Business Innovation & Management (top-up) at UCA

Equivalent to the final year of an undergraduate degree, our BA (Hons) Business Innovation & Management (top-up) course at UCA Epsom enables you to build upon an existing qualification such as a foundation degree or an HND. 

This degree will show you the way social sciences can aid business innovation management, and by critically examining current research in the field, you’ll gain a deep understanding of the role it plays within the creative industries. 

Throughout the year, your focus will be on learning through activities that enable you to practice, exhibit and develop your confidence in enterprise, and you’ll gain skills that will apply to any creative industry sector – from luxury and fashion to technology and music. 

Overall, the course will develop your ability to weigh up ethical and intellectual considerations and build on your commitment to becoming a business professional. 

 

Course entry options

Select from the options below to find out more about the different study options available for this course:

What you'll study

What you'll
study

The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.

Business Bootcamp 5: Research & Methodologies (all students)
This bootcamp is about examining research and methodologies and how this applies to your course. We will discuss the different methods by which you can elicit findings whether quantitative (informing by data) or qualitative (informing from opinions) 

Business Seminar 4: Strategy & Decision Making (all students)
More than ever, we are facing the challenge of making decisions under uncertainty against the backdrop of external factors that we cannot control or predict. As leaders, managers and executives, making effective decisions in a time-conscious manner is crucial. This bootcamp will enable you to transform decision-making into a smart and insightful process, providing a robust framework of effective and replicable solutions for better decisions and awareness of decision traps, as well as learning how to assess and choose high-value strategic options under the current climate of enormous uncertainty. 

Business Bootcamp 6: Developing Enterprise (all students)
This unit will provide you with the opportunity to develop your creative thinking skills in a collaborative environment, bringing greater understanding to how those ideas may develop and transform through product or enterprise development.  

Degree Project (all students)
In this final unit, you will apply all you’ve learned to create a distinctive piece of work for your degree project, the purpose of which is to allow you to identify opportunities successfully in your specialist subject area to promote and to develop your career. Through research, you will independently identify and/or generate innovative opportunities within your specialist subject area. Your portfolio will consist of a series of outcomes that showcase your knowledge, and your key attributes and skills as a reflective creative practitioner. You will be expected to consider the theoretical and professional contexts of your exploration. It is important that your work is contemporary, innovative, and representative of its target audience and industry sector. 

All students choose one unit from Cosmetics & Beauty: Contemporary Issues or Fashion: Contemporary Issues or Games: Contemporary Issues or Lifestyle Goods: Contemporary Issues 

Cosmetics & Beauty: Contemporary Issues (elective unit)
To effectively inspire a team, gain clients’ confident and connect authentically with audiences, effective leaders in the cosmetics and beauty industries need deep understanding of contemporary issues and opportunities. In this unit you’ll gain knowledge on the influences that affect consumers, you’ll research and analyse diverse testimonies on experiences of work, creativity and collaboration in these industries. 

Fashion: Contemporary Issues (elective unit)
To effectively inspire a team, gain clients’ confident and connect authentically with audiences, effective leaders in fashion need deep understanding of contemporary issues and opportunities. You’ll learn about the influences affecting consumer behaviour to enable you to advise clients credibly, and research and analyse diverse testimonies on experiences of work, creativity and collaboration. 

Games: Contemporary Issues (elective unit)
To effectively inspire a team, gain clients’ confident and connect authentically with audiences, effective leaders in the games industry need deep understanding of contemporary issues and opportunities. On this unit, learn about the influences affecting consumers’ lifestyles, free-time, self-image, and choices to enable you to advise clients credibly. You’ll also research and analyse diverse testimonies on experiences of work, creativity and collaboration. 

Lifestyle Goods: Contemporary Issues (elective unit)
To effectively inspire a team, gain clients’ confident and connect authentically with audiences, effective leaders in the lifestyle industries need a deep understanding of contemporary issues and opportunities. You’ll learn about consumer lifestyles, free-time, self-image, and choices to enable you to advise clients credibly. And you’ll research and analyse diverse testimonies on experiences of work, creativity and collaboration in this specialised industry. 

All students choose one unit from Music: Global Industry & Futures or Cosmetics & Beauty: Global Industry & Futures or Fashion: Global Industry & Futures or Games: Global Industry & Futures or Lifestyle Goods: Global Industry & Futures

Cosmetics & Beauty: Global Industry & Futures (elective unit)
This unit explores the concept of future thinking and its influence on the global cosmetics and beauty industries. You’ll assess influence from culture and society and predict through recognition of global shifts and emerging trend manifestations. You’ll complete an in-depth study of the current macro environment, using the findings of this study to translate, validate and communicate a vision for the future of these industries. 

Fashion: Global Industry & Futures (elective unit)
You’ll explore the concept of future thinking and its influence on the global fashion industryAnalysing influence from culture and society and predicting through recognition of global shifts and emerging trend manifestations, you’ll complete an in-depth study of the current macro environment and use the findings of this study to translate, validate and communicate a vision for the future of fashion. 

Games: Global Industry & Futures (elective unit)
You’ll learn about the concept of future thinking and its influence on the global games industries, analysing influence from culture and society, and predicting through recognition of global shifts and emerging trend manifestations. You’ll complete an in-depth study of the current macro environment, using the findings of this study to translate, validate and communicate a vision for the future of the gaming industries. 

