Overview
Ready to take the next step in your career? The Brunel MBA gives experienced managers the skills, confidence and real-world insight to move forward, whether you want to progress in your field, change direction or launch something of your own.
Our MBA is built around practical learning, expert teaching and research that reflects today's fast‑moving business world. You'll learn how to lead with impact, solve complex problems, and make decisions that drive real results.
You can study full‑time over one year or part‑time over two, and there are four pathways to choose from:
- The Brunel MBA (General Management): Strengthen your decision‑making and leadership across finance, strategy, technology and marketing, so you can step into senior management with confidence.
- The Brunel MBA (Digital Innovation Management): Designed for professionals in tech and engineering, this pathway helps you lead in a world shaped by digital transformation, big data and disruptive innovation.
- The Brunel MBA (Healthcare Management): Ideal for NHS professionals, public health specialists and consultants, this route builds the management skills to navigate real‑life challenges in the healthcare sector.
- The Brunel MBA (Family Business Management): Develop your strategic capability for long‑term continuity, stewardship and legacy‑driven growth. Aimed at leaders of family‑owned and family‑controlled enterprises, as well as professionals working with family enterprises.
The Brunel MBA is accredited by both the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) - placing it among a distinguished group of MBA programmes worldwide.
Flexible study options
The full-time Brunel MBA is a one-year intensive programme designed for professionals who want to quickly gain new skills and return to work with greater confidence. It's ideal for accelerating your career in the shortest time. Alternatively, the part-time option runs over two years, allowing you to balance study with work through around 12 hours of weekly learning, across up to three days (including some Saturdays). You’ll study alongside full-time students but at a reduced pace, taking two modules per semester, with the programme designed to offer flexibility for busy professionals. If you’d like to explore tailoring your MBA to your schedule, you can contact the MBA team at bbs-mba@brunel.ac.uk.
You can explore our campus and facilities for yourself by taking our virtual tour.
Course content
The Brunel MBA programme is based on key business concepts that can help managers and CEOs alike develop the expertise to lead and manage in international business.
You'll study core modules and then choose one or two specialist modules, depending on your pathway. See more information about the pathway modules and programme structure.
Your MBA includes a dedicated Career Development Programme to help you shape your goals, build a personalised career plan and stand out in the job market. You'll get one‑to‑one coaching, CV and LinkedIn support, plus guidance on applications, interviews, and building a strong professional portfolio.
You'll also take part in our Leadership and Professional Development workshop series in June and July. These workshop masterclasses are designed to sharpen the skills senior leaders rely on every day - from presenting ideas and managing change to negotiating, resolving conflict and understanding global business cultures.
There are two intakes a year, in January and September. Your course will run across three semesters: autumn, spring and summer, with exams in May. Autumn and spring semesters are usually 10 weeks long with a one-week break (Reading Week). A dedicated dissertation period - your business project - then closes the programme and gives you time to pull everything together before you take your next step.
Compulsory
- MB5601- Business Economics
In this course we analyse qualitative and quantitative information, using a variety of tools and techniques statistically, econometrically, and heuristically based. The idea is to prepare students to be able to critically analyse business and economic data, and make informed business decisions, ultimately enhancing their employability and competitiveness in the labour market. More in detail, in this course we use microeconomic theory, and various applied tools, particularly quantitative techniques that are used in modern managerial decision-making. Thus, the student should revise before and during the course microeconomic theory, basic calculus, statistics, and elementary econometrics. The main aim is to provide the students a basic problem solving skill that is used in modern managerial decision making. In an environment where also SMEs tend to go global, CEOs and managers, need to constantly update and upgrade their tools of analysis in order to better tackle business the uncertainty across different dimensions. Indeed, economic and business decisions that were profitable a few years ago may not be so in this new historical moment. New decision making theory, methods and tools need to be applied
- MB5607 - Business Research and Analytics
The aim of this module is to introduce students to issues of securing knowledge through the design of a consultancy report / case study / business research project, collection and analysis of data, and presentation of the results. It will allow students to develop the skills and knowledge gained on the course by applying them to the systematic investigation of a specific business problem or issue to develop a research project proposal.
