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Human Resource Management BSc

Key Information

Course code

N130

N131 with placement

Start date

September

Placement available

Mode of study

3 years full-time

4 years full-time with placement

Fees

2024/25

UK £9,250

International £21,260

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Entry requirements

2024/25

AAB-BBB (A-level)

DDM (BTEC)

30 (IB)

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Overview

The Human Resource Management degree will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of current theory and practice relating to employment relations and Human Resource Management (HRM).

You will learn to combine theory and practice to perform effectively and responsibly as an HRM practitioner, understanding the purpose and key objectives of the HRM function in contemporary organisations. The course will further equip you to implement sustainable HRM strategies and practices that raise levels of employee recruitment, training, talent development, engagement, wellbeing and performance in a specific organisational context.

You will further learn of the complexities of employment regulation and the way it informs practice to ensure staff are treated ethically when they are at work, as well as how to promote equal opportunities and manage workplace diversity and inclusion. For a career in HRM you will also develop competencies in analysing key contemporary global labour market trends and their significance for workforce planning in both domestic and international organisational contexts.

There is the option to take a year’s work placement between your second and third year. You will get paid to work with top global companies while you study, paving the way for full-time positions after graduation. 

The HRM BSc is accredited by the The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development. It has over 160,000 members internationally - working in HR, learning and development, people management and consulting across private businesses and organisations in the public and voluntary sectors. Further information about how to become a CIPD student member can be accessed via the link.

Find out more on our accreditations and exemptions page.

AACSB logoBusiness LifeCIPD logo

Course content

Compulsory

  • Introduction to Management Enquiry

    This module introduces students to fundamentals of business and management with the focus on a number of key concepts. This includes subjects such as understanding organisational planning with a focus on the foundations of decision, organisational structure and design and managing human resources, leadership, trust, and managing communication, information and operations.

  • Managing Information with Technology

    This module’s primary aim is to broaden students’ knowledge and skills in the use of IT and statistics in managing and analysing data for business to improve the quality of decision-making in a dynamic business environment.

  • Organisational Behaviour

    This module introduces students to the study of organisations. It outlines key sociological and psychological perspectives used to analyse organisations and occupational groups. Students encounter core topics including organisational design, bureaucracy and contingency theory. Theory and practice are linked via seminars, case study discussions and reflections on students’ experience of organisations.

  • Introduction to Accounting and Financial Management

    The module introduces students to the essential concepts of accounting and financial management. As the foundation of all other accounting modules, you will study how financial information is prepared, communicated and used. You will develop skills in critically evaluating and appreciating the importance of the accounting and finance function within organisations particularly in connection with business decision making. Students will learn how to: prepare a set of essential financial statements for a business, prepare information for business planning - such as budgets, prepare information for decision making using techniques such as cost, volume, profit analysis and investment appraisal techniques.

  • international Business Environment

    Developing students’ understanding of the basic economic concepts and principles that apply to the international business environment with emphasis on European business, and developing analytical and conceptual skills in economic and business environment for them to be able to respond to problems associated with modern international business environment.

  • Principles and Practice of Marketing

    This module focuses on developing an understanding of concepts of marketing, marketing mix principles and practices. It also aims to develop students’ awareness of skills needed and ethical issues in marketing.

Compulsory

  • Human Resource Management and its International Dimensions

    The aim of this module is to introduce students to issues, debates, and controversies relating to the field of Human Resource Management. The module intends to develop students’ awareness of people management issues within and outside the workplace. The people management issues are set against the background of national and international issues that affect HRM policies and practices.

  • Research Methods in Business and Management

    This module aims to develop the students' understanding and skills in the application of quantitative and qualitative research methods in business management and interpret data and present coherent and appropriate recommendations that lead to effective business and management decisions.

