MBA (Business Analytics), _MBA

Compulsory Courses

Getting Started at the University of Aberdeen (PD5006)

This course, which is prescribed for all taught postgraduate students, is studied entirely online, is studied entirely online, takes approximately 2-3 hours to complete and can be taken in one sitting, or spread across the first 4 weeks of term.

Topics include University orientation overview, equality & diversity, MySkills, health, safety and cyber security, and academic integrity.

Successful completion of this course will be recorded on your Transcript as ‘Achieved’.

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Business Economics (BU5021)

15 Credit Points

This course focuses on the economics of business allowing students to understand the economics that underlie a whole host of business issues. The course will cover the functioning of markets, consumer behaviour, pricing, production and costing problems, monopoly and the business implications of inflation, economic growth and economic policy.

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Accounting and Finance for Managers (BU5026)

15 Credit Points

The fact that money (and understanding money) really matters in business and all managers need to understand issues like cashflow and profit might depress you, but it is true. Financial viability of customers? Deciding on the likely financial viability of a project? Reporting to shareholders about performance? Does the word “sustainable” appear in a finance dictionary? All questions we will try and address.

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Business Strategy (BU5048)

15 Credit Points

Business Strategy covers a broad range of topics that come under the general heading of “Business Strategy” / “Strategic Management”. The course introduces participants to concepts, frameworks and models that are useful in providing explanations of how companies operate with respect to goal setting, understanding their competitive landscape, assessing opportunities, managing own capabilities, coordinating their activities with other companies, and competing to create value for customers. The course is interactive in nature, applying a learning-by-doing method involving students taking on roles as part of a series of simulation exercises.

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Operations and Project Management (BU5064)

15 Credit Points

The focus of this course is not people but processes, not outside the organisation but within. Operations transform materials, information and customers to create goods and services using staff and facilities. We study process types and focus particularly on projects. We see how capacity and inventory reconcile demand and output and explore location, supply chains, quality, risk and resilience. About 40% of the course is on projects and project-management techniques. Prepare for both critical discussion of theory and application (operationalisation), including calculation.

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Compulsory Courses

Strategic Marketing (BU5553)

15 Credit Points

The course aims to provide participants with a critical understanding of the nature and articulation of the marketing function within modern organisations, and an appreciation of the relative contribution of specific marketing tools to the development of a market orientation.

On completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Critique the key principles and concepts of marketing.

2. Evaluate the role of marketing to modern organisations in private and public sectors.

3. Understand the integration of the marketing function with other organisational functions.

4. Assess the role of identified marketing techniques

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The Leadership Challenge (BU5584)

15 Credit Points

This course provides an opportunity to explore and develop an understanding of your own leadership behaviour. Through workshops, group activities and discussions we investigate how personality, past experience, current situations and culture shape the way each of us behave in a leadership role. Using this information as a starting point we then explore how different leadership theories and approaches can be used as frameworks for developing a deeper understanding of leadership behaviour. You will also have an opportunity to try out a range of practical tools and techniques to assist you in the development of your own approach to leadership.

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Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Forecasting (BU553C)

15 Credit Points

This course will introduce machine learning, artificial intelligence and forecasting with applications in finance and management.

The course will explore recent trends in FINTECH, which are based on data analytics and recent advances in machine learning. The course will provide an introduction to Python, which has become the dominant general-purpose programming language in data analytics and machine learning. To be clear, students are not expected to have any prior knowledge of Python or any other programming language.

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Optional Courses

In addition to the above, students also choose one of the following.

Sustainable Development (15 credit points)

Digital Marketing (BU556E)

15 Credit Points

The course provides both a strategic orientation and tactical orientation:

Strategic:

§ How to align digital strategy with a wider business strategy

§ The value that (internal and external) research and analytics can bring to digital marketing decisions

Tactical:

§ Assess the quality of any website based on a range of important measures

§ Benchmark a website’s performance against online competitors

§ Investigate the potential of a business idea for a given market sector

§ Present digital marketing research and advice to a generalist audience

§ Understand the potential commercial value of social media

§ Interpret onsite analytics in support of business objectives

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Managing Change (BU555A)

15 Credit Points

The concepts of change and innovation have never been more topical, especially given the commercial context of fierce business competition, shorter product life cycles and more demanding customers. Increasingly, long-term commercial success is based on an ability to manage change, to act creatively and to promote innovation; These processes interconnect and overlap and often present major challenges to modern organizations; We address these issues through providing detailed case illustrations ranging from the workplace to the wider business market. Learning is encouraged through interaction, reading, investigation, video and case analysis, and critical discussion.

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Issues in Corporate Governance and Ethics (BU552G)

15 Credit Points

Corporate governance has become one of the most significant challenges for organisations and for the managers who work within them. The reasons for this include high-profile corporate scandals, conflict of interests, manipulations of financial statements, ethical dilemmas, crises like the global financial crisis credit crunch or even pandemic, and a growing need to demonstrate corporate accountability, transparency and ethical practices. The “Issues in Corporate Governance and Ethics” course will deepen students understanding and stimulate critical thinking in these areas. Students will study and critique theory and practices of corporate governance models and ethics guidelines as well as its relation to boards, professional bodies (accounting/audit firms), investors and wider stakeholder groups.

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Compulsory Courses

Applied Data Analytics and Visualisation (BU596J)

30 Credit Points

This module introduces students to big data, analytics and visualisation linked to business applications. The module also enables students to solve a variety of complex data-driven business problems using computer software tools, examples R and Gephi. The focus of the module thus is twofold: 1) building relative theoretical understandings, 2) and practice analytics for data-driven decision making for business operations and problems.

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Data, Evidence and Managerial Decisions (BU596K)

30 Credit Points

This course provides an introduction to evidence-based decision making. It is designed based on the premise that executives can make better decisions when they believe in evidence and have the skill to use it. The course helps students to make better personal and professional decisions. In particular, the aim of this course is to enable students to solve real-world business problems or to discover new business opportunities using the available data and evidence.

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