About this course
Enhance your business or contribute to organisational growth by learning responsible scale up approaches on this Business MBA from LJMU. This programme aims to transform participants into confident business professionals capable of scaling up a business.
- Learn about the key factors that enable business growth
- Study on a course designed in response to government and local ambitions for business growth
- Start your studies in September or January
- Delivered in blocks for extra flexibility and to fit studies around existing commitments
- Relevant for those with responsibility for leading strategy and change, managing a budget and developing staff to ensure continued and responsible growth
- Benefit from course content and teaching informed by proprietary business research and academics' close links to business
- Learn alongside others experiencing similar challenges and discuss leadership and strategy in the context of Scaling-Up
A 'scale-up' is an enterprise that has experienced significant growth rates in employees and turnover over a number of years.
Nationally, scale-up businesses have been identified as a priority area, recognised by the appointment of a scale up champion in Government who aims to increase the number of businesses maximising opportunities to reach their growth potential. This will feed into the Government's industrial strategy.
MBAs equip managers with a broad and rich understanding of business, enabling them to manage effectively. This scale up MBA focuses on the key areas a business would need to investigate to assess scale up potential. The course combines key management disciplines from the key QAA and CMI benchmark statements with recent national research on the drivers of business scale up.
The programme is structured in three phases. The first phase provides an intensive focused range of interventions aimed at realising the potential of growth within businesses. Stages two and three then draw on these areas to analyse ideas and develop them further to plan and enable accelerated growth. Finally, a strategic project builds the evidence base for scale up strategies, and addresses a significant and strategic area for your business.
Take a tour of Liverpool Business School with Cameron and Teegan
Current MBA Scale Up student, Ibe Hayter, talks about the practical skills he learns every week, and how he implements them direct into his organisation, Cycle for Life
“I'm really trying to take advantage of all the opportunities at LJMU. Hopefully other organisations will see the opportunities that are available and invest within their own staff teams. We don't have to look externally for support, we can do these things for ourselves, enabling the L8 community to build capacity within the area. Rather than always looking outside, people are going to start coming to us for support, which is a big change.”
Alan Thompson, Managing Director, Hi-impact Consultancy
“Hi-impact is unrecognisable compared to when we started the MBA Scale up programme. The core consultancy business is stronger, and we have new business streams and products that are on target to generate revenue of £100K in their first year.”
Course modules
Discover the building blocks of your programme
Further guidance on modules
Modules are designated core or optional in accordance with professional body requirements, as applicable, and LJMU’s Academic Framework Regulations. Whilst you are required to study core modules, optional modules provide you with an element of choice. Their availability may vary and will be subject to meeting minimum student numbers.
Where changes to modules are necessary these will be communicated as appropriate.
Core modules
Individual Development and Reflection
10 credits
10 credits
This module is an integrated and holistic part of the first year of the programme and seeks to facilitate personal and professional growth and act as catalyst for reflection on learning from other first year modules and the wider aspects of the programme.
Applied Business Research
10 credits
10 credits
The module will provide learners with an understanding of how to design and produce applied business research scholarly-practitioner projects. Learners will be provided with the knowledge and tools to be able to effectively design organisational/business/management research projects that apply to their own organisations or organisations which they are familiar with - learners will have a better awareness of how to become 'scholarly practitioners'.
The module will support and provide foundations for the final element of the programme, either the 'Strategic Business Proposal' (for Senior Leader Apprentices) or the MBA/MSc final consultancy project module (for those undertaking master's degree programmes).
Consultancy Business Project
60 credits
60 credits
Undertaken primarily as an independent self-managed module of study, supported by an academic supervisor with additional guidance provided through the dedicated Canvas site.
Scale-up Leadership
10 credits
10 credits
This module aims to help you identify your own leadership needs through self-review and an assessment of your business scale-up context; through considering the way leaders engage and equip those around them to scale the business and in developing a growth mind-set.