  • Managing Change and Creativity
    Companies that want to successfully ride the wave of the knowledge economy must always consider ideas as the most precious commodity and employees who produce them as sought after resources. There is increased recognition that the competitive advantage of organisations depends heavily on their ability to capitalise on their employees’ ideas. The value of creativity as a means of enhancing communication, promoting organisational learning, as well as helping the development of new ideas, solutions and alternatives, is therefore of high importance. With constant change becoming the accepted norm, this module will also examine how organisations cope with the process and outcomes of change.
  • Critical Perspectives in Management

    The module seeks to introduce students to a critical approach to the study of management and organisations. This will be achieved through an exploration of bureaucratic/post-bureaucratic organisations, new forms of work organisations, new forms of managerial control, resistance and power, new forms of employment, gender and work organisations.

  • Employment Relations
    This module reviews the scope, issues and development of systems of employee relations with primary focus on the UK sphere, referenced also by international influences and developments. Students will explore potential issues of conflict in employment relationship and the processes used to resolve these conflicts and manage the relationship.
  • Diversity Management in Organisations
    This module provides insight into Diversity Management by examining how organizations plan, coordinate and implement a set of management strategies, policies, initiatives such as training and development activities that seek to accommodate diverse sets of social and individual backgrounds, interests, beliefs, values and ways of work in organizations.

Compulsory

  • Organisational Structure, Functions and Service Delivery
  • HRM in Context: Resourcing, Performance and Assessment

    Understanding the framework of analysis for how organisations manage people. Focus on recruitment, selection process and assessment, onboarding, changing work roles and changes in employment practice.

  • Issues and Controversies in Management Project

    This core module helps students to conduct critical appraisals of issues and controversies involving contemporary organisations and of managerial responses to these challenges. It also provides focused support in appropriate research methods and in the effective communication of research findings in oral presentations, small group discussions and an extended written report.

Optional

  • Business Ethics, Environmental Sustainability and Governance

    The module aims to provide students with the opportunity to gain critical understanding of theories and contemporary approaches to business ethics, corporate social responsibility and governance in the age of globalisation, and the challenges of sustainable development and business responses to it.

  • Gender and Organisations

    This module will introduce students to the issue of gender as a critical approach to the study of organizations. The module aims to provide students with a critical insight into the impact of gender on individuals' experience of the world of work. It seeks to introduce students to a number of gender perspectives, highlighting how each perspective conceptualises the issue of gender differently, presents a distinct account of gender inequality, and proposes different "solutions" to the "problem of gender" in organizations.

  • Strategic Management

    This module aims to enable students to appreciate the many, wide ranging issues and challenges that confront strategic managers, introduce concepts, topics and methodological approaches relevant to the analysis of the strategic position of the organisation and the development and implementation of strategies in complex uncertain environments, including a consideration of major operational implications, and to develop skills of strategic thinking, analysis and argument.

  • Innovation and Knowledge Management

    This module is designed to give students an understanding of the role of knowledge assets as a key to corporate success and particularly in relation to innovation. It examines how organisations create, utilise and exploit knowledge in the globalising knowledge-based economy, and the wider social and economic factors affecting knowledge creation and transfer.

  • Strategic Human Resource Management

    This module will help students to develop an understanding of the role of strategic human resource management in the achievement of organisational goals and in the context of the environments in which organisations function. It will enable students to critically evaluate the strategic importance of human resource management, understand the links between strategic human resource management and business strategy as well as performance outcomes associated with different forms of strategic HRM.


This course can be studied undefined undefined, starting in undefined.

This course has a placement option. Find out more about work placements available.


Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Careers and your future

A human resource management degree has versatile qualification that is applicable to most organisations in every sector.

Primarily focused on hiring, training, development and general people skills, an HRM degree will equip you with many other sought after and transferable skills including in communication, people management, research and analysis, organisational management and problem solving. Recognising that you can enhance your career prospects in human resource management by gaining work experience in positions that involve working with people in organisations, Brunel offer the opportunity of an optional work placement year.

Jobs directly related to your degree include:

  • Human resources officer
  • Office manager
  • Training and development officer

Jobs where your degree would be useful include:

  • Careers adviser
  • Higher education lecturer
  • Life coach
  • Management consultant
  • Mediator
  • Operational researcher
  • Recruitment consultant
  • Risk manager
  • Trade union research officer

Employers of human resource management graduates come from a wide range of industries, as every major organisation has a Human Resources department. Employment opportunities can be found in healthcare, banking and finance, education, local authorities, leisure and tourism, manufacturing, media and consultancy firms among others.

