Overview
Top reasons to study with us
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11
11th for Business, Management and Marketing
The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide (2022)
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12th for Graduate Prospects (Business)
The Guardian University Guide (2022)
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Lancaster University is among the best in the UK - appearing in the Top 20 for all major national league tables.
BSc Business Management gives you the expertise to understand the changing world of business on national and global levels. It is a comprehensive programme of study that draws from the full breadth of the Management School’s expertise, and allows you to build a personalised degree over the three years. Whether you want to work in large private organisations, the public sector or start up your own business, you can personalise your degree to acquire the analytical, quantitative, presentation and other transferable skills needed to succeed and stand out.
Programme overviewCompulsory modules in your first year cover the broad foundations of management, developing your understanding of the functions and processes involved in managing complex organisations and establishing your leadership skills. You will study across our full-spectrum management school, learning from world-leading researchers and experts to develop fundamental skills in areas including management theory and organisational behaviour, accounting and finance, marketing strategies, business analytics, entrepreneurial thinking, and economic environments.
At the end of your first year, you can choose to follow a general management programme or follow a specialist programme in entrepreneurship.
In your second year, diverse optional modules allow you to tailor your course to best match your interests and career aspirations. You can either pursue a broad understanding of topics or specialise in your chosen field, choosing from subjects such as operations and risk management, business start-up, entrepreneurial mindset, human resources, finance, marketing, and economics.
Your final year allows you to further customise your studies, taking in areas such as organisational change, international management, strategy and leadership, organisational ethics, and social contexts of entrepreneurship.
Key FactsOur careers team, including a dedicated departmental careers coach, will work with you from day one to help with internships, placements and graduate employment. We will supply training in CV writing, interview assessment centres and telephone interviews, helping you with your future career ambitions.
Business Management is also available as a four-year programme with a year in industry or including a year studying abroad. It may be possible to switch to one of these courses after you start, subject to availability and to visa and other requirements
Programme outcomesOur graduates leave with the skills required to succeed in modern business. Not only will you possess functional competencies from studying modules in Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Business Analytics, and Entrepreneurship, you will also be able to look at business through an ethical lens, placing its activities firmly in the context of society. Our graduates have gone on to work for some of the world’s most important businesses and NGOs.
Your department
Careers
Graduates have begun their careers as trainee graduate managers, project managers, brand managers, and hotel and property managers. Our alumni are working for a wide variety of employers – from established corporates like BP, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Sellafield to modern brands like Innocent Drinks.
Our courses are designed to develop your conceptual understanding and provide practice-based insights. You will develop your personal competencies including communications and mathematical abilities. Such skills have helped recent graduates find work in a wide variety of roles in banking, retail, consultancy, sales and marketing and data analysis.
Some former graduates are pursuing their studies with PGCE teacher training or professional qualifications. Many have stayed at Lancaster for Masters degrees.
Lancaster University is dedicated to ensuring you not only gain a highly reputable degree, you also graduate with the relevant life and work based skills. We are unique in that every student is eligible to participate in The Lancaster Award which offers you the opportunity to complete key activities such as work experience, employability awareness, career development, campus community and social development. Visit our Careers section for full details.
Lancaster Management School has an award winning careers team to provide a dedicated careers and placement service offering a range of innovative services for management school students. Our high reputation means we attract a wide range of leading global employers to campus offering you the opportunity to interact with graduate recruiters from day 1 of your degree.
Entry Requirements
Grade Requirements
A Level ABB
GCSE English Language grade B or 5
IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each component. For other English language qualifications we accept, please see our English language requirements webpages.
Other Qualifications
International Baccalaureate 32 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 Higher Level subjects
BTEC Distinction, Distinction, Merit
We welcome applications from students with a range of alternative UK and international qualifications, including combinations of qualification. Further guidance on admission to the University, including other qualifications that we accept, frequently asked questions and information on applying, can be found on our general admissions webpages.
Contact Admissions Team + 44 (0) 1524 592028 or via ugadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk
Course Structure
Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and others which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme to complement your main specialism. We divide academic study into two sections - Part 1 (Year 1) and Part 2 (Year 2, 3 and sometimes 4). For most programmes Part 1 requires you to study 120 credits spread over at least three modules which, depending upon your programme, will be drawn from one, two or three different academic subjects. A higher degree of specialisation then develops in subsequent years. For more information about our teaching methods at Lancaster please visit our Teaching and Learning section.
The following courses do not offer modules outside of the subject area due to the structured nature of the programmes: Architecture, Law, Physics, Engineering, Medicine, Sports and Exercise Science, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedicine and Biomedical Science.
Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, and the University will make every reasonable effort to offer modules as advertised. In some cases changes may be necessary and may result in some combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research.