- MB5523 - Corporate and Business Finance
The aim of this module is to provide you with a broad understanding of the world of accounting and finance from a user perspective. It introduces you, as a user of financial information, to the concepts and application of accounting and finance and to techniques used by internal and external parties to analyse and evaluate financial information for making short-term and long-term economic decisions. The module will also provide opportunities to develop numerical, analytical and interpretive skills.
- MB5525 - Corporate and Competitive Strategy
This module aims to appreciate the issues and challenges that confront entrepreneurs and managers responsible for the strategic management of organisations in potentially complex, hostile and uncertain conditions; and to introduce concepts, themes and methodological tools and techniques for analysing strategic position, for developing sustainable, future-oriented strategies, and for addressing the major implications for effective strategy implementation. The module also aims to develop skills of critical thinking, logical analysis, argument and judgement via case studies, exemplar readings and other information sources. Further, the student is introduced to theories and applications of entrepreneurship
- MB5528 - International Business
This module aims to provide a mature, critical appreciation of the issues and challenges of managing the multinational corporation by developing a sophisticated understanding of the ethically diverse nature of international business. In doing so the module investigates and critically evaluates how technical, instrumental and political considerations interact with legitimate moral judgements in the global context. As such, students will explore issues of corporate governance and control in a comparative perspective, including political, social, economic, risk and security, social and corporate responsibility and technological dimensions. The module will therefore seek to develop participants’ skills of critical thinking, logical analysis, argument and judgement via the use of appropriate materials, selected readings and information sources to achieve these aims.
- MB5608 - Leadership and Professional Development
The module provides opportunities to develop academic and management skills through the Leadership Masterclass Series (LMS) workshops and the Career Development Portfolio sessions. The LMS workshops help students develop and hone specific managerial skills, such as leadership, communications, consultancy, and social media. The CDP sessions train students to develop an awareness and self-assessment of their individual strengths and areas for development, providing a strong foundation for continuing managerial and leadership development.
- MB5527 - Leading People and Managing Organisations
This module aims at enabling participants to understand the key issues and challenges relating to leadership and management of people in organisations. In addition, this module introduces key HRM and Organizational Behaviour concepts, theories and processes that contribute to business success. The module also aims to develop participants’ skills of critical thinking, analysis, and reasoning via the discussion of case material, selected readings and other group centred tasks.
- MB5538 - Principles of Marketing
This module aims to develop participants’ understanding of the theoretical underpinnings and practical implications of the major, contemporary strategic challenges managers face today and how marketing can contribute to master these. The module’s aspiration is to enable participants to apply marketing tools, and strategic thinking to increase the firms’ performance. Moreover, the module’s objective is to develop participants’ skills of critical thinking, logical analysis, argument, and judgement via the use of appropriate materials, selected readings, and information sources.
- MB5522 - Operations Management
The aims of this module are to introduce students to the core concepts underpinning effective operations management, in both manufacturing and service operations settings; to enhance students understanding of the contribution of the operations function to strategy and organisational performance, foster a critical appreciation of the key operational issues faced by operations managers; and to develop analytical skills which underpin sound operations management infrastructure decision making
- MB5606 - Capstone Project
The aim of this module is to guide students in applying the skills and knowledge gained on the course to the systematic investigation of a specific business problem or issue via a substantial piece of independent work leading to the production of a research report
Optional
- MB5AAA - Advanced Family Enterprise Strategy and Digital Transformation
This module provides students with advanced theoretical, analytical, and applied perspectives for understanding strategy, governance, digital transformation, and long-term continuity in family enterprises operating in complex contemporary environments. It brings together the internal and external dimensions of family enterprise leadership, enabling students to examine whole-system challenges across family, ownership, governance, organisation, market, and society.
- MB5605 - Digital Transformation Strategy
This module aims to enhance and develop a critical knowledge and awareness of the political setting of health policy and health management. It also aims to develop a critical awareness and analysis of the political processes of health policy-making, implementation and management. Whilst encouraging students to examine and critically evaluate their own role in policy processes and settings.
