Events Management (with Foundation Year)

Year 1

Compulsory modules

• Building Professional and Academic Skills for Success

  This module will provide you with effective personal and professional skills on which to base your academic study and professional careers in the tourism, hospitality and events industries and is an integral element of the transition to University learning. You will learn the rules of academic study, acquiring and developing skills to support both your academic and professional careers.

• The Experience Economy

  The Experience Economy, comprising the tourism, hospitality and events industries, has significant positive and negative effects on places. This module introduces the Experience Economy via a set of in-depth case studies, focusing on specific places. In each case study you will be introduced to a specific Experience Economy example, including at least one international event, one tourism destination and one hospitality industry case.
  
  The module will include short field trips and site visits, some of them being virtual, including at least one aspect of Oxford’s significant visitor economy, and one international case.

• Developing and Planning Experiences of Tourism, Hospitality and Events

  This module will introduce you to the theoretical and contextual aspects of developing and planning memorable experiences, preparing you to organise your first experience industry products. The module will also give you the opportunity to explore planning for sustainable and responsible practice.

• Delivering Experiences of Tourism, Hospitality and Events

  This module will introduce you to the practical aspects of designing and delivering live experiences, with a focus on developing understanding of the links between strategy, decisions and outcomes for an experience and its stakeholders.

• Management in International Tourism, Hospitality & Events

  Every aspect of the business, such as management, marketing, and finance, is based on key techniques. In this module. we will introduce these to you with a specific focus on the business realities in tourism, hospitality and events. These techniques will form the basic building blocks of your academic knowledge and are essential to the student experience.

• Context of Global Hospitality, Tourism and Events

  This modules features an introduction to the dynamic world of hospitality, tourism and events industries in a global context. You'll understand the composition, scale and scope of the sector.

  You'll examine the context of this industry through an analysis of historic, current and anticipated global trends. You'll use global frameworks, such as UN Global Compact, to analyse the nature of business practice, the impact it has on the environment and the impact of the external environment on the changing nature of events. This module begins the journey of becoming a responsible leader in events management.

  Examples and case studies are drawn from a wide range of geographical situations - local, regional, national and international.

Optional modules

• Foundations of Marketing

  The aim of this module is to introduce you to the concept of creativity and its role within a marketing context. You will explore creativity in general terms and how it manifests within marketing practice. You will also have an opportunity to develop your own creativity skills in relation to a range of marketing scenarios and audiences.

• Digital Technology and Maths for Business

  This module introduces foundations of business information management to help you understand the potential of digital technologies. You will gain essential numerical-, modelling- and IT-skills, and will learn to manipulate data in order to create meaningful and user-friendly management information. These skills are taught in a business- and problem-oriented way, using simplified business problems, combining several skills for each problem.

• Global Business Communications

  This module aims to equip you to communicate effectively as managers in a global environment, highlighting the importance of intercultural exchange as central to modern business and organisational practice. The module is an introduction to the use of oral and written communication in an international context using a variety of supporting technologies and formats.

• Work, Employment and Globalisation

  This module investigates contemporary issues about work, employment and global labour markets, including the changing nature and organisation of work, inequalities at work, migration and labour mobility, identity at work, and the digital economy. These issues are examined from multiple levels (including institutional, organisational and individual) and theoretical perspectives.

Year 2

Compulsory modules

• Managing the Sustainable Event Project

  You’ll continue to develop skills required for planning, managing and coordinating all aspects involved in the staging of a live sustainable event at a professional level. 

  You’ll learn how to produce events that respond to public policy, regulation and global industry standards. You’ll learn how to:

  • identify and engage key stakeholders 
  • identify, manage and mitigate risk
  • establish key targets and performance indicators
  • monitor and manage progress indicators 
  • deal with the impact of change on the project
  • and develop and implement post evaluation (environmental, social and economic) to capture learning and, if necessary, an exit and legacy strategy. 

  You’ll develop and build the skills necessary to gain employment in the events management industry as you recruit to the roles for the project. You’ll analyse and evaluate job roles that match your existing skill sets and identify how to develop new skills to enhance your employability and plan for your career development.

• Managing People in Hospitality, Tourism and Events

  This module will help you build on your first year learning. You’ll be able to identify and analyse the characteristics of managing people in Tourism, Hospitality and Events labour markets. Also, you’ll gain knowledge of theory and practices associated with managing culturally diverse people and workforces in these sectors. You’ll evaluate critically contemporary people management theoretical approaches utilising a range of independently researched evidence to support your arguments. 

