100% online MBA with Hospitality Management

Lead the way in hospitality management with an MBA from a global university

Apply By 31 December 2024

To Start 7 January 2025

180 CREDITS •
complete within 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time •
RESEARCH WITH 'WORLD-LEADING' IMPACT

Why Sunderland?

100% online MBA – complete within 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time
5 star rating for teaching, inclusiveness, employability and facilities*
Top 40 UK University**
Member of AACSB, CABS, EFMD and PRIME
£9,146 total fees, option to pay £762 per module

*QS Stars World University Rankings 2023
**Guardian University Guide 2025
***Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024

A hospitality MBA catered to your professional development needs

Careers in the service industry put you at the frontline of delivering an optimal customer experience. Learn how you can help businesses successfully grow and optimise their operations in the highly competitive hospitality sector.

This MBA Hospitality Management MBA is a specialised course designed for those seeking advanced expertise in the hospitality sector. Develop your own critical thinking and the skills needed to form strategic insights and manage effectively in service industry contexts by exploring the sector’s complexity and issues related to ownership and strategic expansion.

You will grow a keen awareness of the operational functions unique to the sector including accommodation, food and beverage, and examine the characteristics of hospitality production and consumption, as well as the importance of branding and consumer behaviour to service development and delivery.

Overall, you’ll gain the understanding needed to make informed decisions in strategic hospitality leadership roles and graduate armed with the knowledge, skills and qualities needed to help steer the success of service industry enterprises on a local, national and global scale.

OUR PARTNERS, ACCREDITATIONS AND NETWORKS

An online MBA that puts your progress in your hands

Our MBA Hospitality Management can help you prepare for your future as a service industry leader from anywhere in the world. Taught and delivered completely online, you can work to gain the qualifications and skills you need to progress your career without any on campus requirements.

The course’s design reflects the need for flexibility in completing your studies around important life commitments including full-time work, family and friends, and learn on a wide range of digital devices, at times suitable to you.

You can choose to study part-time, fitting your studies in around your life, or fast-track your career development with full-time study.

Finally, six start dates per year mean you can get started advancing your career within a matter of weeks, no matter what way you choose to study.

Making the grade in teaching, research and skills development

We’re proud of our business school’s research contributions, elements of which have been recognised as ‘world-leading’ and ‘internationally important’ in the latest Research Excellence Framework (2021), recognising the work of our academics as leaders in their fields.

Our teaching, inclusiveness, employability and facilities all make the grade globally too, with five stars in the QS World University Rankings 2023. It is the highest a university can be rated in these areas and a key acknowledgement of our commitment to progressing the careers of students worldwide.

Business graduates from Sunderland have secured roles in organisations such as Facebook, Microsoft, Sage, HSBC, IBM, Enterprise, Nissan, Accenture, Procter & Gamble, Merck & Co, Barclays, Nissan, Marriott Hotels, Viacom 18, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Adidas.

What will you study?

This online MBA Hospitality programme will develop your capacity to lead and manage in hospitality settings, equipping you with an understanding of the complexity of the service sector including ownership and expansion. You will learn about hospitality operations including accommodation, food and beverage, as well as production and consumption and how optimising these can contribute to business success.

You will also develop a broader capacity to lead and manage in other key areas of business environments.

Key knowledge and skills taught on this course:

Ownership and strategic expansion in hospitality
Current hospitality industry practices and trends
International trade
Global corporate strategy
Operations management
Financial management
Organisational behaviour and cultural change
Big data analytics
International marketing

A university with global reach and equipped with the expertise to educate the world’s online learners

The University of Sunderland has been educating students across the globe for over 40 years and our international perspective is brought to life through our campus locations in Hong Kong, Sunderland and London, and partnerships spanning the globe including in the Caribbean, Greece, Kenya, Malaysia, Lanka, Oman, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tashkent and Vietnam. We’re proud of our work developing diversity among our learners, who in turn benefit from collaborating and learning together, while building their own international professional networks.

We have a high percentage of international students and have distance learning students from all corners of the globe. We’re also a leader for widening participation in the UK and are 7th in the UK for social inclusion (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024)

Our expertise, our cutting-edge technology and our vast experience delivering excellent online learning experiences to global students is key to what sets the University of Sunderland and our online MBA with Hospitality Management apart.

Admission requirements

Applicants must be of age 19 and above and should have or be about to complete:

At least a UK 2.2 undergraduate degree plus a minimum of two years’ relevant work experience

A UK master’s degree (or international equivalent) plus a minimum of two years’ relevant work experience

A third-class honours degree or an ordinary degree (without honours) or UK equivalent professional qualification with a minimum of three years’ appropriate work experience

Applicants who do not hold a recognised degree will be asked to provide evidence which demonstrates a minimum of three years’ relevant organisational experience

The work experience must be at a graduate level, in either a managerial or professional capacity which may include voluntary work, placements, internships, or project management

Fees

Total course fees: £9,146
Per 15-credit module fee: £762

If you are based in the UK, you may be eligible for a government-backed postgraduate loan to cover the full costs of the course.

