UDBUMAHR - BA Business Management with Human Resource Management

HRM is widely recognised as a sector that is instrumental in driving business needs forward, influencing business strategy and shaping people and performance at work. Over the past several years, as a result of organisations extending their global reach, there has been a trend towards international people management requiring understanding of cross-cultural and diversity issues as well as global strategic HRM. Moreover, new employment legislation is leading to increased demand for HR professionals in the area of compensation and benefits, performance management, employee relations and employment law.

The undergraduate BA Business Management with HRM degree programme is designed to embrace these trends and environmental / organisational changes set upon a solid foundation of business management principles. The course offers a distinctive approach in providing our students with a broad understanding of contemporary HRM within a national and global context thus adopting the internationalisation agenda. The programme is also designed to develop effective practitioner-based skills, capabilities and more generic HR competencies to accommodate the needs of students, industry and the professional body (CIPD) requirements and to enhance the professional and employability skills of our students.
The course will employ a mixture of interactive lectures, seminars and workshops, and employment-based activities and events. These will be designed to foster student-centred learning and engagement to enable students to analyse and discuss core principles, to present their work and obtain formative feedback. A wide variety of innovative assessment strategies are also used throughout the course including essays, exams, portfolio-based work, individual and group presentations, research projects and a final year dissertation.

Lectures will be designed to convey broad principles, concepts and knowledge, while the seminar sessions offer students the opportunity to analyse and apply this knowledge via an HRM lens. Students will also have the opportunity to further practice and apply knowledge through field work and business simulations focusing on legal and business management scenarios.

The course design has embedded the OU Digital and Information Literacy Framework (DILF) (OU 2012) into its teaching, learning and assessment of HR modules to build the personal, professional and academic identities and competencies of students with an underpinning of critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis. Digital and information literacies are key characteristics required for both professional and academic development. They go beyond the traditional skills of finding and using relevant information to recognise the challenges of a digital age.

The framework encompasses “...communication, collaboration and teamwork, social awareness in the digital environment, understanding of e-safety and creation of new information” (OU 2015) and is mapped to the different levels of study at undergraduate level.

The DILF competencies and dispositions cover:

• Understanding and engaging in digital practices
• Finding information
• Critically evaluating information, online interactions and online tools
• Managing and communicating information
• Collaborating and sharing digital content

Teaching and learning for the course is designed to help students develop an inquisitive, independent but supported level of study in which they are able to set personal goals and targets beyond those prescribed by their tutors. The course will also utilise industry expertise with the inclusion of problem-based activities with identified partners and mentoring schemes.

References
OU (2012) Digital and Information Literacy Framework, Copyright © 2012 The Open University, http://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/subsites/dilframework/ Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
OU (2015) Digital and Information Literacy Framework (accessed on 12.10.15) available at: http://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/pages/dilframework/

The main aim of the BA Business Management with Human Resource Management is to provide a contemporary and academically rigorous programme of study in the broad areas of business management and HRM. As well as providing a thorough underpinning in the core principles of contemporary HRM, and a sound knowledge of the place of HRM in the wider context of business processes and functions, the course offers distinctiveness, building upon long standing expertise within the subject group, locating HRM within a national and global context, exploring aspects of comparative HRM as well as themes of equality and diversity. To maximise academic and employment success, students will be given the opportunity to gain CIPD Associate membership and relevant work-based learning experiences.

The full-time and part-time programme offers a distinctive approach through its 5 main objectives:

• To provide students with an awareness of HRM within local, national and global contexts, set upon a solid foundation of business management principles.
• To develop a sound knowledge of the place of HRM in the wider context of business processes and functions.
• To give students an opportunity to gain CIPD Associate membership and to stimulate their interest in securing Chartered CIPD membership through postgraduate study.
• To provide students with work-based learning opportunities.
• To develop students’ academic, digital literacy and professional skills to enhance engagement, progression and achievement.

The course follows QAA Benchmarks for Business and Management:

• the study of organisations, their management and the changing external environment in which they operate;
• preparation for and development of a career in business and management, but also enabling specialism in HRM;
• enhancement of life-long learning skills and personal development to contribute to society.

