International Business with Data Analytics

Why choose the Graduate School of Business

In the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2025, our business and management courses rank in the top 10 in their subject field for teaching; skills development; organisation and feedback; sense of community; and dissertation experience.

Block delivery, year-round entry points and intermediate qualifications that help you fit study around your other commitments.

Assessments linked to live projects where you engage with industry professionals and find real business solutions; open up your opportunities for networking and work placements; and gain specialist employability and research skills.

About the course

This career-expanding, 22-month course provides a comprehensive understanding of core business areas such as accounting and finance, cross-cultural competencies and brand management, all viewed through the lens of the global marketplace. It additionally focuses on building your data-analysis skills in specialist units designed with non-computing graduates in mind. You apply your knowledge to real-life issues, thanks to our industry collaborations, so you are fully prepared to use data and management skills on the international business stage.

For further course information, contact Dr Maria Jerez Jerez at maria.jerezjerez@beds.ac.uk

Facilities and specialist equipment

High-tech business suite complete with 拢300K of industry-standard hardware and software, uniquely tailored to essential management practices such as data analytics, digital marketing, SEO and 鈥榖ig data鈥� mining
Access to immersive simulations and learning resources from Harvard Business Publishing
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) trading room offering live 鈥榮tock-market鈥� data for a realistic investment experience
Business pods, boardroom areas and IT suites designed to simulate a professional office environment

Your student experience

Peer-informed academic learning model with an emphasis on active collaboration and employability tailored for the modern workplace: develop critical thinking, analytical research, leadership and self-management skills through structured peer discourse and academic guidance, all while gaining specialised knowledge.

Delivery in six-week blocks with 24/7 access to learning resources and opportunities.

Live projects are integrated into the curriculum. Our strong industry links and collaborations offer students real-world experience. Engage with real firms in your classroom, solve real issues, and build your competencies, confidence and networks.

Easy access to industry speakers, industry events and career-development opportunities studying close to London.

Choose to specialise further by undertaking your dissertation in an area that sparks your interest, applying your learning to solve complex problems.

Learn from academic experts with strong industry experience and links.

Benefit from high levels of study support from careers, study skills and student support experts.

Aligned with the Principles of Responsible Management Education鈥檚 (PRME) sustainable development goals (SDG).

Course Leader - Dr Maria Jesus Jerez Jerez

Maria received her PhD in Business Management from Middlesex 天美传媒, London, UK. She has a Master of Arts degree in International Hotel and Restaurant Management from London Metropolitan 天美传媒, UK, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Hospitality and Tourism, Madrid, Spain. She worked in the hotel and tourism industry in various functional areas and managerial roles before becoming an educator.

Find out more about Dr Maria Jesus Jerez Jerez

Course Leader - Dr Maria Jesus Jerez Jerez

Find out more about Dr Maria Jesus Jerez Jerez

International Trade And Monetary Policy

This unit aims:

To assess the theory of international trade, exploring how countries exchange goods and services, manage international migration, and facilitate foreign direct investment flows.
To investigate why nations and blocs/alliances/unions implement restrictions or regulations on international trade, and analyse the economic welfare implications of such policies.
To analyse the operations of international and European monetary systems by investigating both recent advancements and challenges.
To explore real-world issues like balance of payments problems, causes of exchange rate movements, and the impacts of economic connections between countries.

Strategy

The aims of the Unit are:听

To enable students to develop a critical and informed understanding of the business environment in which organisations operate and of the business opportunities.
To equip students with a range of tools and concepts of strategic analysis and business modelling that will enable them to assess the strategic position of business organisations.
To develop strategic thinking and vision that can be utilised in formulating strategies, evaluating options and implementing strategic decisions

Capstone

The aims of the Unit are:

To bring theory and practice together to formulate a topic of your choice relevant to your field of study
To provide you with the opportunity to explore a topic and appreciate the importance of literature review in the learning process
To reflect on research methodology and implement the suitable approach for the selected research
To enhance skills in time-management, research management, project organisation and decision-making for a relevant research outcome
To apply and reflect on the practicalities of research including access to sources and ethical consideration

Strategic Management

This unit covers the field of strategy-making and strategic management. You will consider current issues and challenges facing directors, senior managers and entrepreneurs in guiding the long-term development of organisations. The objectives of organisations and the means of achieving these objectives through the mobilisation and deployment of assets and resources and the integration of the various functions of the organisation will be the focus of the unit.

