MBA Public Administration

Rationale and Philosophy

The MBA has been shaped to form what the programme team believes to be a unique curriculum. It allows students to:

• Gain a UK Higher Education Institution accredited MBA.
• Study in their own time (in whatever time-zone in which they live).
• Study at their own pace (within the current period of University of Cumbria regulations for part-time study).
• Attend an optional residential event in Zurich, Switzerland.
• Continue to live in their own country/location without disrupting family life.
• Continue to pursue their existing career without a break.

Programme Outline

The scheme has been designed to meet the aims of the online MBA in a flexible manner and can be tailored to the individual preferences of each student. The MBA requires you to complete six courses plus a final dissertation. The programme consists of the following modules:

Introductory

Not-for-credit

Induction

This is the first module of the programme which gives an orientation to the course and the online learning style. It does not carry credits, and students are encouraged to go through the material in this module at their own pace and get accustomed to the online medium.

Stage 1

120 credits - Six taught modules

Core

• Organisational Behaviour
• Data Analytics
• Political Science and Public Policy Analysis
• Enterprise Ethics and Sustainability

Elective

Choose one of the following modules:

• Financial Management
• Corporate Strategy and Competitiveness (Based on material developed by the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School, and includes a mandatory residency in Zürich, Switzerland. This second residency is only required for those students who choose this module as an elective.)

Final Capstone

Strategic Management

Stage 2

60 credits - Individual dissertation

Dissertation Work

As an exit qualification, the Post-Graduate Certificate in Management Studies is awarded to candidates who have completed 60 credits (three modules), while the Diploma in Management Studies is awarded to candidates who have completed 120 credits (all six modules, including the residency) but have been unable to complete the dissertation. Students who achieve the full 180 credits, and have successfully completed the dissertation, exit with the award of Master of Business Administration (MBA).

Module Descriptions

There are no average courses within our MBA programme. We are bound to provide an exceptional learning experience, and there is no better way to achieve this aim than with outstanding courses. They have been carefully crafted by experienced professors and are all meant to make you a more successful and efficient manager.

There are no old-fashioned exams. Instead you are given real-life case studies and essays, which allow you to think critically about your company and your own career. All this might seem too glossy but there is one catch: we do not accept average candidates. Only individuals as outstanding as our values can find their way toward admission at the Robert Kennedy College.

Induction

Not-for-credit module

A not-for-credit induction module will be the starting point of the programme. The induction process is designed to familiarise you with the programme design, requirements and resources, as well as with the way online interaction, learning and grading will take place. After the induction you should be familiar with academic life, including academic writing, library services and library access, OnlineCampus access, and academic support services.

Organisational Behaviour

The aims of this module are to provide an introduction to core concepts of the way people are managed in organisations. To that end it will offer opportunities for study by prospective as well as experienced managers, to consider the history and development of management thinking and theory, using modern ideas to assess and evaluate their own personal experiences of organisations and dynamics. The introduction to the module will act as bedrock upon which other managerial ideas and processes can be developed later in the course.

Data Analytics

The aim of this module is to critically explore the range of concepts and functions of data analytics, including preparing and operating with data; abstracting and modelling an analytic question; and using tools from statistics, learning and mining to address these questions, evaluating the techniques dealing with how to go from raw data to a greater understanding of the patterns and structures within the data, to provision making predictions and decision making.

Political Science and Public Policy Analysis

This module aims to equip you with the knowledge and understanding required to analyse, direct and develop effective management skills in the modern environment of public governance and policy making, impacted by the constraints of legitimacy in local, national or international policy making.  Although there may be some bias towards UK practice, in particular with respect to case study discussions, the programme should be considered global in terms of its coverage of leadership and governance.

Enterprise Ethics and Sustainability

This module provides learners with the opportunity to conceptualize ethics, responsibility, and sustainability in diverse global and local settings. It allows students to develop an insight into the sustainable development from economic, social, and environmental dimensions of enterprise practices as outcomes of implementing United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Financial Management

Elective module

This module aims to provide an introduction to financial accountancy and managerial economics. It accepts that you may join this programme without prior knowledge of detailed accounting, valuation or evaluation models. You are, however, expected to be conversant with business arithmetic, accounting and principles of finance as laid down in the entry requirements. The module will engage you in reflective and discursive argument on the materiality of different social, environmental and ethical issues.

Corporate Strategy and Competitiveness

Elective module including a one-week residency in Zürich, Switzerland

In cooperation with the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness of the Harvard Business School, Robert Kennedy College is offering this outstanding course designed by Professor Michael Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School and the leading authority on corporate strategy and competitiveness. Taught by Robert Kennedy College Deputy Dean and Harvard Business School MBA graduate Professor David Duffill, this course explores the determinants of national and regional competitiveness building from the perspective of firms, clusters, sub-national units, nations, and groups of neighbouring countries.

The course is concerned not only with government policy, but with the roles that firms, industry associations, universities, and other institutions play in competitiveness. It takes examples from both advanced and developing economies, and addresses competitiveness at multiple levels. Students who take this elective have access to the exclusive video lectures of Professor Porter and are required to attend the residential session in Zürich, Switzerland.

Strategic Management

This module aims to develop your knowledge and understanding across a range of appropriate topic areas, to undertake an analysis of inherent strategic complexity with a view to selecting appropriate conceptual ‘tools’ for strategic development. The module will develop your awareness of the complex inter-relationship of organisational problems and develop your critical ability to select and ‘argue’ for alternative approaches emanating from conceptual alternative dimensions in relation to organisational problems and strategy. In addition the module will develop your ability to select complementary approaches and/or techniques appropriate for a stated problem and apply them to resolve or improve the problem. The module seeks to extend your current cognitive and transferable skills applicable across the manager’s role. These include self-appraisal, problem-solving, communication, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Aims and Outcomes

• further develop relevant management and organisation knowledge, both academic and professional, in line with postgraduate standards/benchmarks and in the context of public administration;
• develop critical reflection skills and engagement with organisational and professional theory to understand, and where appropriate challenge, existing individual and organisational perspectives and practices;
• develop, and where appropriate apply, knowledge of new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence or the Internet of Things to add value by enhancing organisational capability particularly in the field of public administration;
• develop an understanding of the organisation’s strategic focus and environment and the impact of the inter-relationship between the organisation’s resources and clients, particularly focusing on the aspects of ethics and elements of change management in the public administration sector;
• develop commitment to continuous personal and professional development, independence and reflective learning in the context of public administration management;
• further develop expertise and understanding in the fields of management and administration, enabling a critical engagement with contemporary discourses that will promote a personal and professional reflection on leading changes in the public administration sector.