Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship MSc
About this course
The MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship course has been designed for individuals with an entrepreneurial mind-set. It is open to students from any academic discipline who are looking to set up their own business, become future entrepreneurs or those looking to take over their family business. This course combines rigorous academic theory with the practical skills, hands-on experience and valuable networks you need to make your business a success.
The course is designed to stimulate the entrepreneurial ethos of individuals and develop their skills and capabilities to lead and direct start-ups. Study throughout your first two semesters will immerse you in an entrepreneur's journey and introduce you to the networks and investment opportunities you will need to get your ideas off the ground. This will culminate in a large-scale final project.
In your final semester you’ll undertake the Business Model and Entrepreneurship Project, which enables you to kick-start your venture and find opportunities to finance for growing it to a sustainable one.
What you’ll gain from this degree?
- through the Business Model and Entrepreneurship Project you will have the opportunity to set up and establish your own enterprise and be mentored by experts in the field, or perhaps develop ideas for a family business with which you are involved already. You will have the opportunity to pitch directly to venture capital investors and business angels with the opportunity to raise funding or further collaborations.
- during the course your professional and business networks will be enriched by an international experience, following a ‘young’ entrepreneurial firm, experiencing directly the entrepreneurial journey.
- the course provides you a unique seed fund and access to the entrepreneurial community, presenting you with connections to experts, entrepreneurs, business angels and capitalists.
- will have access to NTU Enterprise, a purpose built centre dedicated to helping turn business ideas into reality., a purpose built centre dedicated to helping turn business ideas into reality.
- develop management skills to explore new venture opportunities and advance participants’ ideas to feasible enterprises.
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You will be allocated an Academic Mentor at the beginning of the academic year and you will meet with them regularly throughout the year. Academic Mentors help you make the most of your time at NBS. -
You will have access to NTU Enterprise, a purpose built centre dedicated to helping turn business ideas into reality. -
92% of MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship postgraduate students are satisfied with the quality of their course (PTES, 2024). -
NBS is part of the 1% of business schools worldwide to have EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA accreditation.
What you’ll study
This course aims to stimulate the entrepreneurial ethos of individuals and develop their skills and capabilities to lead and direct start-ups. This is done in four phases:
- Phase 1: developing and screening your business ideas - your business ideas will be challenged by your peers and other business colleagues to see if they are sustainable and have the potential value in the current global climate. It will encourage you to plan ahead and anticipate any changes within your market so you are prepared to face them.
- Phase 2: creating your offer and finding opportunities - you will define your value proposition and position it within the market against competitors and the current market conditions. This will also give you the opportunity to ‘hire’ your fellow classmates who ideas do not pass this stage to help develop yours.
- Phase 3: utilise global market conditions - your skills in innovation and core competencies will be advanced to face international challenges and gain confidence to deal with diverse cultures and attitudes.
- Phase 4: convincing markets and investors - here you will be pitching your business idea to venture capitalists and other business centres such as Wave Venture and 3i, to try to secure funding for your business idea to start to develop and grow it. You will have the opportunity to seek advice on internationalising your own concepts from experts and contacts that the course team will introduce you to.
This entrepreneurial journey exposes you to the networks and investment opportunities you will need to get your ideas off the ground, and there is even the chance to access seed funding directly from the Business School.
At NBS you can create a personalised learning experience, giving you a unique Masters degree that equips you with the skills you'll need, for the career you want. Each of the modules will be delivered over a four week period, with teaching delivered in three weeks and the fourth week left clear for assessment work. This enables you to focus on one subject at a time, whilst allowing time for preparation and assessment work.
- Programme overview
- Semester one
- Semester two
- Semester three
- Ongoing learning/professional development
- Working with industry
Semester one modules
- Enterprise Context and Business Values
- Entrepreneurial Ethos: Leadership, People & Team Management
- Marketing and Customer Thinking
Semester two modules
- Uncap Creativity & Innovation
- Value Chain: Partnerships & Resources
- Internationalisation Consultancy Project
Semester three
Business Model and Entrepreneurship Project (40 credits)
Semester one
Enterprise Context and Business Values (20 credits)
This module will help you to critically apply knowledge, tools and techniques to resolve issues in new and diverse situations within the entrepreneurship discipline. You will be able to apply knowledge and understanding to compete for opportunities and transform them to viable concepts and business modules.