Performance Achievement Planning

This short course is a professional development course that is designed to support all PG students in the 天美传媒 Business School to enhance their employability and develop a professional profile through their journey in the Masters. The specific aims are to:

Enhance students’ professional, personal development and communication skills.
To support students to evidence how their experience at masters level has contributed to the development of their professional profile as required after graduation.
To support students to develop the necessary academic skill required for successful completion of postgraduate research

Brand Communication And Reputation Management

The central aim of this Unit is to provide you with a thorough understanding of the role that Communications plays within the marketing strategy of any organisation and be able to critically analyse and reflect upon the relationship between buyer behaviour and the development of a Marketing Communications Strategy. The unit will enable you to understand the main functions of the marketing communications mix including key areas of integrated marketing communications systems: public relations, advertising, and digital media. In addition, the unit will seek to develop a critical appreciation of the role of Public Relations and Digital Marketing as a key tool for ‘reputation management’ and the mechanisms for developing successful digital campaigns.

Intercultural Business Competencies

Aims:

To appraise and develop writing and written communication skills appropriate to a manager

To evaluate team building and interpersonal skills and critically analyse and employ non-verbal and verbal communication and listening skills

To integrate cultural frameworks with theories from other disciplines in producing a justification for propositions or ventures

To investigate developments in international business, focusing on issues of polarity, dependence and interdependence in respect of socialization processes and interaction rules that foster a normative basis for interdependency

To critically evaluate personal models of effectiveness in management contexts

To identify, reflect upon and evidence key areas for your personal development

Relevance:

International business demands managing strategies in international markets, with considerations of interdependencies of intercultural competence in managing differences in interpersonal interactions, which is key for successful business operations.

In this unit you will evaluate the major dimensions of the international markets and the different strategies. You will explore the application of oral and written communication theories within the context of a technological and international business environment. Additionally, you will demonstrate expertise in formulating and evaluating business strategies for different business environments.

Emphasis is placed on developing your competences as an international manager. You will determine key aspects of the work environment and its implications for interactive work behaviour.

Excellent high performing international marketing managers exhibit self-awareness and engage in decision making with an understanding of their own and others’ capabilities. These abilities enable visionary approaches to problem solving and effective development of others. This unit gives you the opportunity to better understand your personal performance, get insight into working in international markets and across cultures, manage yourself effectively and become a more reflective learner.

This will help prepare you for the ever-changing and increasingly global working environment.

Data Modelling, Management And Governance

Managing data is an area of crucial importance in any field. Its application facilitates the rational decision making process that is the basis for successful operations within any environment. To this extent, the purpose of this unit is to discuss how data should be managed during its lifecycle through a mixture of relevant topics. This includes development tools and basic techniques for data capture, modelling, storing and retrieval to serve as the mechanisms for making effective and efficient use of available data. The approach will be based on exploring basic applied principles and practices to enable students to develop an information system as a solution to a problem for a particular field of application. These are fully informed from practices employed in small to middle and, middle to large sized companies.

The primary aim of the unit is:

To advance students by applying a range of both theoretical and practical issues involved in data modelling and management techniques in order to develop appropriate relational database systems for managing data within a chosen field of interest.

Therefore, the objectives involved are as follows:

To review the underlying theory of databases including data modelling and management techniques
To critically appreciate and exploit available methods and techniques used for data modelling and management purposes
To develop the student’s awareness of and ability to select and apply appropriate tools and techniques for building relevant database systems
To effectively demonstrate good practice in database development by using industry standard software
Develop problem solving skills in being able to select the best possible e-Governance solution for a given "real-world" context
To critically review the role of XML (Extensible Markup Language) schemas and ontologies in facilitating data governance
To enable students to gain an up-to-date knowledge by applying data modelling and management tools in their chosen field of application

Personal Professional Development

This unit aims to help you to gain the full benefit of your extended Master’s programme by supporting you in preparing for employment and career progression. You should develop realistic awareness of the challenges and opportunities that exist within the employment market place and how to successfully present yourself and navigate your future career.

Scheduled coaching and reflection will support you in realising your ambitions. Participants have an equal partnership and control. You set and own the goals and shape your development.

It provides you with key tools of research and learning at the overarching / meta level in terms of skills and behaviours including those of self-knowledge, reflective practice, working collaboratively, enhanced problem solving and building a personal brand.

Through Executive Coaching and Action Learning Sets, Your Professional Future allows you to tailor your own development through whatever routes are appropriate and anchors these achievements in reflective practice.

The unit aims and objectives are captured specifically in the reflective professional development plan the students develop by the end of this unit.

Computer Networks And Security

This unit introduces core computer networking and information security concepts to those who need a foundation in the subjects. It is relevant for a wide range of career pathways - from business and risk management, software development, to cyber and data security and sciences.