UK entry requirements

2024/25 entry

  • GCE A-level AAB-BBB.
  • BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma DDM in Business or Enterprise and Entrepreneurship.
  • BTEC Level 3 Diploma DM in Business, Enterprise & Entrepreneurship or Personal & Business Finance with an A-level at grade B (other subjects may be considered on a case by case basis).
  • BTEC Level 3 Subsidiary Diploma D with A-levels grade BC.
  • International Baccalaureate Diploma 30 with Maths Standard Level 5 or Higher Level 4. GCSE English equivalent SL 5 or HL 4 and Mathematics SL 4 or HL 4.
  • Obtain a minimum of 120 UCAS tariff points in the Access to HE Diploma in  Business, Business and Management or Business and Law with 45 credits at Level 3.
  • T levels : Distinction overall.

Brunel University London is committed to raising the aspirations of our applicants and students. We will fully review your UCAS application and, where we’re able to offer a place, this will be personalised to you based on your application and education journey.

A minimum of five GCSEs are required, including GCSE Mathematics grade C or grade 4 and GCSE English Language grade C or grade 4 or GCSE English Literature grade B or grade 5.

EU and International entry requirements

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: 90 (min 20 in all) 

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

2024/25 entry

UK

£9,250 full-time

£1,385 placement year

International

£21,260 full-time

£1,385 placement year

Fees quoted are per year and may be subject to an annual increase. Home undergraduate student fees are regulated and are currently capped at £9,250 per year; any changes will be subject to changes in government policy. International fees will increase annually, by no more than 5% or RPI (Retail Price Index), whichever is the greater.

More information on any additional course-related costs.

See our fees and funding page for full details of undergraduate scholarships available to Brunel applicants.

Please refer to the scholarships pages to view discounts available to eligible EU undergraduate applicants.

Teaching and learning

At Brunel Business School (BBS), you will experience a rich and engaging on-campus learning environment. Our modules are delivered through engaging lectures, and in most modules, through seminars that allow for interactions in smaller groups. Additionally, you will have access to a wide range of resources on Brightspace, our online learning platform, including PowerPoint slides, video recordings, and peer-reviewed academic publications that align with the module learning objectives. Moreover, BBS students benefit from a range of support and opportunities from our dedicated staff and faculty, such as:

  • Extra-curricular activities designed to enhance your skills and expand your network, such as social events, guest speakers and industry visits/field trips (please note these may vary within programmes)
  • A dedicated Student Experience Team to provide pastoral care
  • A dedicated ASK Academic Skills support team to help you understand and address coursework requirements
  • Personalised tutoring and wellbeing advice to support your academic and personal development
  • Employability guidance and career planning from our in-house director.

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.

Modules typically combine weekly lectures supported by a series of small group seminars, whilst some provide workshops and/or a tutorial component. Some modules make use of two-hour participatory lecture sessions, in which learning is facilitated through an appropriate range and mix of learning opportunities that include lectures, group work, individual work, case study and break-out sessions. Large class sizes in core modules require modern, audio-visual teaching aids and electronic delivery of teaching materials. Thus, students learn quickly how to access on-line materials provided and how to make the best use of databases and search engines.

Seminars provide small-group contact with opportunities to review, discuss and debate topics. They frequently require students to make informal presentations to the peer group and the tutor, individually or as part of a team

Assessment and feedback

Forms of assessment are geared to evaluate individual capabilities in relation to each module’s aims and contents. Assessment of knowledge comprises formal examinations, written coursework assignments such as individual essays, reports and case study analyses, group reports, presentations and the final year Project.

Assessments are designed to appraise individual capabilities fairly and consistently.  We use clear, descriptive assessment guidelines (made available to students) to grade coursework and examinations and to aid classification.  Lecturers communicate their expectations clearly to students and use explicit schema to facilitate consistency of marking within and between modules and to ensure good feedback on individual performance.  All examinations and coursework assessments that contribute to degree classifications are subject to scrutiny by External Examiners.