- MB5BBB - Family Enterprise Dynamics in Contemporary Contexts
This module provides a foundational, critical, and applied introduction to family enterprises as a distinct organisational form. It focuses on the internal dynamics of family businesses, examining how family, ownership, governance, identity, values, emotions, and interpersonal relationships shape organisational behaviour, leadership, succession, conflict, and continuity across generations. It explores management inside the family business: understanding the idiosyncratic nature of family enterprises, recognising their intrinsic strengths, and addressing their inherent vulnerabilities.
- MB5531 - Healthcare Policy
This module aims to enhance and develop a critical knowledge and awareness of the political setting of health policy and health management. It also aims to develop a critical awareness and analysis of the political processes of health policy-making, implementation and management. Whilst encouraging students to examine and critically evaluate their own role in policy processes and settings.
- MB5604 - Managing Digital Technology and Innovation
This module aims to facilitate an analytical appreciation of service operations management, leadership and change models and theories, in relation to effectively managing healthcare services. It also aims to enable students to become flexible and effective leaders in their work and work environment through the pro-active use of key managerial and interpersonal strategies and methods of analyses. The module will also look at lessons learned from current and recent developments in health policy as they impact on implementing service operations management and change in healthcare. The module will enable students to develop and lead original and innovative initiatives in health care management, with the ability to promote these within their organisation’s culture and strategic plans.
- MB5526 - Managing for the Future
The module aims to provide students with several methods and techniques in order to evaluate, (de) construct and assess ‘futures’, in order to improve decision-making quality. These include methods such as forecasting, scenario planning and others which may have been developed ‘in industry’ as well as within the academe. Students will investigate and evaluate issues and future challenges impinging upon organisations by eliciting strategies, policies and detailed practice changes that are available within management practice and academic research. The module will exercise students’ critical enquiry skills, capacity for unconventional and creative thinking and their capacity for judgement under conditions of uncertainty.
- MB5602 - Managing Service Operations and Change in Healthcare
This module aims to facilitate an analytical appreciation of service operations management, leadership and change models and theories, in relation to effectively managing healthcare services. It also aims to enable students to become flexible and effective leaders in their work and work environment through the pro-active use of key managerial and interpersonal strategies and methods of analyses. The module will also look at lessons learned from current and recent developments in health policy as they impact on implementing service operations management and change in healthcare. The module will enable students to develop and lead original and innovative initiatives in health care management, with the ability to promote these within their organisation’s culture and strategic plans
This course can be studied undefined undefined, starting in undefined.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Read more about the structure of postgraduate degrees at Brunel
Careers and your future
As part of the MBA, you'll get personalised advice on every aspect of your career planning. You'll take time to reassess your strengths, reflect on your experience and understand where you want to go next. It’s a chance to step back, look at your career with fresh eyes and build a plan that helps you progress - now and in the future.
You'll also benefit from Brunel Business School’s strong links with leading employers, including Barclays, British Airways, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, IBM, Jaguar, Microsoft and Xerox. You'll hear from industry leaders through the MBA guest speaker series - Let's Talk Business - and take part in company visits that bring learning to life.
If you’re interested in starting your own business, you can access our Graduate Entrepreneur programme, which supports selected graduates who want to develop a business in the UK.
UK entry requirements
The Brunel MBA welcomes applicants from different industries, from both the private and public sectors. Previous applicants from IT, healthcare, education, engineering, aviation and many more have been considered.
Please note that the Admissions process for the MBA programme involves assessment in two stages:
Stage 1 - As part of the application process please provide documentary evidence to show:
- A 2:2 degree, Higher National Diploma (HND), or other qualification lower than degree level and six or more years of professional work experience.
- A 2:1 (or above) UK Honours degree, or international equivalent and minimum of three years' full time work experience.
- Copies of your English language qualification. (If you intend to take an English language test e.g. IELTS, or a pre-sessional English course please indicate this on your application.)