Entrepreneurial Ethos: Leadership, People & Team Management (20 credits)
On this module, you will be able to stimulate your entrepreneurial ethos and develop your management skills and capabilities to lead and direct start-ups.
Marketing and Customer Thinking (20 credits)
This module will help articulate a critical understanding of the contemporary issues , theories and conceptual frameworks used to explain and guide conventional marketing activities in organisations. More specifically, you will be introduced to the core marketing functions and develop an understanding of the key concepts, frameworks and models encountered in marketing.
Semester two
Uncap Creativity & Innovation (20 credits)
This module provides an opportunity for you to understand how to map and analyse value chains, as well as providing tools and ideas to improve value chains and to design alternative structures of a value chain.
Value Chains: Partnerships & Resources (20 credits)
This module will provide you with the mental tools that help entrepreneurs and managers orchestrate innovation activities throughout value networks. It describes the role of innovation within current complex markets and provides a strategic framework for development and protection of offers that are valued by the market and customer.
Internationalisation Consultancy project (20 credits)
On this module, you will have the opportunity to experience international entrepreneurial decision making by working intensively for a period of four weeks on a business case for ‘going global’ in a different country and market.
Semester three
Business Model and Entrepreneurship Project (40 credits)
Business Model and Entrepreneurship Project is the culmination of the MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship course and stages the ambition to kick-start your venture and find opportunities to finance for growing it to a sustainable one. The experience allows you to channel the skills, knowledge and inquisitiveness you have acquired in the module to develop your own business idea into an investment ready opportunity. At the end of the module you will be able to pitch and defend your proposition in front of business angels and potential investors. During this project a selection of students will compete to participate at the European Innovation Academy Challenge and present their propositions to mentors and investors from the Silicon Valley.
Ongoing learning
Throughout the year you will also study the following modules which will help you understand how to manage your own continuous personal and professional development (PPD).
Professional Practice (10 credits)
The purpose of the module is to increase your understanding of your own personal and professional development needs to enhance your business acumen and improve your employability. The module utilises a series of taught sessions to help you explore the human side of enterprise and deploys a series of diagnostics tests to help you evaluate yourself and develop an individual action plan. It will combine teaching with individual and group mentoring to help you execute your plan. The module also promotes engagement with internal and external workshops, lectures, experiential learning opportunities and extra-curricular events to help you expand your knowledge and skills, whilst challenging your attitudes and behaviours. You will gain a deeper understanding of the importance of continuous professional development from the perspective of professional bodies, such as the CMI, CIM, APM and SPE.
Customer Insight through Marketing Research (10 credits)
The aim of this module is to develop your skills as an effective decision maker - organisations require insight to make effective decisions and effective marketing research has been an integral part of how decision makers in organisations understand consumers and market dynamics; and as an effective academic - philosophical debates and methodological issues will be explored as a foundation to understanding marketing research.
Professional development
Beyond your core curriculum and comprehensive career support, you'll have access to a vibrant CPD programme. This includes your Personal Development Week, Global Responsibility Week, and events and workshops including our Business Leaders’ Lecture Series. You'll also have the chance to participate in national and international business challenges, industry talks, field trips, and company visits. We encourage you to get involved in sports, clubs, societies, volunteering, and apply for roles like course rep or student ambassador. These opportunities are designed to enhance your experience, help you thrive in the job market, and support your personal growth.
NTU Enterprise
NTU Enterprise is Nottingham Trent University's purpose-built Centre for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise. They help turn business ideas into a reality through their support network, mentoring and training programmes. So if you have a business idea or even just want to go freelance, get in touch and see how they can help you. Visit NTU Enterprise for further information.
Societies
As an Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship student you will have the opportunity to join many different societies across the University to share ideas and make new friends. One which may appeal to you as an entrepreneurship student is NTU Entrepreneurs Club.
Our course in parallel gives you the opportunity to prove yourselves as highly skilled professionals and influential leader, which are invaluable skills for any future career path. Examples of this activity include:
- The International Experience module, where you will travel for two weeks to a partner institution in Europe to provide real-time advice in relation to internationalisation and new market entry strategies to local start-ups.
