MA Human Resource Management (Full Time)

This CIPD accredited course offers you a vehicle to gain a Master's degree and to simultaneously follow a coherent route to professional qualifications within the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's (CIPD) Professional Development Scheme (PDS).

Course overview

The MA in Human Resource Management (MA HRM) at Southampton Solent University offers a vehicle for students to gain a Masters degree and to simultaneously follow a coherent route to professional qualifications within the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's (CIPD) Professional Development Scheme (PDS). 

The programme has three general aims. The first is to broaden the individual student's perceptions, awareness and thinking, whilst introducing the foundations of the profession, thus developing knowledge and competence in People Management and Development.  

The second aim is to build on this broad foundation with in-depth study of core professional subject areas.  

The third aim is to provide an intellectually challenging and flexible learning environment that is commensurate with master's level study. The learning experience will require independent learning, critical evaluations, discussions and debate, as well as the opportunity, through the dissertation, to go into significant depth in a relevant but narrow topic.

The complex and dynamic environment gives rise to a host of employment issues that HR managers and professionals need to address. The MA will enable potential HR professionals and managers to not only have professional experience through their placement and expertise through the M-level units studied, but to also have progressed beyond by developing their knowledge, understanding and skills to the level of a critical observer of HRM rather than purely an HR manager.

The programme has no requirement associated with work experience, but individuals will be selected on the basis of the maturity of their outlook, their ability to benefit from the programme and to make the contribution that will be expected of them within the learning process. Students wishing to gain graduate CIPD membership will have to undertake a placement of a minimum of 30 days as part of the programme.

The MA programme will exceptionally allow applications for exemptions from any unit within the programme, except the dissertation. No more than 60 credits can be exempted. This will be assessed on a unit by unit basis and will be determined by awards rated as M-Level equivalent and/or experience at a senior level within management or in a position associated with their chosen pathway. 

Course structure

Period 1 (September - January)

Learning and Development
This unit enables students to critically analyse how  the development of people can contribute to the enhanced performance of individuals, teams and organisations. The unit focuses on the strategic and operational integration of development into the organisation, with particular consideration of the wider national context in which organisations operate and the notion of talent and their connections with national and organisation policy and strategies.

 

Human Resource Management in Context
The purpose of this unit is to enable learners to critically understand, analyse and respond to the internal and external environmental contexts of organisations, including the managerial and business context, within which managers, HR professionals and employees interact in conditions of environmental turbulence, change and uncertainty.  

Leading, Managing and Developing People

In this unit students will critically assess how people are managed and developed within contemporary organisations. Emphasis will be placed upon major research evidence on effective approaches to human resource (HR) and learning and development (L&D) practice, which secure positive organisational outcomes.

Investigating a Business Issue (Part 1)

The overall aim of this unit is to enable students to develop a strong sense of self-awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses as managers and colleagues. The unit is primarily concerned with the development of skills, and specifically seeks to develop and improve a range of definable skills that are pivotal to successful management practice and to effective leadership. These include thinking and decision-making skills the management of financial information, managing budgets, a range of teamworking and interpersonal skills and others associated with developing personal effectiveness and credibility at work.

Period 2 (January - April/May)

Resourcing and Talent Management
The purpose of this unit is to enable students to critically analyse the role of Resourcing and Talent Management in supporting strategic objectives in national and international contexts. The unit examines the various approaches to resourcing in organisations today through the processes of recruitment, selection, employee retention and dismissal

Managing Employment Relations
The aim of this unit is to provide personnel and development professionals with an understanding of employment relations perspectives and debates, both national and international, from a theoretical and behavioural competency perspective.

Investigating a Business Issue (Part 2)
Through a work placement opportunity this unit provides the opportunity for learners to demonstrate the ability to diagnose and investigate a live, complex business issue from an HR perspective, to locate the work within the body of contemporary knowledge, to collect and analyse data, to derive supportable conclusions and to make practical and actionable recommendations for change, improvement or enhancement of current practice.

One option:

Leadership and Management Development*
The focus of this unit is on the development of leadership and management and its role in facilitating change and growth in individuals, teams, and organisations.
Employment Law*
The module will provide learners with the key principles that underpin UK (or Irish) and EU employment law, their purpose, the major defences that employers are able to deploy when defending cases, and the potential organisational costs and reputational risks associated with losing them. The focus is on situations that occur relatively regularly in workplaces rather than on more uncommon or obscure legal scenarios or on advanced knowledge of legislation or case law.

* Options run dependent upon student and lecturer availability - these are the most favoured options.

Period 3 (May/June - September)

• Research Methods
• Dissertation

Assessment

Units are assessed via a mix of written assignments; a skills-based assignment and/or a two-hour examination.

Key career skills

Communication, presentation, researching, assimilating and presenting data in a professional context, team work (particularly cross culture), teamwork, training skills.

Projects/work experience

Each student has the opportunity to undertake a sixweek work placement.  During this placement students work on live projects for companies and produce a research project for their CIPD accreditation.  Students have completed placements and projects on behalf of organisations such as The Maritime and Coastguard Agency, The NHS, Sainsbury’s, and Winchester University.

Solent's special features

• This course offers not only an MA Human Resource Management but also membership of the CIPD.   This is the new associate level membership and is sought by students and employers alike.   A combination of master’s level study, work experience opportunity and professional accreditation ensure graduates from this course enter the workplace with considerable advantages.
• Students have the opportunity to undertake a 6 week work placement.

Fees

Fees for the 2011/12 academic year are:
Full Time: UK and EU students £4,100; Overseas students £9,400.

 

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