- Please supply a CV/resume as part of your application.
Stage 2 - An interview will be conducted (via Microsoft Teams or phone) with the MBA Programme Team.
Please visit the Brunel MBA webpage for full programme details.
EU and International entry requirements
If you require a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK, you must prove knowledge of the English language so that we can issue you a Certificate of Acceptance for Study (CAS). To do this, you will need an IELTS for UKVI or Trinity SELT test pass gained from a test centre approved by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and on the Secure English Language Testing (SELT) list. This must have been taken and passed within two years from the date the CAS is made.
English language requirements
- IELTS: 6.5 (min 6 in all areas)
- Pearson: 59 (59 in all subscores)
- BrunELT: 63% (min 58% in all areas)
- TOEFL: 5 (min 4.5 in all subscores)
You can find out more about the qualifications we accept on our English Language Requirements page.
Should you wish to take a pre-sessional English course to improve your English prior to starting your degree course, you must sit the test at an approved SELT provider for the same reason. We offer our own BrunELT English test and have pre-sessional English language courses for students who do not meet requirements or who wish to improve their English. You can find out more information on English courses and test options through our Brunel Language Centre.
Please check our Admissions pages for more information on other factors we use to assess applicants. This information is for guidance only and each application is assessed on a case-by-case basis. Entry requirements are subject to review, and may change.
Fees and funding
2026/27 entry
UK
£29,500 full-time
£14,750 part-time
International
£29,500 full-time
£14,750 part-time
Some courses incur additional course related costs. You can also check our on-campus accommodation costs for more information on living expenses.
More information on any additional course-related costs.
Fees quoted are per year and are subject to an annual increase.
See our fees and funding page for full details of postgraduate scholarships available to Brunel applicants.
Scholarships and bursaries
Teaching and learning
Brunel Business School will deliver all of its programmes using a combination of on-campus in-person teaching and ‘live’ online teaching. All seminars / workshops will be delivered on campus in person (no ‘live’ streaming) to allow for interactions in smaller groups. Depending on module size, two different delivery modes are planned for the lectures. Lectures of modules with LESS than 250 students will be delivered on campus in-person only (no live streaming but recordings of lectures will be available after for viewing). Lectures of modules with MORE than 250 students will be delivered ‘live’ online only to allow students to use the chat function given the size of the cohort. All programmes will have a desirable minimum of three credit-bearing modules’ lectures per term on campus in person. This is for all undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. However, the MBA programme will be delivered in a hybrid format (on campus with 'live' streaming).
You'll also will benefit from having access to an in-house Student Experience Team that, with the Programme Directors, organise inductions and transition sessions, as well as support you throughout your studies; a personalised tutoring service and support; an in-house well-being advisor; an-in house employability director; and various extra-curricular opportunities (e.g. Business and Management seminar series, social events, guest speakers; and industry visits/field trips - please note the latter may vary within programmes).
Access to a laptop or desktop PC is required for joining online activities, completing coursework and digital exams, and a minimum specification can be found here.
We have computers available across campus for your use and laptop loan schemes to support you through your studies. You can find out more here.
The Brunel MBA is taught by a team of highly qualified, experienced, and research-active academic staff at the forefront of their field. Many of our lecturers are internationally or nationally recognised for their innovative work and research, work as consultants for major companies worldwide, and have practical experience in business, sometimes having run their own companies.
Lectures provide a broad overview of key concepts and ideas and provide a framework from which to carry out more in-depth study independently.
Throughout the course, you’ll be expected to undertake group work as well as individual projects and presentations. There will also be research talks on key management issues and presentations by outside speakers from the industry.
Should you need any non-academic support during your time at Brunel, the Student Support and Welfare Team are here to help.
Assessment and feedback
Modules are typically assessed by individual assessment or an examination. Coursework and examinations place emphasis on the ability to think and reason critically, but constructively. The business project is the capstone demonstration of these skills, where you'll conceive, justify, design and execute a major project.
Read our guide on how to avoid plagiarism in your assessments at Brunel.