International Technological University
Program Prospectus
Professional Certificate in Business Management (PCBM)
2008 Entry
All teaching Professors from Bristol Business School, UWE-Bristol
In Collaboration with:
Canadian Entrepreneur College hosts the entire program
1. THE PROGRAM
The PCBM program consists of six taught courses in English to be delivered in either block (two months) or over the course of an academic year. The block route takes place during the summer (June-August). Each course requires 20 hours of study per week, totalling 120 hours to complete the program requirement. Every professor will deliver, in the form of lecture, their respective courses live via webcam between Monday and Friday, total 10 hrs followed by workshop activities, totalling 10 hrs. This group of students will take their final exams in July/August and will receive their certificate in time for University entrance in September. The second route is to register for twelve months, participating in the lectures in the summer but complete the workshops component over one year through electronic contact with course professors. This group of students will take their final exams twelve months after their initial registration.
Successful candidates who complete the program and satisfy the examiners will be awarded the Professional Certificate in Business Management, issued by International Technological University, London. The Canadian Diploma Centre, Toronto, will host the program and professors from Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, will perform all the academic activities.
2. PROGRAM OBJECTIVE
The objective of this program is to equip potential candidates with the ability to understand and apply those essential business management techniques that are pertinent both internal and external environments of international business enterprises. The program will enable successful candidates to enter most competitive universities around the world and challenge their routes to a successful outcome. The long-term objective is to build capacity, including essential educational infrastructure for the teaching and training of the future executive business managers, undergraduate and postgraduate pathways.
3. PROGRAM STRUCTURE
The structure of the program is devised to maintain a vigorous approach in teaching and learning of some core courses in business and management disciplines with a particular emphasis on the most contemporary subjects currently taught in western universities and colleges.
ITU-01CBM Accounting & Finance
ITU-02CBM Economics
ITU-03CBM Business Statistics
ITU-04 CBM Principles of Marketing
ITU-05 CBM Management of Business Technology
ITU-06 CBM Globalization and Strategic Management
3.4 Academic Certificate
Upon successful completion of the program, students will be awarded a Professional Certificate in Business Management issued by International Technological University, London.
( ITU certificates are recognized by British Council and known to all top academia across the world)
3.1 Course Material
All courses reflect the middle-to-upper business and management entry requirements of the North American and European Universities. The program is designed to meet those needs by producing well-rounded graduates in business and management; and yet by structure it is flexible enough to respond to essential changes that may occur.
Relevant course material including a comprehensive course handbook, PowerPoint slides, relevant case studies, DVD and other aided teaching supplements will be provided to each registered student on the program. Students have to purchase relevant course textbook, where they study. However, in case of difficulty of access to textbooks, the Centre will purchase and dispatch the same but will invoice the student accordingly.
3.2 Final Exams (60% of final mark)
Each course contains a mandatory final exam, conducted under controlled format, the content of which will be based upon material studied during the program. Students will be given choice of questions to be answered in an exam setting over two-hour duration. The exam scripts will be marked by course professor and verified by program director. The purpose of the examination is to assess the scope and depth of knowledge gained by students from the program.
3.3 Workshop Activities (40% of final mark)
The aim of workshop is to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of each topic covered in every course taught in this program. All the courses contain compulsory workshop activities, which may comprise of one or more of the following: computer work, assignments, short answer questions, etc. Each topic will contain three questions in order of easy, medium, advanced levels, which must be attempted by students and marked by relevant course professor. All students who submit their answers to workshop questions will receive feedback from the course professor. Workshop activities for each course carry 40 percent of final marks in each course with the remaining 60 percent from the final exam
3.4 Academic Certificate
Upon successful completion of the program, students will be awarded a Professional Certificate in Business Management issued by International Technological University, London.
3.5 Referral
Those students who fail any component of a course will be given a second opportunity to satisfy the relevant course examiner. If a student fails both the workshop and final exam components of a course, that student will be required to repeat that course in the following year.
4. PEDAGOGIC APPROACH
Method of teaching is via live webcam between students and course professors, based on the ‘Series Format’. In this format each course is taught as an intensive course over one week including workshops (except for twelve months entry) and, when a particular course is being taught, no other course is taught at the same time. Thus, for example, no other course is taught when ITU-03CBM is being taught, and teaching of the next module begins only after teaching of ITU-03CBM is completed, and so on. Thus, the pedagogic approach is focused and intensive rather than diffused and tending to be amorphous as in the conventional pedagogic approach.
Workshops are integral part of the PCBM program. Each course contains compulsory workshop activities, three questions per topic (easy, medium and advance questions) that must be attempted by student and marked by course professor. All students who submit their answers to workshop questions will receive feedback from the course professor.
5. QUALITY CONTROL
The International Technological University (ITU), provider of this program, takes the view that a program such as this is of little or no consequence if it does not aggressively aspire to achieve the high quality standards of pre-eminent universities and business schools of North American and Western European. The achievement and maintenance of such standards must therefore be a priority, not to be compromised under any circumstances. Accordingly, a high standard is maintained through the services of Program Director and ITU Advisory Board who may make the following strategic interventions:
- Scrutiny, revision if necessary, and validation of the question papers for written examination on the courses of the Program to make sure that they are of high quality standard in terms of rigour.
- Presiding over the teaching mode to evaluate both scope and depth of academic information delivered by professors and gained by students from the Program, and to assess how their knowledge and skills are compared with those of their counterparts graduating from a middle/top ranking North American and West European university or business school.
- Moderation of marks awarded to students, if deemed necessary to do so.
6. EVALUATION OF STUDENTS’ ERFORMANCE
The overall pass mark for each course is 50%. Marks scored by each candidate for written examination (60%) and workshop activities (40%) are combined to arrive at the final mark for each course. For example, suppose that a student scores 64 marks out of a maximum of 100 marks in the written examination of course ITU-04CBM, and that the same student scores 73% in its workshop. The final mark scored by that student in ITU-04 CBM is calculated as:
[(64 x 60) + (73 x 40)]/100 = 68%.
Note: Minimum pass marks for written examination and workshop components are 30% and 20% respectively.
7. ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
This program is aimed at individuals who aspire to the challenges, rewards opportunities that can be gained from entering highly competitive academic institutions in the western world or intend to either start or continue work as a junior manager in business and industrial enterprises or even in government ministries and agencies.
The minimum entry requirement is that the applicant should already have received his or her high school diploma in any branch of the Sciences, Arts, or Social Sciences and scored not less than 50% over-all marks in the final examination. Higher qualifications and relevant work experience gained from an enterprise or organization might be an advantage. All applicants must forward the following documents for acceptance by Thursday May 15, 2008:-
- Completed application form
- Two passport size photos
- A copy of final academic certificate
- A reference letter from either place of work or an academic institution
- Bankers draft of CAN$100 for application processing fee
- The score of 80 in TOEFL or equivalent as a proof of English language competency
Note: Potential candidates who may wish to acquire further competencies in English language may register for relevant English course with Canadian Diploma Centre, see Correspondence below.
8 RULES AND REGULATIONS
The conventions and general rules and regulations of the International Technological University that are in force and govern the conduct of students of that university also govern the conduct of students who register for this PCBM Program.
9. CORRESPONDENCE
All academic queries of the program should be addressed to:
Dr. Sahand Panah
England
Tel: +44 (0)117 328 3454
All correspondence on admission and request for further information should be addressed to:
Mr. Bahman Roudgarnia
Canadian Entrepreneurial College
7711 Yonge St. # 203
Thornhill ON. L3T 2C4
Canada
Tel: +1 (0) 416 409 4081
E-mail: info@canadiandiploma.com
10. PROGRAM DELIVERY
Program commencement date: July 2008
Global live teaching time: 15:00 17:00 GMT, London
Week 1 Accounting & Finance
Week 2: Economics
Week 3: Business Statistics
Week 4 Principles of Marketing
Week 5: Management of Business Technology
Week 6 Globalization & Strategic Management
Week 7 Revision Week
Week 8: Final Exams
Accounting & Finance (ITU-01 CBM)
Overview
Good financial management can be an important source of competitive advantage. This course focuses on the identifications of fundamental financial issues facing business organizations. It enables students to understand and appreciate the importance of sound financial management through reporting of profit, loss, cash flows and balance sheet within modern business organizations. Furthermore, the course develops students’ ability to synthesise fundamental accounting and financial concepts and to evaluate the best possible source ways to raise and invest capital in both the short and long term that are major themes of today’s business finance. By examining real case scenarios students will develop necessary skills to evaluate those investment projects that are available to the firm and to evaluate the best method of payment for investment projects.
Course Content
Financial Accounting
- Conceptual foundations
- Income statement and statement of retained earnings
- Balance sheet
- Statement of cash flows
- Financial statement analysis
- Accounting cycle
- Depreciation
Managerial Accounting
- Cost concepts
- Cost, volume and profit analysis
- Budgeting
- Non-routine decision making
- Costing systems
- Product
- Standard
- Activities based
Time Value of Money
Capital Budgeting
Price/earnings and Dividend Models
Risk, Return and Diversification
Sources of Financing for Firms
Cost of Capital and Capital Structure
Economics (ITU-02 CBM)
Preview
Economics is the study of managing limited resources in terms of consumption, production and distribution of goods and services. In this course you will learn the difference between the two main branches of the subject, mainly Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. While the former studies how individuals, households, and firms make decisions to allocate limited resources in the marketplace, macroeconomics is about the total economic activities to also include the roles of government and international trade. Upon the completion of this course, you will be able to understand the importance of different market structures and competitive rivalry amongst firms in each of these market settings. Emphasis will be placed on the role of government antitrust regulations and reasons for market failure to provide you with an in-depth understanding of microeconomics environment of businesses. In addition, you will understand how the economy as an aggregate works and what are the causes and effects of inflation and unemployment that necessitate governments to devise appropriate fiscal and monetary policies to curb such economic problems. The study of international trade and exchange rate policy will enable you to extend the scope of your knowledge and understanding of international business environment beyond its regional and national boundaries.
Course Content
Microeconomics
- Demand and
- Price theory
- Market structure and concentration
- Government anti trust policy
Macroeconomics
- Circular flow of income
- Determinants of national income
- Business Cycle: inflation and unemployment
- Government macroeconomic objectives
- Monetary and fiscal policy
§ Role of Central Bank
- International trade
- Balance of payments and trade
- Exchange rate
Business Statistics (ITU-03 CBM)
Preview
The module will cover all the basic statistical concepts leading to inferential statistical concepts and analysis. Even though different statistical problems may look distinct on the surface, they usually can be tackled using a single data-analysis approach. This approach has some main steps, each typically requiring a series of sub-steps. The outline below can be viewed as a general template of how to solve data analysis problems.
Course Content
Introduction and Data collection
§ Presenting data in tables and charts
§ Measures of central tendency and dispersion
· mean
· median
· mode
· standard deviation
· inter-quartile range
· Coefficient of variation
Inferential statistics
§ Basic probability
§ Some important discrete probability distributions
§ The Normal distribution and other continuous distributions
§ Sampling and estimation
§ Correlation and regression
Fundamentals of hypothesis testing
§ Two sample tests
§ Chi-Squared tests
Principles of Marketing (ITU-04 CBM)
Preview
The aim of this course is to provide students with the knowledge and understanding of the subject of marketing issues relevant to the development of an organization’s marketing activities. It enables students to confidently analyse and solve marketing problems in order to facilitate the achievement of an organisation’s domestic and international objectives. Modern business needs versatile managers who have a good understanding of all major business functions. Such managers can work effectively in teams of people who may come from different backgrounds. The course is designed with a solid grounding in the disciplines of marketing together with a flexible framework of reference points and analytical tools that enables the marketers to work with other functional specialists. To deepen students awareness and understanding of the complexities associated with the marketing of products and services, the course seeks to provide the basis for effective cross-border marketing management and communication through an extensive use of real case examples and situations drawn from a variety of legal systems, cultures and operating environments.
Course Content
- Understanding Marketing and the Marketing Planning Process
- Analyzing and understanding the marketing environment
- Customers, Consumers and Consumerism
- Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
- Maximizing Competitive Advantage
- The New Product Development Process and Managing Successful Brands
- The Importance of Pricing and Distribution Strategy
- Managing the Promotional Mix
- The Challenges Posed by ‘Service’ Marketing and the Importance of
- Marketing to Non-Commercial Sectors
Management of Business Technology (ITU-05 CBM)
Preview
The success of many organisations is influenced, to a large extent, by how well they are able to exploit the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls presented by Information Technology (IT). In today’s global marketplace, some organisations embrace IT and claim to achieve competitive advantage, others spend as little as possible and regard IT as a necessary evil. Management of Business Technology requires students to develop a critical understanding of the role that information and communication technologies play within business today, from the perspective of a business manager rather than an IT specialist. In order to do this you will need to cut through the jargon and to find out where, why and how IT is used.
Course Content
- Introduction
- Information management in organisations
- Network and communications
- Hardware and software
- E Business applications
- Managing systems development
- Systems analysis
- Systems design
- Knowledge management strategy
- Managing ethical and legal issues
Globalisation & Strategic Management (ITU-06 CBM)
Overview
This module provides candidates with a set of frameworks for understanding the international and global activities of multinational enterprises and their relationships with affiliated organizations in home and host countries. It is about the strategic issues confronting managers in an international business and deals with specific decisions and contemporary operational issues that are unique to the environments of multinational corporations. Upon the completion of this course, students should understand the importance of cultural, social and political differences between countries, alongside their different levels of economic development. It will advance students’ ability to differentiate between different international and global locations to minimize the costs and maximize the return of business operations in foreign markets. Furthermore, the course will develop a knowledge and competency that will enable the integration of this strategy with other strategic functions of business corporations.
Course Content
- Internal and external environments of a business
- Theories of trade & foreign direct investment (FDI)
- The strategy of international business
- Organizational structure, planning, control systems
- Foreign market entry modes
- Types of foreign exchange exposure and relevant hedging strategies
- Forecasting techniques of exchange rate movements
- Strategic impacts of international regional integration in Europe, America, and South East Asia
- Business significance of global emerging markets of China, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, etc.