- Collaboration with BioCity, the largest Biotechnology Incubator in the UK, to design a marketing strategy for some of their activities.
- The design and participation of a symposium about social entrepreneurship and sustainable future development.
We regularly review and update our course content based on student and employer feedback, ensuring that all of our courses remain current and relevant. This may result in changes to module content or module availability in future years.
Don’t just take our word for it, hear from our students themselves
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How you're taught
Teaching and Learning
Nottingham Business School adopts a distinctive approach to the design of student learning opportunities. Your learning is structured around theory, practice, experience & observation, and reflection & improvement. At each level (course, module and session), you will study different theories, concepts and approaches and be given opportunities to apply these in a range of practical settings. The aim is to enhance your understanding through the direct experience of business, where you will have opportunities to observe business practices and behaviours (including your own) and analyse these using theoretical knowledge. It is our intention that by reflecting on these experiences, you will be able to use these theories to guide your actions and decisions in a business context or even consider how a theory itself might be improved. In this way, we aim to enhance the quality of your learning.
Professional Mentors
Throughout your studies the students will be having sessions with Professional Mentors who will be helping you to improve all the skills you need to become a successful entrepreneur. They will help you with negotiation skills, how to pitch and present to different groups of people and more importantly how to generate your personal brand. They will support you in developing and enhancing the qualities and transferable skills necessary for your studies, career progression, professional and personal development.
Assessments
A range of assessment methods are used across the course, the choice of which reflects the needs and demands of the different types of module. Some modules will assess the ability to work collaboratively in a team and others will assess individual capability. Types of assessment will range from examinations to group presentations including essays, reports, financial analyses, literature reviews and research based projects.
The interactive nature of the taught sessions offers opportunities to gain feedback on your performance before being formally assessed and increasing use is made of eLearning to further support the feedback process.
Working with Industry
During your first semester you will have the opportunity to work in collaboration with BioCity - the largest biotech incubator in the UK – providing advice for their operations.
In-sessional English language support
In-sessional English language classes are offered to international students at no extra cost. The classes aim to provide focused support in the skills you need in order to develop your English in your subject area.
Further information please contact the Nottingham Language Centre based in the Djanogly building on City Campus:
Tel: +44 (0)115 848 6156 | Email: englishsupport@ntu.ac.uk | Website: www.ntu.ac.uk/nlc
Personalisation
We know our postgraduate students are a diverse group, with different levels of academic knowledge in their chosen area of study, different cultural and educational backgrounds, and varying levels of personal and professional skills and competencies.
At NBS we strive to ensure that these two motivating factors are nurtured and therefore supported. Our students are encouraged to practice and develop the skills and competencies required to critically reflect on their learning, and on their ability to apply this learning to their studies and to real world complex issues within the workplace. Through a series of curricula and extra-curricular initiatives, strengthened by tailored academic mentor support, NBS provides all our postgraduate students with the ability to participate in a range of challenging and unique activities, projects, events and experiences to enable our students to succeed in a competitive and dynamic global environment.
Careers and employability
You’ll develop a wide range of skills and abilities, enhancing your entrepreneurial skills and therefore your employability. You’ll be able to:
- become an entrepreneur starting your own venture
- identify career opportunities towards an entrepreneurial role
- develop the skills to gain accelerated promotion in your chosen profession
- lead change as an entrepreneur inside a larger organisation
- carry out consultancy work in a wide range of sectors, e.g. manufacturing, services, retailing
- advise other entrepreneurs
- undertake further study within the field of entrepreneurship.
From the last cohort three students have set up their own businesses, one student is employed in Switzerland and the remaining students are taking over areas within their family businesses.
Employability Team
We have a dedicated Employability Team who not only help you during your time with us but also following graduation, they’ll continue to support you by providing a number of services that will help kick-start your career.
Our Employability Team offer a wide range of support from one-to-one appointments with our specially trained consultants, to arranging recruitment fairs and skill building workshops.
Services they provide include:
- Finding placements, internships and part-time work
- Helping you to pursue self-employment
- Advice on taking gap years and time out
- Information and help on getting into volunteering
- Providing advice on further study.
