity to attend study skills sessions, workshops on soft skills such as teamwork, leadership and critical thinking, and additional workshops and seminars on research methods relevant to management projects.

 

Management Project

Each student is required to complete a management project that will focus on an area of interest. Students may choose any one from three types of management project:

  • Management Research Project (20,000 words) on an approved subject (weight 100%)
  • Company-based Individual Research Document (15,000 words) (70%) + Individual presentation (20 minutes including Q&A) and submission of slides (30%)
  • Management Project (Business Analysis Project) (15,000 words) (70%) + Individual presentation (20 minutes including Q&A) and submission of slides (30%)

Core modules

This module provides an introduction to the theory and practice of financial accounting and reporting, management accounting and finance. Both commercial and not-for-profit organisations will be considered.

Financial reporting is the process of presenting financial (and other) information to a range of stakeholders in order to ensure appropriate accountability and stewardship. Students will be encouraged to consider the need for integrity in financial accounting and reporting, and the potential limitations of regulation and standards.

Management accounting is concerned with the preparation and presentation of accounting information to aid managers in their jobs of planning, decision making and control. New and traditional management accounting techniques are analysed in the context of a changing management context with its emphasis on strategy, costing and performance metrics. The content of the module is aimed primarily at managers and not accountants.

The finance section emphasises two of the major financial decisions, the investment decision and the financing decision - where the money comes from and how it is best used within the organisation. 

The module aims to introduce participants to key economic tools, concepts, and their application and to provide participants with an understanding of the nature and scope of economic policy and the economic theories upon which it is based. The emphasis is on policy. In particular, this module aims to offer a rigorous understanding of basic economic principles by combining theory and application to contemporary issues. 

Learning outcomes:

  • The development, access and operation of markets for resources, goods and services.
  • A coherent core of economic principles, including the microeconomics of decision and choice, production and exchange and the macroeconomics of employment, national income, the balance of payments, exchange rates, inflation, growth and money.
  • Economic policy with an understanding of analytical methods and model-based argument and of different methodological approaches and their strengths and limitations.
  • Ability to apply core economic theory and economic reasoning to applied topics.

Entrepreneurship is now seen as a positive force for economic development in virtually all economies, yet there is no clear consensus as to what it is or how it is manifested. This course sets out to identify entrepreneurship in theory and its economic contribution, positive and negative, in practice. Finally, it considers whether policy intervention can encourage entrepreneurship activity and if so, how this may best be achieved.

This module explores key contemporary issues in organisational behaviour and the management of people in diverse and dynamic contexts. The topics covered will include employee motivation, leadership and working in teams, power and politics, conflict, change, culture, inclusion and contemporary challenges for an emerging industrial age.

This module is designed to introduce the fundamental concepts of marketing and to help managers understand the ways in which these may be used in practice. The course examines: understanding the marketing concept; the role of marketing within a business and its contribution to business performance and enhancing value; developing marketing strategy; segmentation, targeting and positioning; managing the marketing mix; and planning and implementation. These subjects are taught and debated in such a way as to provide participants with a more critical perspective on modern marketing by encouraging students to evaluate their broader social impact.

This module provides a thorough grounding in concepts and principles that are essential for the successful management of operations in contemporary organisations. Module topics include the role of the operations function and the major variables in managing operations; service operations management, including service systems design and queuing systems; quality concepts and the management of quality; supply chain management concepts including material and information flows, supply chain dynamics, forecasting and sales and operations planning, postponement and mass customisation; lean thinking and lean concepts and process excellence; project management concepts and methods.

To provide students of management with the key tools, concepts and frameworks of strategic analysis and to examine the process of strategy implementation. 

Learning outcomes:

  • The dynamic and changing nature of business and the consideration of the future of organisations within the global business environment, including the management of risk.
  • The management of resources.
  • The development of appropriate policies and strategies within a changing environment to meet stakeholder interests.
  • The need for individuals and organisations to manage responsibly and sustainably and behave ethically in relation to social, cultural, economic and environmental issues.
  • The development of strategic priorities to deliver business at speed in an environment where digital technology has reshaped traditional revenue and business models.

