The MBA qualification is designed to appeal to people of different ages and a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. Recent graduates, business professionals who have a few year’s experience, and older managers who are looking for a formal qualification to consolidate their experiential knowledge, can all benefit from  the programme. Similarly , the MBA has equal relevance to those in the public, private and third sectors. In recent years, Napier MBA students have included nurses, social workers, electronics engineers, police, GPs, business consultants and people who taken voluntary redundancy packages.

The Napier MBA is a relevant, contemporary qualification, internationally understood and recognised.

Napier staff have been offering the MBA qualification  for more than fifteen years. The programme of study is regularly  revised and updated to ensure that it continues to reflect the rapid changes in global economies and business thinking.

Absolute Flexibility

At Napier, we take into account the fact that business and personal circumstances can change over a period of the time by offering three different modes of study.

• You can follow the programme on a full-time basis over one calendar year, or on a part time basis  or distance learning basis over three years.

• The part time route requires attendance at University for one afternoon and evening per week, for 30 weeks between September and June each year.

• The distance learning route dos not requires weekly attendance. We provide you with study materials and we also expect you  to attend two weekend (  but non – residential) workshops each year.

We believe that this complete flexibility between the three modes of study is one of the main attractions of t he Napier MBA. As an example, you are able to begin your studies  on the full time programme, transfer t o the part time route and finally complete the programme via distance learning should your personal circumstances demand it. Alternatively, it may be possible to take some modules via attendance and others via distance learning.

The flexibility doesn’t stop there. If necessary, it is also feasible to stop part-way through the MBA programme, gaining the award of Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration or Postgraduate Diploma  in Business Administration, depending on the number of modules passed before stopping. Our MBA Programme Administrators will be happy to talk to you about these options if you whish.

Finally, the structure of the programme is given a high degree of flexibility by including a series of optional modules. These allow you to follow a general MBA route, or to cluster your studies around a particular area of interest.

Our Goal
In offering this MBA Programme, Napier staff have some important goals in mind. They see their task as being:

• To help develop greater business competence, insight and management skills so that you will ultimately be a more effective manager or business professional

• To help you to know how to respond appropriately to the changing business environment

• To help you develop your skills in critical thinking, strategic planning and researching so that you will be able to generate effective solutions to management challenges long after you have graduated from MBA Programme.

• To help you meet your aspirations and personal goals for self-development

Why Choose an MBA?

The early 21st century is a fast changing world, no matter your nationality, or the business sector in which you work. All sectors of business are facing challenges:

• Increasing globalisation
• Changing markets
• Escalating customer/client expectations
• Blurring of functional boundaries and frequent organisational restructuring to protect and increase market share
• The need to look beyond the immediate and to understand how changing government policy and economic drivers will affect the business.

As a result of these and other challenges, new demands are being placed on managers and business professionals. As such, there is an increasing need to be multi-functional in your approach. Accountants may need to be able to produce marketing plans, and engineers may need to be able to sell effectively. Above all, managers need to understand how to get the best from their staff in a changing workplace.

This changing environment  has informed the philosophy, structure and rationale of the Napier MBA. Rather than provide a broad understanding of each business function in isolation, we believe the challenges of the 21st century require a more holistic and integrated approach.
For this reason, we discuss vital environmental and organisational factors in the context of three key themes throughout the MBA programme.

These key themes are:

• Understanding Management And Its Environment
• Organisational Development And Functional Management
• Integrating Management And Organisation

Attendance Requirements for each Route

Full time Route (1year)

A short induction session is held the end of September to introduce you to the life of the University, and allow you to meet academic and support staff and fellow students on the programme.

This is followed by a residential weekend during Trimester 1. This will include sessions designed to develop your study skills, assess your personal learning style and introduce you to the requirements of critical reflection demanded by the programme.

Distance Learning Route (3 years)

As this is a distance learning programme, there are no scheduled classes. However, at Napier “distance” does not imply “remote” as we provide non-residential workshops that you are expected to attend. We also offer optional revision sessions before examinations.

