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Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration

This qualification will enable you to make a real difference within your management practice through active use of frameworks, theories and tools. It will help you to develop a good grounding in the theory and practice of managing and leading, covering the core functions and disciplines of management and helping you make the connections between them. It also provides a framework for a year-long process of professional development. You'll be challenged to actively engage with a wide variety of ideas and develop a repertoire of techniques and approaches best suited to your own situation and management context.

Key features of the course

  • Helps you select and adapt techniques and approaches appropriate to your own situation, and to reflect critically on your own and others’ practice
  • Explores diverse perspectives and approaches in different organisational, cultural and global contexts
  • Increases your ability to work confidently across sectoral and national boundaries
  • Enhances your ability to plan and implement change which will have real impact within your own organisational context.

This certificate is the first stage of our triple-accredited MBA qualification. 

Certificate

Course code
C66
Credits

Credits

  • Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
  • One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
  • You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
  • For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.
60
How long it takes
6-12 months
Read more about how long it takes
Study method
Distance learning
Find out more in Why the OU?
Course cost
See Fees and funding
Entry requirements

Find out more about entry requirements.

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Course details

Modules

To gain this qualification, you need 60 credits from both of the following:

Compulsory modules Credits Next start
Managing in a changing world (B870)

This module will encourage you to develop, as well as challenge, your current knowledge and skills in order to deal with contemporary and rapidly changing areas of management and marketing.

See full description

Register
 30 01 May 2021
Creating and sustaining value (B872)

Critically explore the ways organisations create, sustain and expand value in an increasingly complex and dynamic business environment.

See full description

Register
 30 01 May 2021

You should note that the University’s unique study rule applies to this qualification. This means that you must include at least 20 credits from OU modules that have not been counted in any other OU qualification that has previously been awarded to you.

Learning outcomes, teaching and assessment

The learning outcomes of this qualification are described in four areas:

  • Knowledge and understanding
  • Cognitive skills
  • Practical and professional skills
  • Key skills
Read more detailed information about the learning outcomes.

Credit transfer

If you’ve successfully completed some relevant postgraduate study elsewhere, you might be able to count it towards this qualification, reducing the number of modules you need to study. You should apply for credit transfer as soon as possible, before you register for your first module. For more details and an application form, visit our Credit Transfer website.

On completion

On successful completion of the required module you can be awarded a Postgraduate Certificate of Business Administration entitling you to use the letters PG Cert Bus Admin (Open) after your name.

Recognition in your country

If you intend to use your Open University qualifications to seek work or undertake further study outside the UK, we recommend checking whether your intended qualification will meet local requirements for your chosen career. Read recognition in my country.

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the qualification-specific regulations below and the academic regulations that are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website. 

We regularly review our curriculum; therefore, the qualification described on this page – including its availability, its structure, and available modules – may change over time. If we make changes to this qualification, we’ll update this page as soon as possible. Once you’ve registered or are studying this qualification, where practicable, we’ll inform you in good time of any upcoming changes. If you’d like to know more about the circumstances in which the University might make changes to the curriculum, see our Academic Regulations or contact us. This description was last updated on 17 March 2020.

Entry requirements

You will need a minimum of three years’ experience in a managerial, professional or technical role, so that you have a practical business base on which to build your learning.

Also depending on your previous qualifications, you can start this postgraduate certificate if you hold either of the following:

– an honours degree awarded by a recognised UK university, or equivalent. Various higher education and professional qualifications are considered equivalent to an honours degree. Please contact us if you hold a qualification that you believe is an equivalent level to a UK degree, to ensure that it meets the requirements for admission.

– our Professional Certificate in Management (S01) (previously coded C31). Both are now discontinued.

If you have the equivalent of a UK bachelors degree without honours you may be permitted to progress on to the course by successfully completing Managing 1: organisations and people (B628). Alternatively if you have an official Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score of 640 or above, and the equivalent of a UK undergraduate degree, you will be allowed to progress directly on to this postgraduate certificate. If you think either of these possibilities may apply to you, please speak to an adviser.

Your spoken and written English must be of an adequate standard for postgraduate study. If English is not your first language, we recommend that you will need a minimum score of 6.5 under the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Please see their website for details.

The modules that you study for this certificate are also compulsory modules in both the MBA (F61) and Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (E80). It is possible to claim the certificate, the diploma and the MBA.

How long it takes

The minimum time to complete this qualification is six months by studying both 30-credit modules at the same time. Please note to complete within six months, you will need to be able to devote 20-25 hours a week to your studies.

Career relevance

The Open University Business School is one of an elite group of schools worldwide accredited by the three leading international accrediting bodies – AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS – hallmarks of quality of teaching, learning materials and qualification impact. It is home to almost 27,000 successful MBA graduates representing 119 countries.

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This certificate is designed for professionals from a wide range of contexts and backgrounds who need actively to engage with the challenges of twenty-first century management. It will enable you to develop your management skills and knowledge of management frameworks, theories and tools and to use these appropriately in order to make a real difference in your own practice.

Careers and Employability Services have more information on how OU study can improve your employability.