In addition, if you have successfully completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Sunderland, you are eligible for a 10% tuition fees reduction on our postgraduate programmes.

You pay tuition fees for each module taken, either module-by-module or in full at the start of your course.

If you pay module-by-module, you will pay in instalments of £762.

Modules

Developing Skills for Business Leadership

Becoming self-aware, reflecting and appreciating personal strengths and weaknesses supports self-development and leads to skills improvement. Pivotal to successful and effective management and leadership is an appreciation that professionals have different approaches to their work, originating from a range of diverse personality traits, attributes and beliefs. This module helps you to understand these and how they are determinants of an individual’s effectiveness and enables you to develop and enhance your ability to manage and lead others.

Hospitality Management

This module overviews the global hospitality industry and covers key issues around its structural complexity, particularly in terms of ownership, and employment practices. Its strategic expansion, an integral component, is thoroughly analysed and the operational functions of hospitality such as accommodation, food and beverage are also covered. It also addresses the characteristics of hospitality production and consumption, including issues such as branding, organisation and consumer behaviour.

Current Practices in the Hospitality Sector

International Trade

Walking into a supermarket and finding bananas and coffee from South America, wine from California and New Zealand and cocoa from Nigeria is a result of international trade. This module will provide you with an understanding of how countries expand their markets for both goods and services that otherwise may not have been available domestically. It will explore how international trade leads to greater competition and competitive pricing and how this affects the consumer. You will understand the flow of goods and services across international boundaries from supply and demand factors, economic integration, and policy variables.

Financial Management and Control

This module explains how to measure and compare financial performance and use knowledge of an entity’s cost in operational and strategic management. It explores cost management and analysis, costing methods and control, strategic planning, decision making and budgeting. You will consider budgetary preparation and financial control, develop an understanding of how to appraise investment opportunities and make business financing decisions and of the role of working capital.

Global Corporate Strategy

Business is increasingly becoming global. The global view relates not only to an assessment of competitors but also the geographic and demographic arenas in which they function. This module examines key contemporary issues surrounding international and global strategic management. A framework will be established to enable you to understand the strategic management and strategic leadership processes involved in organisations. In this context, strategy can only be analysed and understood when the various stakeholders and their complex relationships are considered as part of the management of multinational enterprises (MNEs). This is achieved by examining the design of strategic management and leadership processes and how strategic decisions affect the functioning of organisations operating in both domestic and international markets.

Operations Management

Operations management is the administration of business practices designed to establish the highest level of efficiency within an organisation. You will learn how to focus on the conversion of materials and labour into goods and services as effectively and efficiently as possible in order to maximise profit. You will also gain an understanding of the theory and practice behind the balancing of costs with revenue in order to achieve the highest possible operating profit.

Marketing in a Digitally Connected World

Against a backdrop of new technologies and a proliferation of fast developing marketing channels, effective marketing requires an understanding and ability to design complex solutions that engage effectively with the customer journey. This module explores current marketing theory and how offline and online technologies interact with customers through a myriad of touchpoints. Customers are considered from a range of market perspectives and the application of holistic marketing approaches as a means of supporting ‘needs satisfaction’ and attaining customer loyalty is explored.

Organisational Behaviour and Cultural Change

Organisational behaviour is the study of human behaviour in organisational settings, exploring the interface between human behaviour and the organisation, and the organisation itself. A variety of factors influence organisational behaviour, including structure, policies, processes and management. You will gain knowledge of how companies can manage and lead change effectively, and by understanding organisational behaviour you will support your personal development and ability to set the standard for accepting, negotiating, and implementing change.

Global Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics

This module develops critical insights into corporate social and environmental responsibility. Corporations have a clear ability to influence and shape the environment, our choices as consumers, the rules of government and the quality of our working lives. In recognition of this power there have been increasing calls for corporate social responsibility at national and international levels. The module examines contemporary themes using case studies to illustrate the complex relationship between business and society and the alternative frameworks through which the subject can be considered. It explores the issues of accountability and regulation and considers alternative forms of organising such as co-operatives and partnerships in order to question whether these structures enable organisations to engage with the broader aims of corporate social and environmental responsibility.

Big Data in Organisations

In this module you will investigate techniques that organisations use for performing simple analysis of data for a variety of business applications. You will develop an understanding of the types of data used in business, the differences between structured and unstructured data and how tools can be used to represent and analyse different types of data, including big data, in various contexts.
You will gain an appreciation of how data analytics can enhance business processes, for improved decision making in marketing, customer relationships, sales and forecasting. You will also learn how to apply simple analytical techniques to present information using data visualisation tools.

Enterprise and Entrepreneurship

Enterprise and entrepreneurial skills are highly valued by employers and by enterprising individuals who are interested in starting a new business or in exploiting a unique business idea. This module enables you to seize opportunities, mitigate risks, be creative and develop problem solving skills. It provides you with the knowledge and understanding to drive your business ideas forward and overcome hurdles with the aim of successfully launching new business ventures.