With respect to the CIPD approved modules this course aims to:

1. Provide the opportunity for students to gain CIPD Associate membership which benefits individuals in occupations concerned with human resource management (HRM) to enable them to relate their practical experience to relevant theoretical and empirical research-based ideas and concepts.
2. Develop a sound understanding of the knowledge, skills and behaviours required by human resources (HR) professionals whether in a specialist or a generalist role.
3. Enhance students’ awareness of current issues and strategic developments in HRM taking account of the nature and significance of national and international contexts.
4. Enable students to design and conduct their own research on an HR-related business issue.
5. Develop students’ skills in interpersonal relationships and facilitate self-reflection and ongoing continuing professional development necessary for career development and progression.
6. Provide an opportunity for students to engage in a range of HR specialisms as well as to examine HR generalist issues.

HRM Learning Outcomes (specific to the CIPD approved modules):
On completion of this course students will be able to:

1. Address and develop the competencies needed by an HR professional in a personal capacity and when collaborating and working with others so as to function efficiently and effectively in an organisational context.

2. Explore different ways of delivering HR objectives and emerging developments in the management of the employment relationship.

3. Demonstrate how the HR function adds value for organisations and delivers HR objectives to achieve positive organisational outcomes.

4. Develop skills of research and enquiry to identify appropriate data sources to support an investigation into an area of HR practice and to synthesise and apply this data.

5. Present a viable and realistic case for improvement based on sound work-based research and an understanding of what is considered to be good practice.

6. Identify and review business and external contextual factors on the HR function.

7. Examine HR’s role in strategy formulation and implementation.

8. Engage with HR specialisms such as resourcing and talent management, employment relations, employee engagement, performance and reward management, service delivery and organisational design and development.

Course Learning Outcomes:
Knowledge and Understanding:
The student will be expected to:

1. Develop their intellectual and practical skills in the acquisition of knowledge and understanding of Business and Human Resource Management and promote the development of the ability to analyse, synthesise and evaluate Business and HR initiatives in a wide range of appropriate contexts;
2. Develop their awareness of HRM within local, national and global contexts and the place of HRM in the wider context of business processes and functions;
3. Demonstrate understanding of HRM in the wider context of governance, sustainability and ethical issues and to develop an ability to recognise the impact of related social, political and ethical issues;
4. Develop an ability to formulate a clear and coherent dissertation focused on an HR issue, to undertake this in the HRM field, demonstrating appropriate methodologies, techniques of interpretation, tools of analysis and provide a substantially accurate and supported perspective of the state of a particular area of HRM.
5. Develop a critical and informed perspective on contemporary issues in business and HRM with particular emphasis on developments in the wider global environment, including issues of cultural diversity and their implications for effective people management.
6. Develop academic and professional skills to enhance retention, progression and achievement and demonstrate understanding and awareness of the skills requirements within work based learning activities to enhance and improve employability and careers development in the wider global economy.

Subject specific skills
By the end of the course, students will have the ability to:

1. Use IT to access sources of information and to work with discipline based software programmes;
2. Conduct general business and organisational analysis using a variety of computer-based and theoretical tools;
3. Be competent communicators of complex business, HR and Organisational ideas and analysis through written and oral exposition;
4. Design, plan organise and deliver an individual HRM research project and demonstrate knowledge of appropriate subject specialism and business research methodology;
5. Apply knowledge critically in order to comment and evaluate real work factors in relation to employability and potential careers;
6. Gain practical work experience through work based learning and business simulations.
7. Search, handle and interpret HR information relevant in the analysis and resolution of problems related to business organisations in the domestic and global context.

Transferable skills

The course is designed to enable students to develop skills to enhance employability, mobility, and international perspectives and commercial career awareness. During the course, students will develop a wide range of transferable skills including, academic writing, problem solving and analytical skills, critical thinking, working with others, using and interpreting data, commercial awareness, creativity and career development. These skills are a fundamental part of the curriculum and are developed at each level of the course. In particular, students will have the opportunity to engage with employers through a variety of mechanisms and will have the opportunity to develop specific skills increasing their employability prospects.

