Find out more about studying Full Time MBA at University of Leeds? We've gathered all the key details, entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
MBA - Master of Business Administration
Leeds, Main
Full Time
Sep 2026
1 Year
An MBA challenges how you think and act in business. Employers want more from their managers than knowledge and strategic thinking – they also seek leadership skills, commitment and creativity. The Leeds MBA equips you to meet these challenges. We prioritise practice-based learning, and you’ll have the opportunity to apply your knowledge to real business scenarios. You’ll study the foundations of business management, such as marketing, accounting, finance, operations and human resource management. Crucially, you’ll explore how these different business functions interact, giving you an understanding of effective management at an organisational level. Other modules will allow you to explore emerging trends and developments, for example, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, innovation, and industry 4. 0. Importantly, you’ll also enhance key qualities expected of leaders, including commercial awareness, interpersonal skills, a genuine understanding of the fundamental business functions and a critical and questioning outlook. You’ll gain an international perspective and build valuable connections, helping you become a global leader. Our full-time MBA is a one-year intensive course based on campus in Leeds. Drawing on the strengths of this vibrant city, you’ll work closely with resident academics and MBA colleagues from across the globe to develop your skills through study, coaching and practical application of the latest academic theory. Practical focus At Leeds, we focus on practice-based learning. An integral part of your MBA experience is the opportunity to work with industry and put the knowledge and skills you learn into practice. You’ll work with a range of organisations, consider different business case studies, learn from guest speakers, and apply your skills through the completion of three live challenges. Live ChallengesThe live challenges have been designed to give you the skills needed to step up to a C-suite position, pursue a career in consulting or start your own business. The challenges are devised in collaboration with business practitioners and real organisations, allowing you to apply your knowledge to genuine, contemporary business challenges. The New Venture Challenge, part of the Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management module, allows you to generate ideas for new commercial opportunities, often for a high-profile global organisation. During the Leading in Practice module, the Consulting Challenge gives you the chance to provide consultancy support to an external business, usually a social enterprise or voluntary sector organisation. At the culmination of your MBA experience, the capstone Innovation Challenge allows you to draw on everything you have learnt on the MBA to develop a new product or service as part of the Creative and Innovative Thinking module. Specialist services such as Spark, our on-campus business start-up incubator, can also help you develop your ideas further and take your new product or service to market. Find out more about the MBA live challenges. Professional connections The Leeds MBA will connect you to a network of corporate partners, practitioners and alumni, with plenty of opportunities to build your own professional network through your practice-based work. We have existing relationships with Marks & Spencer, IBM, Yorkshire Bank, Asda, Lloyds Banking Group, Universal Music, KPMG and the NHS, as well as many small and medium-sized enterprises, charities and social enterprises. You’ll meet prominent external speakers and connect with business professionals through networking opportunities, guest speaker events and alumni talks. Studying alongside MBA colleagues from a range of professional backgrounds will also broaden your perspective and provide you with a close support network that will extend beyond graduation.
This module aims to provide an introduction to the principles of accounting and corporate finance and shows how they can be applied to assist performance measurement and decision-making in various business contexts. Specifically it gives students detailed knowledge of financial statement preparation and interpretation, the way in which finance is raised in financial markets and deployed in organisations and of the use of financial information for decision making and control.
This module aims to develop the student’s knowledge and skills to better enable them to identify, evaluate, synthesise and apply research knowledge to diagnose, structure and gain insight into a challenging management issue or problem. In support of the above, the module aims to improve ethical application of research-related skills. Students will design and complete a practical research project.
This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the economic environments (sectoral, national and global) relevant to the strategic management of business enterprises and to enable students to understand and to use economic concepts applicable to strategic decision-making in business enterprises.
This module aims to provide students with the fundamentals of marketing and how they apply to global markets as part of an integrated MBA programme.
A systems perspective will underpin the focus on key resources such as data, information, knowledge, materials, staff, technology and facilities. The module will show you how business processes and capabilities can be aligned to meet the needs of key stakeholders, e.g. customers. How this is achieved in practice, via strategic analysis, design, implementation and management, will be discussed. Complementary themes will be pursued such as how to manage ongoing operations vs how to innovate and change existing operations. The role of technology, especially information and communications technology, in enabling innovation and improvement will be a key theme of the module. This module is core for the Full Time MBA.
International Business Management is about understanding the internationalization process of firms. This process entails a string of consecutive decisions that organizations (MNEs and SMEs) make in order to expand abroad. The course has a theoretical as well as a practical element that are closely intertwined.
The aim of this module is to give students the knowledge and skills to address the challenges of becoming an effective, self-directed leader in today’s complex and dynamic organisations. The module focuses on the critical issues facing modern leaders including developing commercial awareness, the practice of organisational intervention and how leaders need to develop their capabilities through self-reflection and managed self-development.
Decision making is a key management function. Participants will obtain an understanding of the thinking processes that underlie their own and others’ judgement and decision making, the judgmental errors and decision biases that commonly arise, and strategies for improving decisions. They will also evaluate a number of approaches to structured decision aids.
The module aims to provide an introduction and perspective on established concepts, theory and evidence relating to individual, team and collective behaviour in organizations - how work is done and relationships conducted. This will include understandings about the causes of behaviour – how ‘the people make the place’ - and consequential behavioural outcomes such as work performance, motivation and engagement. This knowledge will facilitate deeper understandings about how organizations and created and sustained The focus of discussion will be on the core practical consequences for productively managing and leading team and organizational processes and outcomes.
This module aims to equip participants with contemporary thinking and conceptual insights from HR theory and research as well as practical approaches and techniques for key HR processes such as selection, performance management, training and development and reward. Participants will apply theoretical perspectives and practical knowledge to analysis of real-life problems with which contemporary organisations have to deal.
This module integrates knowledge of Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management. The unique blend of topics will equip you with the leadership and analytical skills necessary to manage organizations that compete in rapidly changing business environments. You will appreciate how uncertainties of globalisation, new business models, disruptive technologies and changes in societal aspirations challenge competitive positions and managerial decision-making. You will also acquire thorough insight into the content and process of strategy; be competent strategic decision-maker; and have the knowledge and skills to be an effective manager of a strategic initiative.