  You’ll analyse relevant theoretical propositions for international Tourism,Hospitality and Events sectors. To build your understanding of managing people in these sectors. And you’ll also engage with current debates concerning the diversity and inclusion, culture and cultural differences and ethical management of diverse workforces to develop your key management skills in Tourism, Hospitality and Events.

• Professional Skills and Preparing for Employability

  On this module you'll build on your acquired professional skills from your first year module Building Professional and Academic Skills for Success to help you further prepare you for your future employment. You'll be able to reflect on your experiences and increase your self-awareness about the skills that you'll need to gain employment in the tourism, hospitality and events management sector as you work through your live projects.

• Marketing and Digital Transformation

  This is your introduction to the core principles of marketing within the current digital environment. You’ll develop an understanding of the current changes in digital marketplaces and the need to adapt Tourism, Hospitality or Event (THE) products and services for those markets. Also you’ll explore the discipline of Digital Marketing in the wider context of service industries’ marketing activities combining theoretical foundations with a hands-on approach to the topic. You’ll have the opportunity to work in teams to audit an existing THE brand and/or develop your own team brand, draft a marketing plan and engage in the creation of a realistic digital marketing campaign.

• Methods of Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Events

  Develop your critical research methods that can be used in the industry to provide the foundations for evidence based decision making. You will look at qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as developing your background knowledge that underpins research efforts. The knowledge you’ll acquire on this module will lay the foundation for you to use on your later research projects and in your future employment.

• Placement Search and Preparation (compulsory for sandwich mode)

  This module is designed to provide practical guidance and support in undertaking a placement search, preparing for the placement experience, and succeeding in the modern workplace. Throughout the module, you will develop critical self-awareness and personal literacy skills, enabling you to self-reflect on your own strengths and weaknesses and target your placement search effectively. Additionally, you will also explore methods of effective and targeted placement search, increasing your chances of securing a placement. 

  In summary, this module is an essential component of your employability journey. By integrating with co-curricular activities, the module provides a holistic approach to employability, ensuring that students have a broad range of skills and experiences to draw upon in their future careers.

Optional modules

• Business Strategy for Competitive Advantage

  You will develop knowledge and critical understanding of the classical principles of business strategy in exploring the question 'How should organisations compete to achieve sustainable, competitive advantage in today's global business environment?’ In answering this question, the potential of an organisation to create value through effective exploitation and development of internal resources and capabilities is examined using well-established analytical tools.

  On successful completion of this module, you will be able to analyse and evaluate the relative impact of the international industrial and competitive environment on organisations and the strategic choices they face, apply decision-making criteria and weigh risks appropriately.

• Creativity and Innovation

  You’ll gain the underpinning theory, concepts and also some basic skills to understand and engage in the processes of creativity and innovation. You’ll take a holistic approach to look at this subject from a variety of angles. This could be from an

  • academic perspective
  • an organisational perspective
  • a management consultancy perspective
  • an entrepreneurial perspective. 

  You’ll also have the opportunity and be supported to release and express more of your own creative potential. You’ll explore why creativity and innovation is increasingly being viewed as the key to competitive advantage in the New Economy.

• Environmentally Sustainable Business

  You’ll look at the environmental sustainability challenges facing society and businesses. You’ll discuss key environmental issues such as:

  • global warming
  • pollution
  • biodiversity loss 
  • freshwater depletion 

  and the role of business in causing as well as responding to such issues. 

  You’ll explore macro (economic, policy, governance) as well as micro (organisational and individual) perspectives. You’ll also be introduced to a variety of stakeholder perspectives and frameworks for evaluating business responses. Through the module you’ll develop your key competencies for sustainability that are endorsed by UNESCO (2017) and the QAA/Advance HE (2021). The competencies are:

  • systems thinking
  • anticipatory thinking
  • normative competency 
  • strategic thinking
  • collaborative competency 
  • critical thinking
  • self-awareness 
  • integrated problem-solving competency.

• Independent Study in Business

  This is your opportunity for independent study on an approved topic. It will relate to your programme learning outcomes. You’ll select and discuss a relevant topic area with your Programme Lead/Subject Co-ordinator. Your independent study may involve:

  • action based learning 
  • be based solely on desk research 
  • limited primary research
  • group work.

  And will be self directed. Through any group work you may have a specific role and responsibilities.

• Managing the Customer Experience

  You’ll learn about the interlinked concepts of Customer Experience (CX) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as they are now practised. You’ll explore the strategic importance of these concepts to the modern marketer and their contribution to customer engagement and loyalty. You’ll also look at how they add value to the product/service offering in order to create competitive advantage. 