Core
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Economics for Business
This course provides an introduction to microeconomics for students majoring in business-related degrees and delivers a range of important topics for understanding the business applications of economics relating to both consumers' and firms' behaviour.
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Employability and Careers I
This module is designed to support the first stage in your journey towards securing a future graduate job role which you will enjoy and thrive in doing! In the first year, we combine gaining business insights from visiting employers alongside a focus on two important stages for employability preparation: ‘Opportunity Awareness’, career opportunities available to Business Management graduates and how this knowledge relates to ‘Self-Awareness’, personal interests, motivations, values & skills.
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Introduction to Business Analytics
Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data analysis.
Designed to give you the kind of skills that are sought after in many organisations, this module introduces you to a range of quantitative techniques for collecting, analysing and interpreting data and develops your understanding of how to apply these techniques to management problems to draw practical conclusions. The module provides the foundations for statistical methods in follow-up modules.
The computing side of the module introduces the use of word processing, spreadsheet software for statistical calculations, and writing of management reports.
You will learn not only the fundamental analytical techniques, but also when and how to apply them to management problems and how to interpret the results. This module also involves you working as a junior business analyst on a simple but realistic case study and reporting results and conclusions to a fictional boss.
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Introduction to Entrepreneurship
In this module, we challenge preconceived views about whether or not entrepreneurship can be taught, and the widely-held opinion that entrepreneurs are born, not made. We consider entrepreneurship in a wide variety of contexts and for a range of different purposes. This includes entrepreneurship for social or environmental good, or as a means of self-expression, as well as entrepreneurial start-up and classic profit-driven motivations of business founders. Theory and practice are combined throughout the module, and teaching is brought to life through the expertise of our entrepreneurs in residence. You will therefore meet practicing entrepreneurs and be provoked to consider your own values and how these might, in future, shape your own expressions of innovation and entrepreneurial behaviour, whether as an employee, in your home society, in a family business, or as a business founder or sole trader.
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Introduction to Financial Accounting for Managers
This module provides an introduction to the analysis and use of published financial statements and concepts underlying financial reporting by companies. It also considers the perspectives of various users and opportunities for creative accounting. The concepts and use of financial statements are placed within the current commercial context, so that you acquire an appreciation of the role of financial accounting.
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Introduction to Management
This module introduces a variety of traditional and non-traditional ideas about management, followed by the theory and practice of team working and capability for management. The aim is to provide you with an essential understanding of the basic theories relevant to the management of work organisation and to enable you to identify and understand the limitations inherent within these theories.
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Principles of Marketing
The aim of this module is to introduce the key elements of marketing as both scientific discipline and organisational practice. The module is designed around three themes which serve as a solid foundation for the second year module MKTG227 marketing Management Essentials and further marketing modules following this.
This module also aims to support students in the transition towards independent learning, and in the development of a critical and analytical approach to ideas and theories.
Core
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Employability and Careers II
In the second year of your Business Management degree, this module supports your journey towards securing a future graduate job role which you will enjoy and thrive in doing! We combine gaining business insights from visiting employers, recent alumni and networking opportunities, alongside a focus on building graduate labour market knowledge and preparation for the graduate recruitment selection process.
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Introduction to Operations Management
Operations management is the core managerial discipline in all kinds of operation – from private-sector manufacturing through to public-sector services. It is about the human capacity to organise all the operations that underpin the modern world: transportation, the generation of energy, retailing, the production of goods, the provision of medical and educational services, and so on.
The module will introduce students to key concepts and themes of Operations Management such as operations strategy and performance objectives, operations design (e.g. layout, facility location and capacity), inventory planning and control, project management, quality management and supply chain management. These topics will be approached using a combination of qualitative and simple quantitative methods.
By the end of the course students should be able to:
- identify different kinds of operations and predict their characteristics
- apply basic planning and analysis techniques to particular cases
- understand operations problems and identify improvement strategies
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Spreadsheet Modelling for Management
Many organisational recruiters have identified a number of skills and knowledge they want to see from a prospective employee. Top in the priorities are spreadsheet modelling, problem structuring, statistics, and project management.
Students will be introduced to Microsoft Excel 2019 and the basics of dynamic model building, including skills such as data handling, filtering and analysis, using functions, charting, plus advanced techniques such as optimisation, simulation, and the use of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automate models and construct decision support models.
The course will make extensive use of case-studies and workshop-orientated learning tasks.
Optional
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Business Start-up
This module aims to advance knowledge of entrepreneurship by experiencing aspects of the business start-up process through project-based activities. It aims to help you understand you own enterprise skills and develop the ability to communicate new business ideas using opportunity business models in the context of business start-up.
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Entrepreneurial Mindset
Building upon Entrepreneurial Learning theories, this course prepares you to understand the core dimensions of an entrepreneurial mindset and guides you to find and assess opportunities, seek answers, gather resources and implement solutions regardless of you specific context or institutional constraints.