Learners will be shown the fundamentals of how computer networks operate and the essential principles of cybersecurity.

Developing Independent Research

In this unit you will learn what goes into a research proposal and application, the rudiments of good research design at masters level and beyond.

The unit examines the processes of authentication, verification, dissemination of knowledge through scholarly publishing. You will learn about contemporary debates over access and peer review, impact evaluation (citations, H-index, etc), revenue models and research funding.

Completion of this unit will support your ability to critically evaluate research data and to present your conclusions to a professional standard.

Business Dissertation

Aims:

To bring theory and practice together to formulate a topic of your interest whether it is a research-oriented topic or a more clinical topic that is relevant to the context of business and conduct research on your choice of topic relevant to your field of study
To stimulate you to reflect on issues critically and to identify aspects that need further research
To provide you with the opportunity to explore a topic and appreciate the importance of literature review in the learning process
To critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of other people’s research to formulate your own study
To enhance skills in time-management, research management, project organisation and decision-making
To apply and reflect on the practicalities of research including access to sources and ethical considerations

Relevance

An important aim of a Master’s degree is to master and apply your knowledge and skills independently so that you can successfully carry out research. This dissertation provides you with the opportunity for sustained independent study that builds on your research proposal and represents the culmination of your Master’s level studies.

A number of different assessment methods will contribute to your development and will enhance your employability. We consider it essential that comprehensive feedback is provided in due time so it is integrated in your learning process.

When group work is required the marks given will be individual following the 天美传媒's regulatory scheme. In some cases different kinds of assessment may be used in combination making sure however that there are no hidden tasks.

The intensive character of this Course's delivery as it is outlined in its Teaching and Learning philosophy is consistent with the needs of todays world for graduates who accumulate knowledge fast and are able to express the outcome of this process in a way that is meaningful and comprehensive.

After Induction a week of intensive direct contact time followed by your own contribution through individual learning which will take you to your first assessment point. At the end of your six-week block your final assessment will be due. The end-of-unit examinations focus primarily on critical discussion of theory and current practice and provide the reassurance of guaranteed student authorship and a true measure of your own ability and understanding. This will be a demanding but very rewarding experience.

The overall underpinning assessment strategy on this course tests the intended learning outcomes through exposing students to a range of assessment types. The aim is to develop both knowledge and skills to support students' entry to employment as confident managers.

The units on this course therefore use varied combination of types of assessments for both formative and summative purposes to enrich the learning experience. The range of assessments used for this course includes:

Written Examination or Class Test: Questions in these exams always promote critical thinking and help you gradually develop your ability to apply analyse synthesize and evaluate.
Individual Written Report or Essays: Your knowledge and skills are developed when you undertake the task of writing an individual report and the whole process contributes to your improvement when it comes to conducting postgraduate level research and developing your enterprise. The ability to perform literature informed research to review and evaluate the relevant sources and to use an appropriate methodology in order to analyze and evaluate the relevant concepts is being assessed.
Case 天美传媒 Examination: You will apply your knowledge in the context of a specific case.
Oral Presentation: A number of transferable skills will be developed including the ability to present your findings in a professional clear and concise manner.
Reflective Report: Evaluating your own contribution to a team is essential in the context of this course but in the workplace as well.
Dissertation / Professional Practice / Live Project: Regardless of which masters capstone experience you opt for you will have to produce an individual independent piece of work. You will be asked to identify the research question or problem under investigation review the relevant literature and develop a sound methodology in order to explore the problem proceed with the analysis discuss your findings and make recommendations. It is the capstone of this course and builds on the knowledge and skills acquired in all Units. It will be one of the most challenging but yet enjoyable and rewarding experiences you will encounter.

The use of a wide range of sources both academic and other is a requirement for a postgraduate degree. The notions of accountability and academic integrity will be an integral part of your course. You will be supported in developing an understanding of academic integrity on this course. You will be informed about what plagiarism is and how to avoid it during the delivery of each Unit. Where an individual project is required you will be asked to show the different stages of your work or to present it in its entity upon completion. Where collaborative tasks are assigned an individual reflective report will be necessary to indicate your contribution to the team. All coursework assignments will require a thorough evaluation of the sources used and referencing will be done according to the Harvard Referencing System.

Careers

The course is designed to develop graduates able to operate as effective and efficient managers with a particular set of sought-after skills in data analytics. For those already in employment, it can open up the way to fast-track postgraduate progression or a leadership role. Once you've graduated, you are likely to progress into management in a range of areas including marketing communications; data management; and organisational data security. Particular roles might include trading executive; product manager; business development manager; and buyer.

This course also provides an excellent pathway for further studies at MPhil and PhD level.