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Business and Management - Professional Placement Year

Entry requirements


A level

B,B,B-B,C,C

Grades BBB-BCC preferred.

Access to HE Diploma

M:45

Typical offers for applicants with Access to HE will be the Access to HE Diploma or Access to HE Certificate (60 credits, 45 of which must be Level 3, at Merit or higher).

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

32

A minimum of 32 points are required.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DDM-DMM

Extended Diploma grades from Distinction Distinction Merit (DDM) to Distinction Merit Merit (DMM) accepted in any subject.

T Level

M

Grade Merit preferred.

UCAS Tariff

104-120

We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time with year in industry | 2024

Subject

Business studies

**Become a skilled, aware and conscious business and management professional who is ready to thrive in tomorrow’s workplace.**
- Focus on the socially-conscious and sustainable future of business by embedding ethical practices and skills into your studies.

- In our close-knit School, you'll have the chance to work on real-life, live projects with local and national businesses.

- Core modules focus on creativity and innovation in business, while varied optional modules allow you to shape your own degree.

Gain a thorough grounding in the theory and practice of modern business with our flexible Business and Management degree. Develop the core skills you need to excel in all kinds of business and start to build a clear picture of exactly where those skills could take you.

Your choice of optional modules will enable you to shape your degree to your goals and aspirations, while practical work and assessments focus on what you’d encounter in the professional world: pitching, presenting, reporting, managing groups and leading projects.

As a business professional, you’ll need to be able to lead others into a sustainable future. For this reason, sustainability is a key consideration throughout the course, with many projects underpinned by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A dedicated module on managing sustainability is available in your final year of study to deepen your understanding.

Our students’ careers are as varied as the world of business itself; some work for small businesses while others join graduate schemes within national and international organisations or set up their own enterprises. With the skills you develop throughout your degree, you'll be ready to tackle the challenges of any modern workplace.

**More about the Professional Placement Year**
A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where you undertake a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between your second and final years of undergraduate study. You can engage in up to 3 placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) yourself, with support from the Careers team.

Modules

In your first year you'll gain a broad understanding of today’s business environment – from the context that organisations operate in through to trends in economic thinking and the importance of data in business. You’ll learn to think differently about business challenges, which lays the foundations for you to innovate in your second and final years. You’ll be encouraged to reflect on your own strengths, performance, and areas for growth and development. Your second year focuses on the inner workings of businesses. Use business techniques to solve problems and start developing the skills that employers look for such as: strong presentational skills, effective group working, self-reflection and strategies for improvement. At the end of the year, you can choose to embark on a ten-week summer placement, and/or a ten-month business placement – applying what you’ve learned so far in the real world. In your last year, develop and explore your business learning and focus on the role of a manager. Undertake an in-depth business research project in your specialist area. You’ll also have a chance to pitch business ideas to a panel either on your own or with fellow students. Other topics to explore include managing sustainability, new trends in management, and organisational strategy. You’ll focus more and more on practical applications for your business skills looking ahead to your life after graduation.

Assessment methods

You'll be assessed in a wide range of ways that test your business knowledge and management skills. These could include presentations, work related projects, group-work, computer based simulations, podcasts, exams, essays, videos and business reports.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£15,750
per year
International
£15,750
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Bath Spa University

Department:

Bath Business School

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

76%
Business studies

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Business studies

Teaching and learning

72%
Staff make the subject interesting
90%
Staff are good at explaining things
80%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
73%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

70%
Library resources
85%
IT resources
84%
Course specific equipment and facilities
79%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

98%
UK students
2%
International students
50%
Male students
50%
Female students
84%
2:1 or above
28%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
C

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Business studies

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£20,000
med
Average annual salary
99%
high
Employed or in further education
71%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

34%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
18%
Business, finance and related associate professionals
8%
Public services and other associate professionals

The number of business studies graduates fell significantly last year after a long period of increase. But there were still more than 14,000 degrees awarded and this is the third most popular subject for new graduates. Because so many graduates get business studies degrees, you can find them everywhere in the economy, and very few jobs are completely out of reach for a good business studies graduate. Around 40% go into jobs in finance, sales, recruitment, management (particularly retail) or marketing. There is also a small (but well paid) group who take their technical skills into computing and IT. Thousands of graduates from this subject go into professional jobs every year, and average starting salaries are above the average for all subjects and particularly healthy in London where they top £25k. Graduates with good degree grades in business studies are much more likely to get good jobs, so don’t be complacent, and keep a close eye on your grades.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Business studies

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£19k

£19k

£25k

£25k

£29k

£29k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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UCAS Points: 104-120

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Course location and department:

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here