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Human Resource Management
The aim of these two modules (223 and 224), which can be taken both separately as well as in combination (which we strongly advise), is to understand how the elementary functions of HRM unfold, and why they do so in certain ways nowadays compared to, say, thirty years ago.
At one level, HRM seems very simple: it is a combination of (a) recruitment and selection, (b) control and motivation, (c) training and development, (d) strategy and planning. It is a function that mediates between organisations and people. How complicated can that be? The answer is that it is as complicated as the central objects of such practices – the human and work – are: namely, extremely complicated.
The reason HRM is endlessly complicated (i.e. there never is an end to the central question to which it has to answer, namely what is work?) lies in the simple fact that the relationship between work as effort and efficiency as the rationality of work is always indeterminate. How much is an hour of work worth? How much should I be paid so that work is ‘fair’, or ‘just’? These essential questions cannot be answered in themselves – they depend on an endless list of other crucial questions – such as, what is it that I have to do? For what should I be paid? What counts as the work that is covered by an employment contract? Where does effort begin and end? What does it mean for instance to be committed to one’s job, company, or team – in terms of effort? How do we account for sentiments in work? What does it mean to be creative, or innovative? Are these part of the employment contract? How much commitment is one contracted to feel?
These and all the other aspects of HRM have become its language and the objects of its practices; human work and human being have become entangled in management in very complicated forms in the last thirty years. You will be the subjects of these practices and will have to understand what is going on in them and how the simple question what is worth doing in the context of contemporary work? is asked and answered today.
This means that HR practices in contemporary organisations (private, public, large or small) can only be understood if you will understand something much more fundamental, much more profound and much more enabling: the cultural conditions and resources that make these practices possible at all. You will need to understand how these practices are structured from a cultural viewpoint, from the point of view of the social imaginaries that make them possible.
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Introduction to Finance
This module offers an introduction to finance. It covers the financial environment, including assets, markets and intermediaries, capital investment appraisal, an overview of the risk/return trade-off, and the cost of capital.
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Management Accounting for Business Decisions
This module provides an introduction to the use of management accounting information for management purposes. This includes an examination of cost-volume profit analysis, the concepts of direct and indirect costs, and various costing methods. The importance of budgets to organisations and their impact on performance are also discussed.
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Marketing Management Essentials
This module provides you with the opportunity to further develop your knowledge of marketing management and its conceptual frameworks and techniques as well as to apply and adapt your knowledge of these frameworks to a diverse range of marketing management contexts. Going to market will be examined in terms of business buyer behaviour, consumer buyer behaviour, brands and brand management, channel selection and management, and international markets.
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The Changing Role of Management
In OWT 228 we look at the changing role and position of management and managers in organisations and society. Much of modern analysis of management emphasises a change in forms of management control from traditional authority through vertical hierarchical forms to ones which are more horizontal and look to incorporate employees into the organisation and its goals in ever closer ways. This happens for example through attempts to align employees identities, emotions and interests with commitment to the organisation: the much discussed capturing of hearts and minds. Another aspect of this is the manipulation of meaning in order to facilitate this identification of employee and organisation, usually discussed as the corporate culture movement. Together these can be taken as two significant aspects of modern management the management of meaning and the management of identity - which feature little in traditional management texts that emphasise management as the co-ordination of tasks and the control and deployment of resources.
However, it is important to see management and managers within the light of organisation analysis. Managers are not the autonomous agents they are often portrayed, first because they are also employees themselves (albeit in the position of formally representing the interests of capital), and second, they are also subject to organisational structures, cultures and power relations. Perhaps especially in the light of managerial control designed around commitment, integration and identification with the organisation, managers are tied in by the very control strategies that they themselves are promoting. However, as we shall see, there are also important tensions between the changing context of management and these forms of control which can lead to unintended consequences such as impression management and various forms of resistance.
Thus this module focuses on how management is a social process, and what this means for the lived experience of doing management. In exploring this we look at topics which are relevant for the day-to-day experience of managers, although rarely are these addressed in conventional management textbooks: issues such as humour, diversity, impression management and emotional management.
Core
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Business and Management in the 21st Century: central questions and evaluations
The underlying aim of this module is to show you that management and business are not merely a collection of techniques from several disciplines, but rather have a coherent cultural core which corresponds to a generalised, globalised system of values that have to be grasped and understood if management and business are to make sense at all. Therefore, we will seek to show how management and business are part of the broader cultural and historical nature of contemporary global society.