Two weekend workshops for each year of the programme are offered, each based at University premises in Edinburgh. The first workshops in Year 1 of your studies, normally held in mid – September, includes general introduction to the MBA programme and to study skills that you will need. However, its main purpose is to introduce the first two modules that you will study. The second workshop is usually held in February.

A  further four workshops are designed to introduce later modules on the programme, and each one also provides opportunities for syndicate-based learning and interaction.

The final workshops concentrates on the strategic integration of all that youe have to learned to date and will help you to prepare for the MBA project.

Part Time & Distance Learning MBA Routes

Theme 1: Understanding Management & Its Environment

In the first of study, we introduce you to the environment within which organisations operate and the complexities of globalisation. To properly understand this environment, a number of key financial and economic concepts are included in your studies.

We ensure that you have a understanding of the fundamentals of organisational and management  practice. By providing this overview at the beginning of your studies, we enable you to build your understanding of current issues and functional specialisms  in later modules.

Theme2: Organisational Development & Functional Management

In the second block of study, we introduce the concepts and techniques at the forefront of organisational improvement and transformation. These will enable you to evaluate how changes can be made within organisations and to devise strategies for change implementation.

At this stage, you may also choose a functional option ( e.g International Marketing Strategy) to further your knowledge and understanding of the developments in a specific area of the organisation.

A second option can then be chosen from the same functional area, thereby giving you the opportunity to specialise within your MBA studies ( e.g Strategic Brand Management). Alternatively, you may choose this second option from an entirely different area ( e.g Issues in Strategic HRM) thereby giving your studies a more general focus. Full time students take this second functional module in Trimester2, whereas both part-time and distance learning students study it in Year 3.

Management Research introduces the principles needed for good research in a management context, and shows you how to analyse data, and interpret and evaluate statistical business reports. This module is studied in Trimester 1 on the full time route, and in Year 2 on the part time and distance learning routes.

Theme 3: Integrating Management & Organisation

The module covering Strategic Management will ensure that all your studies to date are properly integrated in the business context, since it provides an overview of all the business functions, and their inter-relationships. This module is covered in Year 3 of the part time and distance learning routes, but for convenience is brought forward to Trimester 2 on the full time route.

Finally, for all three routes, a significant amount of your time is spent working on your MBA Project. This 12,000-15,000 word thesis allows you to develop your analytical and research skills as you work under the supervision of a project Tutor on an organisational issue. It is up to you to identify the issue and to ensure that is approved by your tutor.

Specialist /  Functional Options.

 At Napier, we offer modules over a range of functional areas. Those normally available are listed below. Some are  not available by distance learning, and others are only by distance learning. Please refer to the asterisk-based key at the bottom of the list.

Modules related to the HRM function

• HRM for General Managers
• Issues in Strategic HRM*

Modules related to Entrepreneurship:

• Strategic Marketing in Financial Services
• Principles/Practices of Marketing*
• Strategic Brand Management*
• Direct e-Marketing*
• International Marketing Strategy
• International Festivals/Events*

Modules related to the Accounting & Finance function:

• Accounting for Management Decisions*
• Strategic Management Accounting*
• Strategic Financial Management*
• Contemporary Issues in Financial Services

Modules related to Economics:

• Global Finance*
• Managerial Economics & Decision Making **
• Strategic Decision Making **
• Regional Economic Planning & Finance **
• Principles of Financial Regulation **
• International Corporate Financial Services **

Modules  related to Operations Management & General Management:

• Business Operations *
• Public Sector Management*

*      =  Not available via distance

  *      =   Only available via distance learning

Additional Support

If you and the teaching staff think it would be helpful, you can  take part in a “numeracy refresher programme”, either by working through a distance learning package or by attending sessions held at the University during September.

As part of your studies, you will be required to use IT skills for word processing and data analysis, and will be provided with additional support in these areas if you need it.

