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Marketing and Entrepreneurship

MSc

Key facts
Overview
How to apply
Tuition fees
Learning and assessment
Research
After you graduate

Key facts

Start dates

September 2024

Location

Headington

Course length

Full time: 1 year or 2 years in sandwich mode which includes one year's full-time paid supervised work experience (a work placement). Sandwich mode is only available for September entry.

Part time: 24 Months for UK and EU students (teaching normally structured to provide one whole day or two half days each week in the semester

Department

Oxford Brookes Business School

Accreditation(s)

Chartered Institute of Marketing, Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing

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  • Chartered Institute of Marketing
  • Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing

Overview

This course provides a strong foundation in marketing and entrepreneurship theory and practice. This is a programme for graduates seeking to become professional marketers and those who wish to pursue a career in new business ventures or start their own business. We encourage innovative and creative approaches to your learning with:

  • live case-studies
  • consultancy projects
  • skills workshops.

As part of an international learning environment, combining theory and practice to develop the key skills that employers are looking for, you will gain an understanding of:

  • customer behaviours and expectations, and the variety of channels used to interact with customers
  • analysing marketing data
  • developing business plans 
  • using entrepreneurial skills and behaviours
  • devising marketing strategy for global brands and organisations.

If you start in September you can opt to take a year's paid supervised work placement in a marketing role, a business start-up or evolving area of business to help prepare you for your future career. View our work placement FAQs here.

How to apply

Entry requirements

Specific entry requirements

The programme is designed to attract students from a wide range of backgrounds, disciplines and nationalities. Applicants are welcome from any academic discipline. Admission is normally open to those with:

  • a minimum of a second-class honours degree
  • or equivalent overseas degree from a recognised institution
  • or equivalent professional or other qualification.

Those who do not meet any of the above criteria may be eligible for entry, provided they have compensatory work experience. This should include, in particular, further professional training and accreditation and the demonstration of appropriate career development.

Entry will also be subject to two satisfactory references (one of these must be an academic reference).

Please also see the University's general entry requirements.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language you will need to satisfy the university's English language requirements:

  • IELTS minimum level 6.0, (with a minimum of 6.0 in reading and writing, and 5.5 in listening and speaking)
  • if you have completed your undergraduate degree in the UK (at least one full year of study) you will automatically meet our English language requirements

Please also see the University's standard English language requirements.

International qualifications and equivalences

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English requirements for visas

If you need a student visa to enter the UK you will need to meet the UK Visas and Immigration minimum language requirements as well as the University's requirements. Find out more about English language requirements.

Pathways courses for international and EU students

We offer a range of courses to help you meet the entry requirements for your postgraduate course and also familiarise you with university life in the UK.

Take a Pre-Master's course to develop your subject knowledge, study skills and academic language level in preparation for your master's course.

If you need to improve your English language, we offer pre-sessional English language courses to help you meet the English language requirements of your chosen master’s course.

Terms and Conditions of Enrolment

When you accept our offer, you agree to the Terms and Conditions of Enrolment. You should therefore read those conditions before accepting the offer.

Application process

Apply now

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
Home (UK) full time
£11,000
Home (UK) part time
£5,500
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£2,000
International full time
£16,200
International sandwich (placement)
£2,000
Home (UK) full time
£11,400
Home (UK) part time
£5,700
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£2,000
International full time
£16,800
International sandwich (placement)
£2,000

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Tuition fees

2022 / 23
Home (UK) full time
£11,000
Home (UK) part time
£5,500
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£2,000
International full time
£16,200
International sandwich (placement)
£2,000
2023 / 24
Home (UK) full time
£11,400
Home (UK) part time
£5,700
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£2,000
International full time
£16,800
International sandwich (placement)
£2,000

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 483088

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year your fees will increase each year.

The fees quoted are for the taught Year 1. Fees will be charged for the placement year in Year 2 and are available on request from finance-fees@brookes.ac.uk in May of the year of study. For approximate fee levels of the placement year see the above placement fee.

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

Funding your studies

Financial support and scholarships

Featured funding opportunities available for this course.