Responsible Strategic Growth
10 credits
10 credits
This module aims to help you assess strategy approaches to accelerate business growth by:
- investigating routes to market growth and building customers
- identifying strategies for high growth potential businesses
- learning about support for market entry and access to markets
- assess current barriers and opportunities for sustainable growth
People and Performance for Scale Up
10 credits
10 credits
This module aims to help you to understand the interplay between productivity, people and performance within excellence frameworks and to identify key business issues that are recognised to underpin sustainable growth.
Finance for Scale-Up
10 credits
10 credits
This module aims to provide knowledge and understanding of the financial aspects of scaling up a business. Helping learners to develop business acumen, which is needed to understand the finances of the business and how to inform and shape decision-making. It also explores the implications of different sources of funding and investment for sustainable business.
Managing Change Projects
10 credits
10 credits
This module aims to provide you with:
- an understanding of the need for responsive and responsible projects to grow business and achieve change quickly
- a focus on emerging projects and change practices evidenced in agile and lean approaches
Digital Business Innovation
10 credits
10 credits
This module aims to help you to develop your knowledge and skills to innovate. It focuses on digital business and technology as a high potential area to scale-up a business. It also helps you to appreciate the value of building a sustainable future and adopting principles for the long-term benefit of the business and its wider contribution to society.
Strategic Business Development
20 credits
20 credits
This year-long module aims to help you to consider your organisation's business development needs, strategies and obstacles for accelerated but responsible business growth and how to navigate industry landscapes and stakeholder relations.
Leadership for Business Growth
10 credits
10 credits
This module aims to help learners to develop and align leadership skills and practice, strategy and reflective learning to deliver growth responsibly and flexibly in the face of contemporary risks.
It aims to help you to deepen your reflexivity on a range of connecting issues relating to leading your business to grow responsibly, particularly the dynamic alignment of leadership, strategy and learning with an intentional focus throughout to developing strategic leadership and risk management practices.
Marketing for Scale-Up
10 credits
10 credits
This module aims to help you to assess responsible marketing approaches to improve market access and entry by: understanding the customer and stakeholder as well as your business's 'offer' and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); considering contemporary issues in markets and ecosystem in managing corporate brand and reputation to build sustainable and responsible customer and stakeholder relationships.
Your Learning Experience
An insight into teaching on your course
Study hours
You will attend a 1-day induction at the start of the programme and modules will normally be delivered in block release format i.e. three full days per month per 10 credit module.
You will be expected to undertake work on your own and, given the applied approach to assessment, this will demand a degree of self-management and resilience to manage a full time senior leader work role with part-time study.
Teaching methods
Our approach to how managers and leaders learn uses proven management and leadership development approaches.
Our flexible delivery approach involves face-to-face teaching and facilitation, blending online support activity with the facility to introduce live online sessions and individual and group tutorials. It is also a supportive and collaborative environment for working with peers, facilitators and colleagues. Classroom sessions are devised as an interactive, learner-centred experience with group activities playing a large part in the learning experience.
The university 's Virtual Learning Environment (Canvas) gives you access to teaching and materials wherever you study, and it provides a means for you to maintain contact and submit assignments.
Applied learning
A strong emphasis is placed on the workplace as a place to learn; participants integrate key concepts and theories, assessing the impact of these on their own working environment. The ability to analyse organisational issues and apply recommendations supported by a theoretical framework is fundamental and is assessed in all elements of the programme.
Techniques include:
Recognising the workplace as an important place to learn: Learners will apply ideas in the workplace, improving their skills through a range of workplace activities and then reflecting and reviewing this practice with peers on the programme.
Self-development planning: Organisational processes can be applied to ensure that individuals plan to develop their own strengths in line with business competencies and values, and to recognise their own personal needs.
Using 'flipped learning': This reverses the conventional process of teaching by providing the content prior to the teaching and learning session using a virtual learning environment, so that the focus of the workshop becomes about active learning and application of theory to practice.