This module takes the form of a series of lectures, workshops, case studies and role play and is taken by all MBA students. The course integrates and reflects upon the interdisciplinary nature of the MBA programme and challenges students' understanding and application of the material presented on the core MBA modules. This is undertaken by focusing on the role of different business stakeholders in achieving economic and environmental sustainability - through an examination of their possibly contradicting and contradictory objectives, values and decision-making processes. We have a wide range of practitioners featuring in the course. The participants have to present and defend their integrated sustainable strategy to a real board, consisting of practitioners with experience of board membership. The students also have to run a real media conference consisting of journalists from the press.

Elective modules*

The idea that managers should operate in the interests of shareholders is examined and its consequences explored. The course looks at what should happen in practice, but also what does happen. Where theory and practice apparently diverge possible reasons are explored. 

Learning outcomes:

  • The dynamic and changing nature of business and the consideration of the future of organisations within the global business environment, including the management of risk.
  • The sources, uses and management of finance.
  • The use of accounting and other information systems for managing financial risk.
  • The development of appropriate policies and strategies within a changing environment to meet stakeholder interests.
  • The use of risk management techniques and business continuity planning to help maximise achievement of strategic objectives.

The module examines the risk and return characteristics of classes of financial securities (equities, bonds, derivatives) and the processes and consequences of combining these securities in portfolios. The traditional meanvariance approach is extended in two ways, first by recognising that return distributions may not be well described by mean and variance, and secondly by examining the possibility that investors take into account non financial, ethicalconcerns in their portfolio building decisions. Any finance module, and a portfolio management module, in particular, needs, post 2008, to reflect (and to reflect on) the gap between textbook treatments and "the real world". Standard textbook treatments offer "the efficient markets hypothesis", "the capital asset pricing model" and "the Black Scholes model" in a relatively uncritical way, but post 2008 these models have been ridiculed in the financial press as "unrealistic". This major difference of opinion is examined in the module.

This course provides students with an appreciation of the role of law in consumer and commercial transactions. One of three central aims of the course is to offer participants an appreciation of the legal status of corporations and the rights and responsibilities of the various stakeholders in the corporate entity.

This module examines ethical issues and dilemmas, covering a range of complex and controversial problems relating to business in a global economy. The main concepts and theories underpinning the business ethics field will be introduced, and students shall have the opportunity to apply these to business situations. More specifically, the course explores issues of human rights, globalization and sustainable development, and places these within different philosophical and cultural perspectives. The course also explores the role of corporations, multinational corporations, and Nation-States from an ethical perspective, and situates these explorations within a political-economic framework. 

This module explores the role of Business Intelligence (BI) in transforming the way companies strategize and organize for change to induce sustainable growth and innovation, new organizational forms, and intellectual property. BI is prevalently relevant to the digital economy. Being digitally fluent is a must to lead and manage, and to respond to changes in competition and markets. 

Entrepreneurship in Practice will introduce students to the more practical elements of innovation and enterprise activity across multiple contexts, including not just new venture creation but corporate and social entrepreneurship as well. Whereas Entrepreneurship and Creativity focus on idea generation and entrepreneurial theory, Entrepreneurship in Practice will prepare students to recognise opportunities and to implement innovation and enterprising ideas. The ability to make informed and timely decisions will be an important aspect of this, and the module will use a start-up business simulation to encourage this. 

What is Innovation Management? - definitions and models of the process; Innovation Strategy; the national and competitive environment; innovation processes within multinational firms; innovation processes within large public sector organisations; the systems of innovation specific to small high technology firms; Management techniques for innovation, shared vision, effective team working and a creative climate; Learning from Markets, marketing technological and complex products and learning through alliances; Integration of Approaches, Key themes, learning to manage and measure innovation and through the group presentations - Appraisal of innovation management within different organisations.