  You’ll fully focus on the customer journey and look and learn at how marketers can control/influence it to improve the customer experience. You’ll develop a full understanding of customer experience and journey mapping, so you’ll be able to identify quick wins and improvements to a customer journey.

• Revenue Management and Financial Essentials

  Managing revenue effectively is of ultimate importance to maximising value and profit for the Hospitality, Tourism and Event industry. Management of revenue involves a co-ordinated application of a range of financial, operational and marketing skills, ranging from:

  • price determination
  • demand forecasting
  • customer value perception
  • inventory control 
  • to channel distribution management. 

  On this module you’ll examine all these topics and it will give you a holistic insight into Revenue Management from a combined financial and customer-centric approach. Your study will help prepare you for a fast-tracked career in the hospitality industry, in the Revenue Management area. You’ll finish this module equipped with the financial knowledge to tackle your final year financial modules.

• Tourist Behaviour

  You’ll explore and critically analyse theories, models and frameworks of tourist behaviour drawn from a range of social science disciplines such as:

  • Anthropology
  • Sociology
  • Psychology
  • Geography
  • and Politics. 

  You’ll be able to relate theory to practice through evaluation of academic and non-academic material. You'll also reflect on tourist narratives (e.g. social media) and your personal experiences. Finally, you’ll assess the relevance of the above to applied tourism management (especially destination management).

• Wedding Planning and Celebratory Events

  You’ll explore the socio-cultural origins and place in society of a range of celebratory events, such as:

  • weddings
  • anniversaries
  • celebrations of birth and death.

  You’ll critically review the religious, ethnic and social associations of such events in various settings. Also you’ll apply the key practical and creative requirements of designing and staging such events. 

  Through your studies you’ll develop core events skills like taking a client brief, managing stakeholders and events communications. You’ll have the opportunity to work with a live client brief. Practising your core skills you’ll acknowledge the cultural expectations of the client, and reflect on difference and opportunity, to celebrate diversity.

Optional Placement Year

Optional modules

• Supervised Work Experience

  This module helps students to develop the competencies required by graduate employers. Students undertake a placement in a hospitality, tourism, and events organisation to give a significant length of time to experience the realities of work. Learn more about how Oxford Brookes Business School supports students secure a work placement.

Final Year

Compulsory modules

• Leadership and Professional Development in Tourism & Hospitality

  You will be challenged to advance your reflective skills and reassess the personal ability to effectively manage a diverse range of relationships. Also you’ll look at authentic leadership skills within the international hospitality and tourism industries.

  By the end of the module, you will have developed:

  • leadership knowledge
  • competencies and skills by using your own work
  • university and/or community-based experiences to explore key relationships
  • professional sector competencies
  • and how to evaluate contemporary leadership challenges.

• Contemporary Issues in Responsible Leadership

  The challenges faced by society today are placing new demands upon a new generation of leaders for whom ‘global responsibility’ will be a central component for how they lead.

  This module uses the traditional leadership theory to explore the leadership practices in multiple settings, sectors and societies. Students focus on the theme of responsible leadership, emphasising on collaborative relationships with stakeholders. Students emerge capable to critically analyse theories of leadership, understanding the limitations and strengths of various theoretical propositions. More importantly, they join a community of moral and ethical leaders.

• Events Industry Insights

  This module will focus on the analytical aspects of a range of current and emerging issues in the events industry through the lived experience of events practitioners. Students undertake a comprehensive analysis of how industry trends are developing and what these changes mean for a range of key stakeholders and the wider network that supports the events industry.

• Research Project of Tourism, Hospitality and Events

  Through this Research Project you’ll have the opportunity to conduct sustained, self-directed, independent work through an in-depth study of a hospitality or tourism-related topic where you can analyse theory, evaluate it and apply it to examining practice.

Optional modules

• Business Analytics for Hospitality and Tourism

  You will build skills in thinking logically and critically about complex managerial issues that hospitality organisations face today and structure solutions with a data-driven approach.

  You’ll develop your understanding of the content, importance and relevance of business analytics and data visualisation in business decision-making with a focus on the hospitality and tourism industry.

  You will gain knowledge of the key concepts and methods combined with extensive opportunities to develop your hands-on skills for applying business analytics and data visualisation to managerial decision-making.

• Contemporary Consumer Behaviour

  This module builds on students’ previous marketing knowledge by developing a thorough understanding of the theories of consumer behaviour and their appropriate application in different organisational contexts. It examines decision-making processes, consumption or product usage and post consumption behaviours. The module is important because the actions of consumers lie at the heart of modern marketing theory and practice.

