International Events, Leisure and Tourism Management – MSc

The module critically explores current issues of project and quality management in the context of Events, Leisure, Tourism and the Creative Industries. Managers and executives at all levels within the Creative Industries sector typically manage projects and deal with quality management issues. The module covers essential concepts and offers key knowledge, skills and a structured approach to identifying, understanding and solving some of the issues of project and quality management.

The concepts, principles and frameworks covered, apply both in the UK and internationally, to a range of organisations and sectors, focusing on Events, Leisure, Tourism and the Creative Industries.

Aims of the module:

1. To enable students to enhance their understanding of the theory and practice of project and quality management in the Events, Leisure, Tourism and Creative Industries context.
2. To enable students to critically understand and use, theoretical and practical skills and tools, which apply to project and quality management business challenges in contemporary Events, Leisure, Tourism and the Creative Industries.
3. To equip them to critically discuss issues and make appropriate choices, based on project and quality management observations and recommendations that are applicable to their sectors, organisations and brands.
4. To stimulate students’ critical awareness of academic theories and current professional practice, and their ability to apply theories and tools to the practice of project and quality management in their current and future career settings.

The module prepares students to read critically and evaluate their research within their chosen field of study, design and defend a research proposal, and undertake an independent research project, in the form of a follow-up dissertation module (LT7P12).

This module is core for all students on the MSc International Events, Leisure and Tourism Management programme. It supports students’ understanding of research-informed practice and research design and methodology. It is designed to encourage a reflective approach to research methodology, techniques and approaches suitable to postgraduate study of Events, Leisure, Tourism and the Creative Industries related fields.

It enables students to critically evaluate and interpret published research papers in academic and professional literature. It equips them with the skills necessary to undertake their own independent research, including – but not limited to – academic research, professional consultancy related projects, fieldwork and so on, by developing their abilities to conceptualise, design, and conduct empirical studies using a variety of methodologies (e.g. quantitative and qualitative). The module is also designed to engage both, those who have experience as practitioners in their field and those from a more traditional background, in scholarly research at undergraduate level.

Prior to commencing data collection all students will need to secure ethics approval via a form/template in accordance with University regulations.

Aims of the module:

1. To introduce students to research philosophies, design, methodology and methods, and their application to researching issues in their applicable fields both in the UK and in an international context. Thus, to help students acquire the academic and practical skills necessary to undertake research at postgraduate level, and in particular a research dissertation or equivalent research project.
2. To foster a critical awareness and interest in research methodologies, techniques and approaches developed in management studies or social science, which can be applied to their particular field of study. Thus, by providing students with the practical skills necessary to design and undertake a postgraduate level research project in a subject of their own choosing.
3. To critically evaluate the use of a range of research design, methodologies, methods, techniques and approaches in the creative industries and related fields of studies, including critical analysis of published research papers. Thus, by fostering a critical awareness and an understanding of topics and issues associated with their subject specialist area and to combine knowledge and analysis acquired in core MSc modules to enable them to explore their chosen topic more fully.
4. To formulate and defend a coherent research proposal with sound aims and objectives, a realistic plan of execution, appropriately related to theory and practice through a preliminary review of the literature, with clear research questions that can be addressed through well justified methodologies, and a realistic plan forward for the empirical investigation.

This module has an experiential learning focus and is devised to enable students to develop their identities as influential managers and leaders. It is based on the principles that personal growth and sustained development of leadership and management potential are relational activities, essentially supported by ongoing personal knowledge and understanding.
Through a reflective, action learning approach, the module enables students to become aware of themselves, their values and their purpose, and identify their personal development needs and influence their management and leadership potential. It connects individual and team-based learning and development, and encourages a lifelong, life-wide attitude to personal development. It enables students to become aware of enablers and barriers to individual, team and organisational success and their relationship to leadership and management in a global context.

Students will work in purposeful groups, identifying and setting their own targets for development, as individuals and as a reciprocal learning community. They will then devise an agreed vehicle for meeting those targets with their tutor, and report on the progress of their development through a portfolio of assessment tasks.  

The module aims to assist students in becoming aware of and influence their personal potential and development needs with regard to leadership and management in a global context.

The module presents an overview of the current key issues of Fundraising and Public Relations (PR) in the context of Events, Leisure, Tourism and the broader Creative Industries. This module aims to develop a broad, informed and critical understanding of some of the key and complex issues surrounding fundraising, in UK and worldwide. It also examines some key contemporary issues, theoretical and practical perspectives in PR at both national and global levels. Both underpinned by current academic and professional research in Fundraising and PR, to aid students to gain insights into contemporary, academic and applied practices.

Aims of the module:

1. To enable students to enhance their understanding of the theory and practice of Fundraising and PR in the relevant industry context.
2. To enable students to critically understand and use theoretical and practical skills and tools related with Fundraising and PR in the relevant industry context.
3. To equip students to critically discuss issues and increase their awareness of the impact and influence of Fundraising and PR related issues in the decision making process of Events, Leisure, Tourism and the broader Creative Industries
4. To stimulate critical awareness in the light of relevant academic theories and current professional practice, and the ability to apply, current theories, practices and tools of Fundraising and PR, in professional settings.

