Data is everywhere and is growing rapidly every day. In a fast-changing digital world, there is a very high demand for game-changers who can predict business needs and who can understand and interpret data to make effective decisions.

Our Business Analytics Masters course provides you with the opportunity and skills to explore the latest techniques for analysing ‘big data’ to identify patterns, interpret trends and advance your organisation’s drive for strategic change.

Aimed at those with an interest in problem solving and critical thinking, this course welcomes those from any undergraduate background, including applicants who have no previous business or analytics experience. Our Business Analytics MSc develops broad business skills while offering specialist knowledge in business analytics for tomorrow’s business leaders.

In the second year you will undertake an Industry Consultancy Project allowing you to apply the knowledge and skills you have gained during your first year of study to a real-life industry issue from a range of employers. This authentic learning context ensures that you experience what it feels like to work within a team on a contemporary project that has real relevance and impact. Working to a client's brief, with academic supervision, you will advance your ability to apply theoretical concepts and research skills to produce a practical recommendation to a challenging problem.

*Be aware that all Advanced Practice with investigative consultancy project routes are similar to many of our 1-Year MSc with consultancy project routes, while 2-year Advanced Practice course spends more dedicated time in the Business Clinic, reflected on the total assessment input for the two 60 credit modules

You will be part of a global cohort of dedicated students in a positive multicultural learning environment.

You will benefit from the vast experience of leading staff who have taught research-informed and cutting-edge topics.

The course is delivered via lectures, seminars, workshops and one-to-one sessions. From the outset you will apply academic knowledge to real life business issues via tutorial-based activities, case discussions and group-work sessions.  You will also enjoy guest lectures from practitioners where you will have the opportunity to engage with industry.

To complement the formal modules we focus on developing your key capability skills. This includes a residential day for the leadership and team-building event, which is in the first semester as part of a module called Leadership and Management Development, which is aimed at strengthening skills in team working, emotional and cultural intelligence, self-reflection, independent learning and critical thinking.

You will be assessed through a combination of personal development planning, group and peer assessments, and reflective reports as well as traditional exams and essays. This will help you to become an independent, reflective and critical thinker who is culturally and ethically aware, with strong leadership and management capabilities.

When you join Newcastle Business School you will become part of a business school with a global reputation for delivering some of the best business management courses in the UK.

We hold double accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in business and accounting – an international hallmark of excellence – in large part due to the exceptional quality of our staff.

The academic team have extensive experience in both research and industry, with specialisms including forecasting, decision making, analytics, information systems and knowledge management. We incorporate our professional experience and ongoing research into the syllabus, to ensure you are up-to-date with current developments in a fast-changing and challenging field.

Our staff are actively pushing at the frontiers of knowledge and generating new concepts and insights. Over 40% of our publication outputs and 60% of our impact case studies have been assessed as internationally excellent or world leading. The quality of our research, teaching and engagement with business were among the factors that led to Newcastle Business School being named ‘Business School of the Year’ at the Times Higher Education Awards 2015.

From the postgraduate suite to seminar rooms, lecture theatres to social spaces, Newcastle Business School offers a fantastic learning environment.

The University has invested heavily in IT labs and facilities. You’ll use a variety of analytics software such as KNIME, R, ARIS Express Business Process Modelling, SAS, SPSS, Microsoft Project and Google Analytics.

Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is embedded throughout the course with tools such as the ‘Blackboard’ eLearning Portal and electronic reading lists that will guide your preparation for seminars and independent research. Our use of lecture capture software will help you revise challenging material.

At Northumbria it’s easy to put your learning into practice, opportunities for experiential learning are available through our Student Engagement Centre which promotes volunteering and placements. The Business Clinic enables our students to participate in a ‘consultancy firm’ to provide advice for our region’s businesses.

Newcastle Business School is a vibrant and research-rich school with research expertise in the areas of forecasting, risk perception and risk communication, decision support systems, operations management and business analytics. The course draws heavily on the high-impact research of staff and modules are informed by their own findings as well as from the wider field of research.

Our strong history of applied research is closely linked to local industry as well as the public and voluntary sectors. This business relevant approach to teaching and learning has been developed to maximise your leadership, management and employability potential.

Throughout your course you’ll be an active participant in the on-going research agenda that’s at the heart of Newcastle Business School. With conferences and research events regularly taking place, and with staff discussing their own research as it relates to the topics you’ll study, there’s a strong emphasis on engaging in up-to-date enquiry-based research-rich learning.

Graduates of this course can pursue a wide range of professional and graduate management positions in areas of business consulting, data science, analytics, management, information systems, project management, supply chain management, operations management as well as non-business disciplines.

If you decide to start up your own business, it’s good to know that the combined turnover of our graduates’ start-up companies is higher than that of any other UK university. This course is also the ideal stepping stone if you’re interested in a career in academic research, and successful graduates may be eligible for advanced entry onto our PhD or DBA programmes.

Whatever you decide to do, you will have the transferable skills that employers expect from a Master’s graduate from Northumbria University. These include the ability to tackle complex issues through conceptualisation and undertaking research, the ability to contribute to new processes and knowledge, and the ability to formulate balanced judgements when considering incomplete or ambiguous data.