Employability and professional practice skills in the wider global economy are introduced at Level 4 and are built upon at Level 5 and refined further at Level 6. The development of employability and professional practice skills throughout the course will enable students to record achievement and evidence of personal development planning in their personal development portfolio. Students’ research and analytical skills are developed through the completion of a research dissertation.
Intellectual skills

By the end of the course the student is expected to develop higher order skills that are reflected in the student’s ability to:

1. Apply intellectual skills and critical faculties with particular emphasis on the development of the skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation of concepts, ideas and theories that characterise HRM and business management studies;
2. Make personal and reasoned judgements and criticisms based on an informed understanding of standard arguments in the areas of business and HRM;
3. Define their own research project and to identify independently a wide range of relevant materials from standard subject and non-subject sources;
4. Make accurate assessments of their own progress, to identify and formulate issues on which assistance is needed and to act on feedback given;
5. Write and use orally fluent and complex prose, using appropriate terminology;
6. Apply the basic skills of seeking, handling and interpreting information as part of the process of addressing legal problems and formulating new or alternative solutions through independent research, taking into account ethical considerations and cultural diversity.
7. Understand and engage in digital practices, find information, critically evaluate information, online interactions and online tools, manage and communicate information, collaborate and share digital content.

Business & Management

The course utilises a wide variety of formative and summative assessment methods to test students’ ability to demonstrate competence in the skills and knowledge associated with the course. These include: academic writing, research, interpersonal skills, problem solving and decision making, critical thinking enterprise, commercial awareness, career management, memorising and creativity:

The assessment methods include:

Exams
In-class tests
Case studies and business simulations
Weblearn self-assessment and reflective activities
Group work
Role playing activities
Presentations
Fieldwork
Portfolio
Work placement
Videos
Learning logs

Students have the option of taking a work placement module in place of a 15 credit academic taught module at level 6.

To gain CIPD Associate membership students must fully complete and pass the BA (Hons) or the BA award, passing HR5009, and either HR5060 or HR5061. They must also join CIPD.

This course provides both reflective learning and professional skills development. Students consider their own skills set against a professional competency framework. Students are required to reflect on their own performance in carrying out a research project and what they can do as a result to develop the range and depth of their professional competence. The course includes the requirement for students to: conduct a personal skills audit, evaluate what it means to be an HR professional with reference to the CIPD’s HR Profession Map, undertake self-assessment of HR professional practice to identify CPD needs and apply CPD techniques to construct, implement and review a personal development plan.

Our graduates are among the highest paid among all graduates; past students have gone to pursue careers in the City of London or elsewhere while others have gone on to undertake further studies.

The BA (Hons) Business Management with HRM also provides a solid base for you to extend your HR qualifications to Masters Level to obtain recognition of the knowledge requirements needed for upgrading to Chartered Membership or Chartered Fellowship of the CIPD and thus to use the designate letters CMCIPD or CFCIPD, further enhancing your employability.

If you would like to have a taste of postgraduate study, why not consider taking one or two modules from our MA HRM or PG Dip HRM? For example, Leading, Managing and Developing People, Resourcing and Developing Talent, Employment Law and Practice, Managing Employee Relations in Contemporary Organisations and Employee Engagement are all offered as academic short course modules and will give you a flavour of the full PG Dip HRM or MA HRM programme.

There are many invited practitioners and academics on our guest lecture programme, from our visiting professors, consultants, HR and legal experts. Our HRM programmes have close links with the Branch network of the CIPD and we host introductory, specialist knowledge and prize-giving sessions throughout the year. We also have a CIPD Professional Adviser who is available to give advice on CIPD upgrading.

The BA (Hons) Business Management with HRM is approved by CIPD. Students must join CIPD at the start of their course. Successful completion of the course and joining CIPD leads to the CIPD’s Intermediate Level Diploma and gives Associate CIPD membership.

Our graduates are among the highest paid among all graduates; past students have gone to pursue careers in the City of London or elsewhere while others have gone on to undertake further studies.

The BA (Hons) Business Management with HRM also provides a solid base for you to extend your HR qualifications to Masters Level to obtain the CIPD’s Advanced Level Diploma and to then upgrade to Chartered Membership or Chartered Fellowship of the CIPD and thus to use the designate letters CMCIPD or CFCIPD, further enhancing your employability.

In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have:

• 280 or more UCAS points, including at least 180 from two or more A levels (or equivalent, eg BTEC National, OCR Diploma or Advanced Diploma) in academic or business subjects
• English Language and Mathematics GCSE at grade C or above (or equivalent) are also required

These requirements may be varied in individual cases.

All applicants must be able to demonstrate proficiency in the English language. Applicants who require a Tier 4 student visa may need to provide a Secure English Language Test (SELT) such as Academic IELTS. For more information about English qualifications please see our English language requirements.