We hope you will understand that, as part of society and culture, both management and business carry within them the signs of all the major tensions, problems and crises that face us today in the world economy, in our relationship with the Earth and the natural environment, and in our relationships with each other as humanity. The module is designed to help you recognise management’s central place in this essential ‘system of crises’ and to understand that such crises are problems for managers with possibly far-reaching social and organisational implications, rather than incidental external matters that have no bearing on your future professional lives.
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Principles of Strategic Management
Strategic Management is about making distinctive choices concerning the direction and scope of the organization over the long term, in order to enhance its ability to create value and improve its prospects for organizational survival and growth. In a complex and turbulent environment, with rapid economic, regulatory and technological changes, strategising – the art of processing complex information thoughtfully and creatively and the ability to convince others of your analysis and recommendations – is a critical skill to acquire. The goal of this module is to provide you with an understanding of strategy that will enable you to discuss real-life business activities within a framework of contemporary strategic management thinking. This module is designed to encourage you to develop a personal and distinctive understanding and appreciation of strategising for different industries and in uncertain environments, through lectures, case analyses and class discussions.
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Rethinking Leadership
It is often argued that “more effective leadership” is a key way to improve organisational performance. Yet, it is also increasingly evident that traditional understandings of what constitutes leadership - heroic and transformational models - have not lived up to their promise. Against this background, this module seeks to re-think leadership dynamics by exploring the strengths and weaknesses of various primary perspectives on leadership. In particular, the course addresses heroic, post-heroic and critical approaches and explores important but neglected issues such as distributed leadership and proactive followership, culture and context, power and control, gender and diversity, resistance and conformity, identity and insecurity, and emotion and the unconscious. The course is designed to rethink leadership dynamics in ways that critically examine their facilitators and challenges in organisations and societies.
Fees and Funding
We set our fees on an annual basis and the 2023/24 entry fees have not yet been set.
As a guide, our fees in 2022/23 were:
UK | International |
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£9,250 | £21,460 |
Scholarships and bursaries
At Lancaster, we believe that funding concerns should not stop any student with the talent to thrive.
We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries to help cover the cost of tuition fees and/or living expenses.
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Additional costs
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
College fees
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small college membership fee which supports the running of college events and activities.
For students starting in 2022, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses. Fees for students starting in 2023 have not yet been set.
Computer equipment and internet access
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
Study abroad courses
In addition to travel and accommodation costs, while you are studying abroad, you will need to have a passport and, depending on the country, there may be other costs such as travel documents (e.g. VISA or work permit) and any tests and vaccines that are required at the time of travel. Some countries may require proof of funds.
Placement and industry year courses
In addition to possible commuting costs during your placement, you may need to buy clothing that is suitable for your workplace and you may have accommodation costs. Depending on the employer and your job, you may have other costs such as copies of personal documents required by your employer for example.
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Fees in subsequent years
Fees are set by the UK Government annually, and subsequent years' fees may be subject to increases. For international applicants starting in 2022, any annual increase will be capped at 4% of the previous year's fee.
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Management
- Business Analytics BSc Hons : N2N1
- Business Analytics (Industry) BSc Hons : N1N3
- Business Analytics (Study Abroad) BSc Hons : N1N4
- Business Management (Entrepreneurship) BSc Hons : N1N2
- Business Management (Entrepreneurship) (Industry) BSc Hons : N2N2
- Business Management (Entrepreneurship) (Study Abroad) BSc Hons : N2N3
- Business Management (Industry) BSc Hons : N104
- Business Management (Study Abroad) BSc Hons : N103
- International Business Management (Canada - Brock University) BSc Hons : N202
- International Business Management (France) BSc Hons : N2R1
- International Business Management (Germany) BSc Hons : N2R2
- International Business Management (Italy) BSc Hons : N2R3
- International Business Management (Mexico) BSc Hons : N2R5
- International Business Management (Spain) BSc Hons : N2R4
- International Management BSc Hons : N123
- International Management (Industry) BSc Hons : N124
- International Management (Study Abroad) BSc Hons : N125
- Management and French Studies BA Hons : RN12
- Management and German Studies BA Hons : RN41
- Management and Human Resources BSc Hons : N600
- Management and Human Resources (Industry) BSc Hons : N602
- Management and Human Resources (Study Abroad) BSc Hons : N601
- Management and Information Technology BSc Hons : GN51
- Management and Information Technology (Industry) BSc Hons : GN52
- Management and Spanish Studies BA Hons : RN22
- Management, Politics and International Relations (Industry) BSc Hons : N230
- Politics, International Relations and Management BSc Hons : LN30
- Psychology and Management BA Hons : CN82
Alumni Profiles

Tobias Julian Franco Cordoba
BSc Business Management, 2021
It’s been an amazing three years and I couldn’t have made a better choice on where to study.
Important information
The information on this site relates primarily to 2023/2024 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.
Our Students’ Charter
We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. View our Charter and other policies.