• Contemporary issues in International HRM

  This module enables you to review and develop disciplinary knowledge and research skills within a contemporary global context. The module adopts a broad definition of `international human resource management', to include issues relating to the impact of diversity management, national culture, the debates in the comparative HRM literature and examples of differences in the way HRM is conducted around the world. It also examines how international organisations deal with the extra complexity that operating internationally brings to HRM.

  Current issues will also be examined including the foreign vs. local staffing debate, women expatriates, joint venture issues and issues surrounding cross-cultural management.

• Entrepreneurship and Creativity Enterprise in Hospitality and Tourism

  You will be exposed to what is involved in being a successful entrepreneur in the Hospitality and Tourism industry sectors. Also you’ll learn techniques to foster creativity and innovation.

  You’ll undertake informed reflection on your entrepreneurial predispositions and have the opportunity to work up and present an idea for your own potential venture to a panel of expert entrepreneurs.

• Financial Decision Making for Hospitality and Tourism

  Explore how the assets of a hospitality and tourism organisation are effectively managed on behalf of internal and external stakeholders and key techniques of financial decision-making for hospitality and tourism organisations. Also, you will get the opportunity to analyse and interpret the Annual Report and Accounts of a publically listed Hospitality or Tourism business.

  You’ll look at hospitality and tourism financial reports, where you build your skills and knowledge of:

  • uniform accounting systems
  • responsibility accounting
  • hotel industry studies and comparative analysis.
  • content and interpretation of annual reports of hospitality and tourism businesses
  • hotel management contracts
  • franchising
  • business valuation
  • capital project appraisal methods
  • responsibilities of the asset manager within the owner/operator context
  • contemporary financial issues.
     

• Food, Drink and Culture

  You’ll have the opportunity to explore complex relationships between food and drink, individuals and societies.You will build your critical thinking skills and be able to argue and present about the extensive implications of food and drink-related practices for society. 

  You’ll analyse a variety of factors that shape these relationships and examine the

  • consequences for health
  • environment
  • distinctiveness of cultures
  • cohesiveness of communities.
     

• International Business Strategies in Hospitality and Tourism

  You will explore factors affecting the decisions related to the international business strategies of hospitality and tourism (H and T) organisations. You’ll also learn methods to evaluate various international expansion modes considering the political, economic and socio-cultural environments of potential destinations. 

  You’ll build appreciation of the risks associated with doing business in international markets by addressing transnational differences (with a particular focus on emerging markets) that affect the strategy, performance, and value of international H and T organisations. 

  You’ll have the oppportunity to critically reflect on the impacts of a globalised brand or brands on local markets and consider ethical, social and environmental effects of a company’s decision to expand internationally. You’ll also look at models for organising and managing an international network of operations and how to coordinate knowledge transfer across borders.
   

• Optimising Hospitality Operations

  You will explore the fundamental techniques and tools to analyse and improve operational capabilities of hospitality organisations. You will learn about commonly occurring application problems such as

  • hotel/restaurant inventory control
  • facility layout and workflow problems
  • process and bottleneck analysis. 

  Also you’ll look at optimisation models that support hospitality procurement and purchasing functions, including labour productivity analysis and regulating waiting times.

  By the end of this module you will have explored various case studies of the role of operations in building the competitive strengths of an organisation and in fulfilling its ultimate goal of creating value and delivering customer satisfaction. 
   

• Perspectives on International Management

  This module aims to equip you with the skills and knowledge necessary to manage effectively in a globalised business environment. You’ll analyse a wide range of management practices, while also evaluating theoretical frameworks and conducting research on national cultures. You will evaluate the strategic implications of culture on business operations and HRM practices, while also developing the aptitude required to manage effectively across cultures.

  Benefits to you include gaining a competitive edge in the job market by expanding knowledge about managing in a globalised world and navigating cross-cultural communication challenges. You will also broaden your horizons and increase your cultural awareness and sensitivity, enhancing your ability to work effectively with individuals from different backgrounds.

• Independent Study

  This is your opportunity to embark on independent study of an approved topic that relates to your learning outcomes. Your study will be conducted under supervision and you will select a relevant topic area from your course and you’ll need to get approval from the module leader.

  Your study on this module can involve:

  • action-based learning
  • solely on desk research 
  • limited primary research.

• Tourism Impact Analysis

  You’ll focus on the study of the range of nature and type of impacts associated with tourism and tourists on the 

  • Environment
  • Economy 
  • Society.

  Including approaches to impact assessment and management to ensure that the tourism and hospitality industry benefits from them.