The module introduces students to the accounting and finance principles with examples from Events, Leisure, Tourism and the broader Creative Industries sector.

It will also provide an overview understanding of how accounting and financial statements capture the value of businesses. It focuses on fundamental accounting/finance concepts, principles and techniques in relation to financial statements analysis. The module explores issues of management accounting techniques and indicatively examines their use in financial management decision making.

Finally, the module will explore links, between accounting, financial statement analysis, corporate accounts and financial strategy, using different cases in the context of Events, Leisure, Tourism and the broader Creative Industries, to illuminate understanding.

Aims of the module:

1. To enable students to develop an overview understanding of accounting and finance principles through examples from Events, Leisure, Tourism and the broader Creative Industries sector.
2. To enable students to critically understand the value and usefulness of accounting/financial statements; by focusing on fundamental concepts, principles and techniques in relation to financial statements analysis, through the application of appropriate examples, tools and procedures.
3. To identify issues of financial management and accounting techniques, and how results from such analysis may support the development, measurement and management of decision-making in the context of Events, Leisure, Tourism and the broader Creative Industries sector.
4. To identify and evaluate links between accounting, financial statement analysis, corporate accounts and financial management strategies, in the context of Events, Leisure, Tourism and the broader Creative Industries.

This core module captures the crucial importance of people as a route to organisational success. The module explores the ever changing and fast paced contextual environment within which the contemporary organisation must function; in particular it examines contextual issues around globalisation, diversity and cross cultural management; and discusses how organisational human resource management practices can respond effectively.  The module seeks to emphasise the powerful, strategic and pivotal role HRM can play in building and sustaining organisational capabilities and acknowledges the intersectionality of cross cultural management. 

This module has five specific aims. 

1. To bring together those factors that are relevant to any consideration of ‘management in a global context’, and specifically those areas within the external and internal environments that impinge upon and influence management decision-making.
2. To emphasise the dynamic and complex nature of the environments that people management operates within, changes which have different effects on organisational stakeholders. These effects in turn impact on the power balance and resources available to managers and the essentially political context in which they have to operate.
3. Understanding global employment relationship – a fundamental social, psychological and legal relationship – which is key to appreciating how work, the workplace, and the role and functions of HR, are changing in the 21st century. The module seeks to unravel why these changes are taking place and why understanding them is so important for HR practitioners and managers in general.
4. The module seeks to identify on the practical implications of an increasingly globalised environment for the ‘’A-Z of HR’’ and people management policies, practices and strategies, especially within the context of increased internationalisation of work.
5. The module allows participants to reflect on their own approach to interpersonal communication, management styles and people management philosophies.

The dissertation enables students to undertake a substantial piece of academic-focused or industry-focused research underpinned by current academic and professional literature in Events, Leisure, Tourism and the broader Creative Industries fields.

This module carries 40 credits and builds on its pre-requisite ‘Research Methodology for Events, Leisure and Tourism’ where students will have identified a suitable topic for research, produced and defended a research proposal. An ethics form must be submitted, and ethical clearance is required prior to data collection.

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the broader field of research in Events, Leisure and Tourism by exploring the current and salient current issues of the sector. The outcome will be a high-level manuscript, itself the result of rigorous planning, substantial academic and professional research, high-level analysis, assimilation and interpretation of key information and statistics.

Through independent research and their own motivation, students should develop an awareness of the importance of rigorous investigative techniques, standards of data collection and analysis in business decision making, applicable in the context of Events, Leisure, Tourism and the broader Creative Industries sector.

Students will produce a final document to a high professional standard suitable for both an academic and business audiences. It may take the form of an empirical study informed by theory where the student has carried out independent academic-focused research. Alternatively, the dissertation may focus on a more practical industry-based problem. Here also, an empirical study may be conducted focusing more on industry related issues, or applications and using academic and professional literature.

Students must demonstrate an analytical, critical and independent approach to the debate and a willingness and ability to arrive at substantiated conclusions, paying due regard to the relevance of the available of empirical evidence. Students should show that they are capable of synthesising complex information and build on the work or others.

As the most important piece of assessed work undertaken on this programme, the dissertation is the clearest expression of the student’s ability to study at Masters level and achieve applicable outcomes.

Aims of the module:

1. To undertake with some supervision an independent and detailed investigation on a topic specifically related to Events, Leisure, Tourism and broader Creative Industries related sectors.
2. To demonstrate (in a clear and persuasive manner) an appropriate application of research and project planning, design, methodology, methods, information gathering, analysis, interpretation, presentation, and critical debate and reflection.
3. To demonstrate a high-level ability (in a clear and persuasive manner) to understand, interpret, analyse and present the theories, professional frameworks, policies, conceptual and theoretical frameworks, and so forth, in relation to the chosen topic.
4. To demonstrate a high-level ability (in a clear and persuasive manner) to critically reflect on the relevance and – where appropriate – the policy implications of the findings within the wider context of the subject field, and make recommendations for future research.