Coaching and peer-to-peer coaching: Coaching not only enables the individual learner to tailor the programme to meet their needs, but it also provides the opportunity for the organisation to propose business critical skills and values which can become a part of the development activities.
Action learning: This will be adopted as a supportive and collaborative approach to learning to manage. Action learning will be used to support personal development, where issues and challenges from the workplace can be discussed.
Projects: For each theme there is the possibility of designing an in-company project or series of projects to ensure that business needs are met.
Masterclasses: Key note speakers will address current issues, emerging practice and thought leadership.
Liverpool Business School at Liverpool John Moores University is a member of AACSB International — The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
AACSB International is a global association of leaders in education and business dedicated to supporting and advancing quality business education worldwide. Through membership, accreditation, research, thought leadership, professional development, and advocacy, AACSB partners with over 1,500 organizations, from more than 90 countries globally. Membership or participation in the Global Education Alliance does not imply accreditation.
How learning is monitored on your programme
To cater for the wide-ranging content of our courses and the varied learning preferences of our students, we offer a range of assessment methods on each programme.
Where you will study
What you can expect from your School
The School is based in the Redmonds Building, in the heart of the bustling Mount Pleasant Campus and Liverpool 's growing Knowledge Quarter. The building is home to high quality lecture theatres and seminar rooms, social spaces, and a café. It is only a short walk from LJMU's Aldham Robarts Library, which contains all the resources you will require for your studies, and is open seven days a week.
Liverpool Business School also has a dedicated Management Development Suite, based in a listed building in the historic Georgian Quarter of Liverpool and a short walk from the Redmonds Building. The building has recently undergone £1.2 million investment to provide a professional learning space.
Course tutors
Dr Fiona Armstrong-Gibbs
- Programme Leader
The MBA Scale Up is for entrepreneurial business owners and managers looking to develop innovative and sustainable ways to grow their organisations through a collaborative learning environment.
The MBA Scale Up is for entrepreneurial business owners and managers looking to develop innovative and sustainable ways to grow their organisations through a collaborative learning environment.
I have worked in academic institutions in London and Shanghai for over 15 years and held key roles in the establishment and growth of a number of creative and fashion businesses in my career. For the past ten years I have been a director at Baltic Creative CIC, a social enterprise that owns and creates space to support over 180 businesses in the Creative and Digital sector in Liverpool. Now as Chair of the company, I am guiding ambitious plans to grow our schemes across the Liverpool City Region to support more businesses to grow. I enjoy being part of the MBA Scale Up because it is a unique programme which allows us to bring together academic rigour and real world experience to scale businesses responsibly.
-
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer
Career paths
Further your career prospects
LJMU has an excellent employability record with 96% (HESA 2018) of our postgraduates in work or further study six months after graduation. Our applied learning techniques and strong industry connections ensure our students are fully prepared for the workplace on graduation and understand how to apply their knowledge in a real world context.
On graduation from the programme you will see a marked improvement in day-to-day performance, confidence and learning in the workplace, as well as improvements in your ability to demonstrate new skills learnt during the course.
By combining experience with new management thinking developed over the lifetime of the MBA, you will also see improvements in decision-making, contributions to idea generation and business improvement.
Professional accreditation/links
Fees and funding
Tuition Fees:
Fees
The fees quoted at the top of this page cover registration, tuition, supervision, assessment and examinations as well as:
- library membership with access to printed, multimedia and digital resources
- access to programme-appropriate software
- library and student IT support
- free on-campus wifi via eduroam
Additional costs
Although not all of the following are compulsory/relevant, you should keep in mind the costs of:
- accommodation and living expenditure
- books (should you wish to have your own copies)
- printing, photocopying and stationery
- PC/laptop (should you prefer to purchase your own for independent study and online learning activities)
- mobile phone/tablet (to access online services)
- field trips (travel and activity costs)
- placements (travel expenses and living costs)
- student visas (international students only)
- study abroad opportunities (travel costs, accommodation, visas and immunisations)
- academic conferences (travel costs)
- professional-body membership
- graduation (gown hire etc)
Funding
There are many ways to fund postgraduate study for home and international students. From loans to International Scholarships and subject-specific funding, you’ll find all of the information you need on our specialist postgraduate funding pages.
