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Programme structure

The programme commences in January each year with a residential induction in Durham that is designed to introduce you to Durham University Business School and EBS and to your fellow participants. Core module teaching also starts during this time.

You will study:

  • 7 core modules
  • 5 electives 
  • Business Project (dissertation)

Core modules

The core modules provide an understanding of relevant, cutting-edge management issues from an academic perspective. A multi-disciplinary approach encourages a critical exploration of knowledge areas that underpin management activity and are relevant to the analysis of business practices. The broad-based curriculum addresses contemporary management and business issues, deepening your critical awareness and understanding. The core modules are:-

Managing in the Competitive Environment: Explores the complex environmental pressures on organisations, how they can respond to these influences and the key management issues involved in aligning these forces. The theme takes an integrated perspective of the operating environment of organisations from the standpoint of marketing and operations management.

Managing in the Global Environment: Enables you to acquire and develop specialist knowledge and a critical understanding of key macro and micro elements of economic analysis relevant to business decision-making and planning in the global economy.

Managing Finance: Provides you with an appreciation of the financial tools of business management, in particular the techniques of financial statement analysis, and an understanding of the key requisite skills for valuing investments and financial securities. It provides a critical evaluation of the factors affecting the finance mix of a firm and the financial markets in which firms operate giving insight into topical issues in this area. 

Managing People: Delivers a critical understanding of the complex nature of contemporary organisations to facilitate exercising independent judgement when analysing organisational and managerial issues. It enables you to develop an understanding of the changing nature of management and appreciate the contribution of Human Resource Management to organisational functioning. 

Improving Management Decision Making: Provides you with a detailed knowledge of key concepts from behavioural economics and decision science; techniques for evaluating decision quality and optimising outcomes; and how to apply them to complex management problems.

Strategic Management: Provides an understanding of strategy formulation and implementation under conditions of changing industry competition, firm resources and technology by examining how companies attempt different business and corporate strategies to achieve a significant competitive advantage.

Research Methods: Provides insight into the research project, including qualitative and quantitative research methods, and must be undertaken before starting the dissertation.

Elective modules

Delegates on the Executive MBA programme undertake five elective modules. These present an opportunity to study topics of your choice in more depth. They allow you to enhance and deepen your knowledge and skills in areas of particular interest and relevance to your future career aspirations. 

You choose five electives from a broad portfolio of topics. If you wish to tailor your Executive MBA to a certain area, you could pick electives dedicated to that subject area. Alternatively, you may wish to choose diverse electives to continue the general management theme of the programme. The electives we offer vary depending on current faculty, research and relevance to business. They take place in Durham, Frankfurt, or in other international locations. Indeed, we also offer Durham Executive MBA elective modules and Global MBA Residencies to our Durham-EBS programme delegates, further enhancing the degree of choice available. 

MBA business project (dissertation)

The Executive MBA Programme culminates in a 15,000-word dissertation on a business project chosen by you, and overseen by a faculty supervisor with relevant academic/consultancy experience. The dissertation is an independent piece of research that should be regarded as an exercise in the analysis, interpretation and presentation of information, observations and ideas. Normally it involves the systematic study of a problem using an appropriate theoretical framework.

This is a very rewarding part of the MBA learning experience across our programmes.