As a student you will have access to our virtual learning environment, where you will be able to get in touch with our Employability team for CV support, application, interview and job hunting advice, career ideas and employer videos.
You can visit the Employability Team on your local campus every day during term time. They are also open outside of term time too, except on University closure days. So drop in, say hello, and get help with quick enquiries or book an appointment with a careers consultant from your school.
Re:search Re:imagined
To us, research is about more than writing papers and proposing new ideas. By daring to think differently, we’re disrupting the research landscape and finding the answers to the questions that really matter. From ethics, innovation and entrepreneurship to behavioural science, we’re inspiring the brightest minds to rise up and find solutions to some of the most significant global challenges facing society.
Find out more: ntu.ac.uk/research
Campus and facilities
You’ll mainly be studying in our brand-new Postgraduate Centre, at the heart of our vibrant City Campus. Designed to support collaborative study, there’s a range of accessible teaching spaces, state-of-the-art technology, breakout areas, quiet work booths and a communal café. You can access dedicated market research reporting platforms and digital resources (e.g. Mintel, Passport, SPSS, and Adobe Creative Cloud) and a room equipped with Bloomberg terminals, which enables you to delve into industry-leading data, news and analytics.
NTU’s City Campus has everything you’ll need to keep occupied between lectures. As well as the Boots Library and its beautiful roof garden, there’s our superb Students’ Union building and two-storey, 100-station gym; a whole host of cafés, bars, restaurants and food outlets catering to every taste; our much-loved Global Lounge; performance and rehearsal spaces for musicians; and so much more!
If that’s not enough, just take a few steps off campus, and you’ll find yourself in the beating heart of Nottingham — one of the UK’s top 10 student cities, and one of the top 25 in all of Europe. It’s a city stuffed with history, culture, and well-kept secrets to discover at your leisure: enjoy lush green spaces, galleries, hidden cinemas and vintage shopping by day, and an acclaimed food, drink and social scene by night. For more details, why not take a Virtual Tour?
Entry requirements
UK students
You will need an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK undergraduate honours degree (2.2 or above).
Additional requirements for UK students
- All applicants will be required to demonstrate a commitment to the subject they wish to study and should demonstrate how their chosen programme of study will benefit them in their future career.
- One academic reference is required.
Other qualifications and experience
We welcome applications from students with non-standard qualifications and learning backgrounds and work experience. We consider credit transfer, vocational and professional qualifications, and any work or life experience you may have.
You can view our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy which outlines the process and options available, such as recognising experiential learning and credit transfer.
Getting in touch
If you need more help or information, get in touch through our enquiry form.
International students
You will need an undergraduate degree equivalent to a UK undergraduate honours degree (2.2 or above).
We accept equivalent qualifications from all over the world. Please check your international entry requirements by country.
English language requirements: See our English language requirements page for requirements for your subject and information on alternative tests and Pre-sessional English.
Additional requirements for international students
- All applicants will be required to demonstrate a commitment to the subject they wish to study and should demonstrate how their chosen programme of study will benefit them in their future career.
- One academic reference.
Postgraduate preparation courses (Pre-Masters)
If you need help achieving the academic entry requirements, we offer a Pre-Masters course for this degree. The course is offered through our partner Nottingham Trent International College (NTIC) based on our City Campus.
English language requirements
View our English language requirements for all courses, including alternative English language tests and country qualifications accepted by the University.
If you need help achieving the language requirements, we offer a Pre-Sessional English for Academic Purposes course on our City campus which is an intensive preparation course for academic study at NTU.
Other qualifications and experience
We welcome applications from students with non-standard qualifications and learning backgrounds and work experience. We consider credit transfer, vocational and professional qualifications, and any work or life experience you may have.
You can view our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy which outlines the process and options available, such as recognising experiential learning and credit transfer.
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Getting in touch
If you need advice about studying at NTU as an international student or how to apply, our international webpages are a great place to start. If you have any questions about your study options, your international qualifications, experience, grades or other results, please get in touch through our enquiry form. Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world.
Policies
We strive to make our admissions procedures as fair and clear as possible. To find out more about how we make offers, visit our admissions policies page.
