Course content
We welcome students on this course for both full-time and part-time study.
For those wishing to complete the course on a part-time basis, the course is over two years. Students will be expected to study a minimum of three units per year, plus their dissertation towards the end of their second year. The timetable of when the units take place vary each year, however, the units are timetabled during daytime hours, and will be studied with fellow full-time and part-time students.
Semester One
Core Units
- International & Domestic Retailing: Principles and Practice
This unit is concerned with the practical development and application of key operational aspects of retailing. It will help you to understand the contemporary retail environment and examine topical issues. Key aspects of retail management will be introduced and developed.
You will develop analytical skills related to retail operations and the international retail environment. These analytical skills will be developed through consideration of international retail development and through an understanding of the academic debate surrounding international retail activity, with a view to practical application.
- Business Strategy & Finance
The unit focuses on developing your in-depth understanding of the foundations of strategic analysis, strategic choice and related implementation strategies that usually tie into a corporation’s business decisions.
This will also include a study of corporate finance within the context of an organisation’s sources of finance, reporting and the interpretation of financial data. This is fundamental to the broader understanding of the dynamics of leisure-based industry sectors such as tourism, hospitality, events, sports and leisure.
This unit will enable you to develop competence in the areas of human resource management and organisational behaviour appropriate to the development of a career in management in the service industries.
The unit focuses on the ‘effective manager’. You will investigate the key roles and functions of service industry managers and how these may be affected by the structure and culture of the operating environment, particularly in international and multinational organisations.
It explores the effective deployment, development and evaluation of human resources. You will investigate the inter-relationships between organisational roles, cultures and resource allocation in organisations.
Semester Two
Compulsory Units
- Retail Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
The aim of this unit is to develop your understanding of the current market environment for retailers and to understand how to apply marketing, consumer behaviour and general business theory to real situations.
You will develop a critical understanding of the individual and social processes underlying and influencing human behaviour, particularly as this relates to people as consumers and people as employees. Theories, concepts and models relevant to marketing and consumer behaviour will be applied to the retail industry.
This unit emphasises the functional decision making processes necessary in a buying department of a typical retail organisation.
You will develop an understanding of the main issues in buying and merchandising and recognises the strong linkages and differences between the two functions. The unit provides sound underpinning for those who wish to progress within a career in either of these roles.
You will also examine the role of buying and merchandising across different retail sectors and experience some of the practices and processes involved.
Options*:
- Food and Drink
- Entrepreneurship
- Sport Tourism
- Ecotourism
- Air Transport, Tourism Development & Climate Change
- Conference Tourism
- International Hospitality Management
- Operations Management for the Hospitality Industry
- Marketing for Tourism and Hospitality: principles and practice
- eTourism Marketing
- eTourism Strategies
- Work placement - 30 week duration
* Options will only run if enough students have chosen them.
Semester Three