Lifestyle Goods: Global Industry & Futures (elective unit)
You’ll the concept of future thinking and its influence on the global lifestyle industries, analysing influence from culture and society and predicting through recognition of global shifts and emerging trend manifestations. You’ll complete an in-depth study of the current macro environment, using the findings of this study to translate, validate and communicate a vision for the future. 

Music: Global Industry & Futures (elective unit)
You’ll explore the concept of future thinking and its influence on the global music industry. You’ll be analysing influence from culture and society and predicting through recognition of global shifts and emerging trend manifestations. You’ll complete an in-depth study of the current macro environment, using the findings of this study to translate, validate and communicate a vision for the future. 

All students choose one unit from Data Mining for Marketers or Audience Evaluation or Predictive Analytics for Business.

Data Mining for Marketers (elective unit)
Data Mining focuses on the use of automation to uncover relationships within datasets that can be used to support improved decision processes. When employed in marketing, data mining will use customer, potential customer, supplier, and population data to reveal patterns in the data that have potential to improve the marketing process and outcomes.  You’ll be introduced to the processes of data mining using various tools including descriptive statisticsincluding SPSS and R.  

Audience Evaluation (elective unit)
The concept of audiences has been broadened its meaning in recent years and is especially linked to the consumption of media and cultural productions. Audiences have been described as ‘spectators’, and most recently they are regarded as ‘consumers’ who avidly consume a variety of entertainment forms and cultural activities. This unit introduces audience research in the creative industries, aiming to evaluate how audiences play a key role in shaping creative and cultural experiences and marketing activities in contemporary business environments. 

Predictive Analytics for Business (elective unit)
Predictive analytics is a domain of statistical analysis that allows an organisation to extract information from data to predict patterns and trends. This unit introduces predictive modelling and explains its application in business decisions.  It focusses on a set of statistical techniques including regression modelling, cluster analysis and survival analysis. 

Course specifications

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change in line with our Student Terms and Conditions for example, as required by external professional bodies or to improve the quality of the course.

Fees & funding

Fees & financial support

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

  • BA (top-up) course: £9,250

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

  • BA (top-up) course: £9,250 (see fee discount information)

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

  • BA (top-up) course: £17,500

Please note: The fees listed on this webpage are correct for the stated academic year only, for details of previous years please see the full fee schedules.

UCA scholarships and fee discounts

At UCA we have a number of scholarships and fee discounts available to assist you with the cost of your studies.

Financial support

There are lots of ways you can access additional financial support to help you fund your studies - both from UCA and from external sources. Discover what support you might qualify for please see our financial support information.

Additional course costs

In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course. The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials.

These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make. Please see the Additional Course Costs section of your Course Information for details of the costs you may incur

Facilities

Business facilities include: dedicated studios and study areas, digital media suites equipped with Macs and PCs, programmed with specialist software such as Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver and After Effects and a modern library with a wealth of books, journals, special collections and online resources.

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Business School Studios, UCA Epsom

Business School Studios, UCA Epsom

Library, UCA Epsom

Digital media suite, UCA Epsom

Career opportunities

Career
opportunities

Completing our BA Business Innovation and Management (top-up) will enable to pursue a career in:

  • Graduate Schemes
  • Postgraduate Study
  • Buyer
  • Entrepreneur
  • Junior Manager

Your training on this course will prepare you for a wide range of postgraduate courses. We offer postgraduate opportunities in our Business School and we will help you find the correct course for you and support you in your application should further study be for you.

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Entry & portfolio requirements

Entry & portfolio
requirements

BA (Hons) course (top-up)

The standard entry requirements* for this course are:

  • 240 credits from a relevant degree (120 credits at level 4 and 120 credits at level 5), with a minimum of 55% overall
  • Foundation Degree in a relevant subject
  • Higher National Diploma in a relevant subject

And/or Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)

In recognition that you may already have a relevant professional qualification, or appropriate working experience in the relevant industries, APEL may be accepted for entry on to the course. This will be based on the partnership articulations and will be assessed on a case by case basis.

Other relevant and equivalent Level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds to apply.

Portfolio requirements

This courses does not require a portfolio. If you receive an offer, you’ll be invited to attend an Applicant Day where you can meet the course team and learn more about the course. 

*We occasionally make offers which are lower than the standard entry criteria, to students who have faced difficulties that have affected their performance and who were expected to achieve higher results. We consider the strength of our applicants’ portfolios, as well as their grades -  in these cases, a strong portfolio is especially important.

BA (Hons) course (top-up)

The entry requirements for these courses will depend on the country your qualifications are from, please check the equivalent qualifications for your country:

Any additional entry requirements listed in the UK requirements section, e.g., subject requirements, work experience or professional qualifications, also apply to international applicants applying with equivalent qualifications.

Portfolio requirements

This courses does not require a portfolio.


English language requirements

To study at UCA, you'll need to have a certain level of English language skill. And so, to make sure you meet the requirements of your course, we ask for evidence of your English language ability, please check the level of English language required:

Don't meet the international entry requirements or English language requirements?

You may be able to enter the course through the following entry pathways:

Apply now

Please use the following fields to help select the right application link for you: