Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MSc)

University of Warwick

Join the exciting Innovation and Entrepreneurship MSc, to learn the mind-set, tools and techniques to turn your ideas into a successful business. The Warwick Manufacturing Group has expertly designed this programme for entrepreneurs who want to establish their own business.

Course Overview

Designed for entrepreneurs, this course will allow you to apply best practice approaches to your business proposals to maximise chances of success. It’s a practical course, covering the process from generating new business ideas, developing and refining ideas, and designing the infrastructure, right through to launching the business. You’ll focus on how innovation can be exploited in technological and business contexts, to increase success for new product or services based businesses. You’ll cover themes such as business modelling, sales, starting a new business, innovation, leadership and financial analysis. Throughout your dissertation, you will rigorously develop your own business idea, so that by the end of the course you’ll be in a strong position to launch your own business.

Teaching

This course has two components – a taught component and a research component (dissertation) each accounting for 50% of your time and effort.

For the taught component, we blend lectures with seminars, syndicate exercises, simulations, and case studies. Each module is delivered intensively over one full week or two half weeks, and classes are deliberately kept small to encourage interaction. Larger scale lectures are delivered for some modules and are backed up by seminar and syndicate activities.

Our module leaders have extensive industry experience. Guest speakers from industry also contribute regularly, bringing real-world insight into your learning experience.

Assessment

At the end of each module, you will be given a Post Module Assignment (PMA) based on the learning objectives of that module. This is a piece of assessed written work which should take around 60 hours to complete. Most modules also have some in-module assessed work.

For the research component, each student undertakes a major individual project, which will develop your research and analytical skills and enable you to specialise. This project accounts for 50% of your overall credits and is submitted in the form of a dissertation of approximately 20,000 words, followed by an oral examination or viva at the end of the year.

Careers

Innovation and Entrepreneurship graduates will typically start their own business, and we’ve seen them become successful in a wide range of sectors including: food and drink, music, electrical manufacturing, digital education, oil and gas, outsourcing, consultancy, fashion, textiles, luxury goods and jewellery, logistics, and finance.

Being an entrepreneur is not just about making money, but creating value to help to improve people’s lives. Many of our graduates have developed social enterprises, such as housing projects in refugee camps, food distribution for the needy, digital applications for those with specific learning needs, and various community enterprise programmes.

The skills gained on this course are also extremely valuable for existing businesses, especially where there is interest in moving into new product or service areas.