Please be aware that the UK’s departure from the EU may affect your tuition fees. Learn more about your fee status and which tuition fees are relevant to you.
Entry requirements
You will need:
Qualification requirements
Undergraduate degree
-
A bachelor’s degree with a 2.2 (hons) is required and at least three years’ relevant strategic management or leadership experience. Alternatively, a minimum of five years’ relevant strategic management or leadership experience would be considered if no prior degree is held.
Alternative qualifications considered
If you do not meet the admissions criteria above, the course team has a strong commitment to widening participation and positively welcomes non-standard applicants. Candidates with some management experience or those who are about to enter a managerial role and have a demonstrated aptitude for study may still be considered dependant on circumstances and this can be discussed with the Programme Leader prior to application.
Additional requirements
-
Relevant work experience
- a minimum of three years' relevant workplace experience
Further information
-
Extra Requirements
- a demonstrable ability to study at this level
- The programme leader will sometimes set a GMAT score and request references if a candidate cannot attend interview
-
RPL
-
Credits may be awarded for learning already undertaken in the University or elsewhere for which you have received qualifications or certificates. You may also submit a claim for recognition of unaccredited prior learning (RP(E)L). This may be for work you have accomplished in a professional, paid or voluntary capacity. This has to be submitted via an RPL form with supporting evidence. You will also be liable to pay an administration fee and charge per credit.
All RP(E)L claims must be applied for at the point of admission and cannot be considered at a later stage.
-
International requirements
IELTS
-
Where English is not your first language, or your first degree was not taught and assessed wholly in English, an IELTS score of 6.5 must be achieved, with no individual score of less than 5.5. The programme complies fully with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010
How to apply
Securing your place at LJMU
To apply for this programme, you are required to complete an LJMU online application form. You will need to provide details of previous qualifications and a personal statement outlining why you wish to study this programme.
Your student experience
There's so much more to university than just studying for a degree.
Postgraduate life at LJMU
See the amazing support you will get from the university, the academic expertise of the staff here, the first-class learning environment, fabulous libraries, excellent career guidance and their ongoing love affair with the city of Liverpool.
Accommodation
As a new student at LJMU, we guarantee accommodation right in the heart of the dynamic city centre, with easy access to the main University campuses.
You can view our approved accommodation to see the halls that we offer to new students.
Your campus
We’re very proud of our campuses. Not only because they provide a modern and inspiring learning space for all our students but also because they’re a place people really want to be.
Living in Liverpool
Liverpool is one of Europe's most dynamic and cultured cities. Come find out why it's a great city to study in.
Go abroad
LJMU aims to make international opportunities available to every student. You may be able to study abroad as part of your degree at one of our 100+ partner universities across the world. You could also complete a work placement or apply for one of our prestigious worldwide internship programmes.
Sports, societies and lifestyle
Getting involved in sports, clubs and societies at Liverpool John Moores University is a great way to challenge yourself, meet people who share your interests, and feel more connected to the University community.
Talk to our students
Connect with a current LJMU student through Unibuddy for insights and advice on university life, courses, and more.
See what our students are saying
At LJMU we want you to know you’re making the right choice by studying with us. You can see what our students are saying about their experience with us through their reviews on the following websites:
News and views
Browse through the latest stories and updates from the University and beyond
The University reserves the right to withdraw or make alterations to a course and facilities if necessary; this may be because such changes are deemed to be beneficial to students, are minor in nature and unlikely to impact negatively upon students or become necessary due to circumstances beyond the control of the University. Where this does happen, the University operates a policy of consultation, advice and support to all enrolled students affected by the proposed change to their course or module.