Entry Qualifications

Normally, you should have at least two years’ relevant work experience and hold an honours degree or equivalent. Work experience would normally come from a professional occupation, or a management or supervisory role.

However, if you don’t have this level of academic qualification we may still consider you if you have at least four years’ experience in a post of administrative responsibility.

If you don’t have a formal higher education qualification, we normally ask you to take an aptitude test covering numeric and verbal reasoning and to submit a short assignment related to managerial issues in an industry with which you are familiar.

If English is not your native language, e normally ask you to provide evidence of your competence in the language. ( IELTS 6.0, TOEFL 550 or equivalent). We ask everyone to provide one academic reference and one reference when applying.

Napier University

Napier University is situated in the Morningside area of Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The University owns four major campuses in this residential and pleasant area of the city: Merchiston Campus, Craighouse Campus and Craiglockhart Campus.

An Ideal Learning Environment

Over the past few years, the University has invested heavily in its buildings and infrastructure. Most recently, the brand-new Business School was unveiled at the Craiglockhart Campus. This campus is the home of MBA. The building successfully merges an existing sandstone building, built in the Italianate  style and dating from 1880, with a new glass and titanium structure. Situated 4KM southwest of the city centre, Napier’s Craiglockhart campus makes an impressive addition to Edinburgh’s architectural heritage.

More importantly, however, the building hosts the  most up-to-date technology in any UK university. All public areas are “wi-fi” enabled, allowing staff and students to work in the café’s and restaurants, as well as in lecture rooms. All lecture rooms have digital projectors (beamers) and a fully electronic teaching station which allows lecturing staff to draw down materials from their own PC, include web pages and links from video, CD-ROM or DVD in their talks, make additional notes via an ACTIV panel and upload the end results to the students’ own files via web CT , electronic learning support package that allows every student to access lecture notes, case studies, web-links, tutorial questions and so on.

Just 1,5KM from Craiglockhar Campus, the Jack Kilby Computer Centre is open 24 hurs a day, 7 days a week. The Centre was opened in 2001 by the man after whom it was named- Nobel prize winner Dr. Jack Kilby, inventor of the microchip. In 2003, The “Kilby” , as it is affectionately known, was one of eight buildings in Scotland to win an award by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Hugely popular with students, the space and calmness of the building belie the fact that there are 500 PC’s in the Kilby  Centre.

Research & Partnerships

The Business School at Napier University has a lively research culture. The research activities of  many staff and doctoral students help to underpin the teaching, especially of Maters Degrees, and a regular series of research talks, professional lectures and seminars are open to MBA students. All teaching staff on our MBA programme have a track record of industrial, consultancy or research experience.

Through our Knowledge Transfer Partnerships we also link the knowledge and expertise of higher education with developing small &  medium enterprises ( SME’s) throughout Scotland.

The Business School is well known for having long-established link with Scottish industry and commerce. The Faculty Advisory Board is composed of senior academics and representatives from the Scottish business community, and its job is to ensure that new degree programmes are developed in line with the needs of the Scottish economy. We also work closely with professional organisations  such as Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) , Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Chartered Institute of Marketing ( CIM) and Chartered Institute of Personal & Development (CPID) to deliver their accredited qualifications.

Our numerous contacts in universities in Europe and Asia provide an international comparator for our teaching and research  and help to ensure that they are at the forefront of current thinking and business practice.

The Napier Name

Napier University takes its name from the 16th century philosopher and polymath, John Napier, best known as the inventor of logarithms. He also devised a method of multiplication and division  using metal plates -  the forerunner of the modern calculator. John Napier was born in Merchiston Tower, Which has been retained as an integral part of the University’s Merchiston Campus.

Today, the name of Napier is associated with the provision of high quality, vocationally focussed education. Napier is one of the highest ranked Universities  in the UK in terms of our graduate employability results.         

For an application form and further details, please contact Future Focus on +356 21 225884/ 221371 or e-mail to info@futurefocus.com.mt