Postgraduate Master's Loan - England

All financial support and scholarships

View all funding opportunities for this course

Learning and assessment

You will study six compulsory modules including a module which helps develop your professional and academic skills. You’ll choose either a dissertation or client project. 

If you start in September, you can choose the sandwich mode, which gives you the opportunity to apply for a one year paid work placement in a marketing role.

Two people using a computer

Study modules

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

Digital and Social Media Marketing Strategy

Digital technologies have transformed marketing, they offer new sources of customer insight, they have dramatically changed customer behaviour, enabled new business models and impacted how organisations interact with their customers and key stakeholders. This module aims to take a strategic perspective of the digital and social media environment. It focuses on the interaction between consumers, businesses and other organisations and how thinking digitally can assist in effective marketing. Web based media, mobile platforms, social media and digital tools are reviewed, practised and critically evaluated to identify successful performance and to create contemporary digital marketing strategies.

Entrepreneurial Theory and Practice

This module enhances your understanding of enterprise and entrepreneurship, and helps you develop vital entrepreneurial skills. These skills include idea generation and evaluation, communication, networking and the evaluation of risk. In addition, you will develop an understanding of the social and economic impact of entrepreneurialism. The module focuses on developing an understanding of factors relating to the development of the entrepreneur, the entrepreneurial idea and the entrepreneurial organisation. By studying these topics the module is bridges the gap between theory and practice.

Global Marketing Strategy

You will build on your first semester studies and explore the global marketing environment. There is a particular emphasis on internationalisation and the creation and development of global markets. You will understand the principles, influences, and institutions affecting the development of international trade and global marketing strategies. You will analyse opportunities and constraints in the context of global marketing strategy, and the associated organisational and control issues associated with the development of global markets. This includes an appreciatio of the importance of ethical and social issues.

Introduction to the Principles of Marketing

This module introduces the key principles of Marketing by studying the theories that underpin Marketing. It explores the roles of buyers, the marketing environment, and the ways in which marketers plan, manage, implement and monitor marketing programmes in the context of the international environment of the twenty first century.

Planning for New Business Ventures

This module develops your business planning skills and is essential for those students who intend to start and run their own businesses. At the heart of the module is an evaluation of a firm's business model. You will prepare a business plan in groups for a new or existing venture, which will be assessed by a panel. You will be evaluated on its economic logic, value to customer and return on investment for its owners.

Professional and Academic Development

This professional and academic skills development module helps you to become a lifelong learner, develop career focus and enhances your employability. On this module, you develop your skills for employment and career planning and enhance your research skills. You will work through a self-development plan, taking the lead in your own learning and development. You will be coached in identifying, engaging in and reflecting on how you can gain from developmental activities within the university and externally.

Research Methods for Events and Marketing

This module delivers the skills that enable you to conduct marketing research independently and work effectively in an academic environment. Students on the MSc programmes are expected to undertake effective research drawing upon a range of secondary and primary data sources in the preparation of coursework. You will be exposed to a range of methodological issues, data collection techniques and study skills. In addition, this module is geared towards the preparation for, and successful completion of, high quality, rigorous and systematic research project for marketing or events.

Understanding Customer Behaviour

You will critically appraise the behaviours of customers and their interactions with marketing. Informed by behavioural science, you will analyse why customers behave as they do and how marketing activity influences their behaviours. This analysis informs your critical understanding and implementation of both strategic and responsible marketing practice. An innovative dimension of this course is the investigation of change agents that will significantly influence the behaviours of customers in the future, for example neuroscience, climate change and technology innovation. This is an analytical module that utilises research evidence to inform evaluation, behavioural and communications research.

Work placement

Optional modules

Marketing Practice (Sandwich Mode)

This module is a great opportunity to gain one year’s supervised paid work experience in the UK or internationally in a marketing role. You will investigate a marketing  challenge in a commercial or non-profit organisation. Throughout this module, you apply the practical concepts you have learned on the course. When you are working for the organisation, you will be responsible for managing a large proportion of your own learning, including tracking and recording your progress. 

We provide lots of support to help you find a paid work experience and gain connections with various organisations. Our placements team (WAVES) has a database which records work placement opportunities and they run numerous placements fairs where you could meet potential employers. Securing a work experience placement is your responsibility and does take a lot of effort, but this gives you valuable experience. You would need to cover your own living and travel costs throughout this duration.