This course is about leadership based on the observation that the leadership needs of organisations vary by the stage of the organisation's existence. Leading an entrepreneurial start-up requires different skills from leading a mature organisation. Consequently, organisations need to be aware of their progress through the organisation's lifecycle and evolving needs. This course examines the stages of an organisations existence and the associated evolving leadership needs, plus additional situations such as leading in a crisis. The course focuses on identifying leadership needs and the necessary decisions together with the appropriate leadership style. As a secondary theme, there will also be a number of sessions focussing on leadership qualities and styles which will encourage participants to reflect on their own development as leaders. A number of models of leadership are considered and different leadership perspectives. Understanding of the concepts is achieved predominantly but not exclusively through the use of case study material. 

*Elective modules are subject to change

The above is a sample of the typical modules we offer but is not intended to be construed and/or relied upon as a definitive list of the modules that will be available in any given year. Modules (including methods of assessment) may change or be updated, or modules may be cancelled, over the duration of the course due to a number of reasons such as curriculum developments or staffing changes. Please refer to the module catalogue for information on available modules.

Entry requirements

All candidates are considered on an individual basis and we accept a broad range of qualifications. The entrance requirements below apply to 2024 entry.

A relevant second class honours degree (or international equivalent) or a relevant professional qualification deemed equivalent to a first degree with honours, plus at least three or more years of full-time management or leadership work experience, normally gained since graduating from the first degree. Non-UK qualifications will be assessed against this standard.

Applicants are required to attend an interview.

Applicants must have graduated from an approved university. Other equivalent qualifications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Entry requirements in the prospectus and website may not always apply and individual offers may vary.

IELTS (Academic):

6.5 (with no less than 6.0 in each element)

TOEFL (iBT):

90 (minimum 19 in Writing and Listening, 20 in Reading and 22 in Speaking)

PTE (Academic):

71 (with no less than 65 in each element)

MUET: Band 4.5

IELTS, TOEFL and PTE (Academic) test results must be less than two years old and all IELTS must be the academic version of the test. MUET results are valid for five years from the date of the release of results.

Learning and assessment

How you will learn

  • Lectures
  • Workshops
  • Field trips
  • Supervision
  • Case studies

In addition to lectures, some modules have lab sessions, some have workshops and some drop in sessions. Each module is run with the aim of providing best learning experience for students and module objectives are achieved by devising the most appropriate delivery and assessment methods.

How you will be assessed

  • Coursework
  • Dissertation
  • Examinations
  • Presentation
  • Essay
  • Reflective review

Depending on the module, you may be assessed by examination, group or individual coursework, group or individual presentations, or a combination of assessment methods.

Fees

ResidencyFees
Malaysian studentsRM64,500 per programme
International studentsRM68,365 per programme

Funding

Find out about scholarships, financial assistance and specific research funding available to all malaysian and international students.

Scholarship funding

Where you will learn

Kuala Lumpur Teaching Centre

KLTC is a UNM facility located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Select postgraduate programmes from business, politics and applied psychology are delivered here to support the flexibility of postgraduate students.

The centre also served as a supplementary venue for the University’s external events, seminars and conferences.

KLTC is located on the second floor of Chulan Tower, near the Petronas Twin Towers and the Bukit Bintang district. It is easily accessible via the city’s train system, with the building located next to the Conlay MRT station. Free shuttle bus services are also available from the UNM Semenyih campus to KLTC.

Careers

The Nottingham MBA is ideal for individuals seeking to develop their potential in order to manage and lead in the current dynamic and complex organisational environment. It is a highly valued qualification in both the public and private sector for middle/senior level managers and entrepreneurs alike. It will help to develop management skills for senior positions, enhance career prospects and nurture leadership capabilities.

All MBA graduates have access to EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) and AMBA (Association of MBAs) memberships. These provide access to special member benefits and events as well special career support for MBA graduates.

Between 2014 and 2018, 16% of our MBA graduates either started up a business or continued to be self-employed. We’re proud to say that Nottingham MBA students have experienced immediate salary increases upon completion (40%-64% since 2014) with a high rate of employment in current and new companies just three to six months after graduating (92% on average).

This content was last updated on 27 February 2024. Every effort has been made to ensure that this information is accurate, but changes are likely to occur between the date of publishing and course start date. It is therefore very important to check this website for any updates before you apply.