Final project - choose one of:

Compulsory modules

Client Project

You have the opportunity to link theory to practice by analysing a real organisational issue. Having identified a project (with the approval of both the client company and the Module Leader) you investigate a particular issue, one that can be supported through the relevant literature and by conducting primary research with the client. Client projects are most often undertaken with companies that the student already has a relationship with before starting their course, although a small number of opportunities become available each year. This module is not an internship but can be taken in conjunction with an internship you have identified and are participating in. The 'issue' in question may be current management problem for the client organisation or related to future strategic choices. The Client project provides you with a significant learning and personal development experience.

Dissertation

This module gives you the opportunity to explore and develop expertise in an area of interest. You are encouraged to choose topics that will be valuable in your future career. This is a self-managed activity, driving your own research project while being guided and advised by a supervisor, based on the proposal developed in the Research Methods in Marketing and Events module.

Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from that shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Download course structure chart

Learning and teaching

Most of the teaching on this course takes the form of interactive workshops.

You will strengthen your practical analysis and decision-making skills with:

  • lectures
  • discussions
  • role-play exercises.

These are linked with selected case studies and assessments.

Structured group assignments allow you to develop your skills in working as part of a team.

Our teaching staff are academic researchers and/or from an industry background. They have an in-depth practical experience of business and management issues. You will also learn from visiting speakers from:

  • business
  • industries
  • not for profit organisations
  • consultancies
  • research bodies

Live research projects for an organisation will give you practical experience, putting your knowledge of marketing approaches and theories into practice.

Field trips

The International Business in Practice Study Trip module allows you to experience ideas and practices of global business. During the trip you will have direct interaction with management executives and practices. You will: attend presentations from local management executives and experts go on site visits to major corporations and agencies. This study trip is voluntary and you will need to fund all costs associated with the trip. It is not linked to university assessments in any way.

We also run a study trip to Chengdu, China. If you choose the study trip (which runs in July), we will give you all the details by March so that you can make your decisions ahead of the trip in July.

If you successfully complete this non-credit bearing module, it will be recorded on your transcript as P58335 International Business in Practice: Study Trip.

Assessment

Assessment methods used on this course

We will assess you on the quality of written or visual presentation work during your modules. Verbal presentations can also form part of the assessment.

The majority of assessments are based on individual assignments but some
group work is assessed.

You may also be assessed with:

  • reports
  • seminar papers
  • formal written examinations
  • in-class tests.

Research

Studying for your MSc in Marketing or Events Management at Oxford Brookes Business School offers you a first class experience to engage with our excellent researchers. They investigate core challenges facing contemporary societies, ranging from sustainable tourism and events management to pro-environmental behaviour in a changing world. We also have expertise in Coaching and Mentoring (leadership development) and Diversity (gender, ethnicity, class) and are keen to include students into our projects where possible. Please visit our research pages to learn about our three research centres: The Centre for Business, Society and Global Challenges; The Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice and the International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies (https://www.brookes.ac.uk/business/research/). Being a master student offers great opportunities to be part of research culture and to discuss your own research ideas with us. 

After you graduate

Career prospects

Our Graduates are employed in marketing roles throughout the world; these include jobs in media, digital, brand and communications agencies, and in-house marketing management positions in areas as diverse as fast moving consumer goods, retail, hospitality, travel, publishing and manufacturing. Current employers include:

  • Johnson & Johnson
  • Hitachi
  • DK
  • Avis
  • PWC

As well as a number of small and medium sized ‘digital’ agencies. 

Examples of our graduates’ positions in marketing include:

  • marketing managers
  • marketing planners
  • brand managers
  • corporate communication managers
  • social media community managers.

In addition, some of our students go on to start their own companies.

We have strong relationships with companies in a range of industries. These relationships inform the programme design and delivery, and provide opportunities for placements and employment. 

In addition to the professional career development support provided within the programme, the University has an active and enthusiastic careers service. This service helps you gain the ‘competitive edge’ when applying for jobs by offering help with CVs, and mock assessment centres and interviews.

Programme Changes:

On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website.

For more information, please visit our Changes to programmes page.