Curious about studying Philosophy with Business Management - BA (Hons)at University of Essex? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Colchester Campus
Full Time
Oct 2027
3 Year
Our BA Philosophy with Business Management will feed your intellectual curiosity and challenge your thinking. It allows you to dig deeper into ideas and question received wisdom. At the same time, you will acquire the skills to manage organizations and gain an understanding in how business works in an increasingly complex world. At Essex, we take philosophy back to its roots in everyday existential, social, and political problems. We embrace the relevance of philosophy to other forms of enquiry - political, cultural, legal, medical, aesthetic – and bring it to bear on urgent issues in public life, such the moral status of capitalism or public policy regarding mental health and end of life care. With our BA Philosophy with Business Management, you’ll explore a range of subjects enabling you to develop the widest possible understanding of complex philosophical issues and challenge your way of thinking as you obtain a grounding in management. During the course you’ll cover key areas including but not limited to: - Capitalism - Ethics - Political philosophy - Existentialism and Phenomenology - Human Resource Management - Organisations - Marketing Our School of Philosophy and Art History has been ranked in the top 20 in the UK for research excellence (REF 2014, mainstream universities, THE 2014). We are involved in many exciting and interdisciplinary research projects and have active links with other subjects including Political Science, Law, Sociology, Psychoanalysis, and Art History. Essex has more start-up businesses than any other county in the UK. We teach you to take control of your career in business and create ideas, products and services with real value, and with our global understanding of business in established and developing markets, you'll have the best foundation for your future career. The Essex Business School is an intellectual community of more than 2,000 international researchers, students and entrepreneurs. Please note this course is subject to approval.
Begin your study of philosophy with an exploration of epistemology (the theory of knowledge) and identity theory. What does it mean to say that we ‘know’ something? What if that something is ourselves? How do our modes of practical interaction with the world and each other shape our ability to know different kinds of objects? Are there vices of the mind that distort our reasoning and lead our practical deliberations astray? How important is trust in a functional knowledge community? What kind of creatures must we be in order to be capable of knowing things? What role does self-responsibility play in effective knowing? What is it to be a self? How does that differ from having an identity or identities? To what extent are our identities determined by others? Are they up to us? How can the study of philosophy help us with these questions?
Introduction to Management is a broad-ranging module intended to provide a foundation in the most significant issues in management theory and practice, as well as to prepare you for related modules in subsequent years of your course. Because theoretical explanations, i.e. academic interpretations of what managers do and even of what they say they do, and what managers actually do in real organisations on a day-to-day basis, may differ, we will also draw out some of the connections and disjunctures between management theory and management practice. Our teaching also emphasises the ethics of managing and how to balance the bottom line of the business with the organisation's wider responsibilities to society and other stakeholders. The module also looks to explore how AI is being employed by managers and how this is changing the roles and responsibilities of the managers across sectors whilst also creating new risks and challenges.
A key module across all our Business, Management, and Marketing courses Introduction to Marketing sets out the fundamental principles of marketing and covers the core elements of marketing management. The module explores marketing planning; the segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) process; and the extended marketing mix (product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical environment). The module aims to help students develop marketing knowledge and skills that are important for future modules as well as the workplace.
This course introduces key academic, professional and personal skills to support a successful transition beyond undergraduate study. Students develop confidence in critical thinking, communication, teamwork and self reflection while exploring future study and career options.
Since the financial crisis of 2008, the social consequences, moral status, and even long-term viability of capitalism have come under renewed scrutiny. Does it foster economic growth and protect individual freedom, as its proponents claim? Or is it a destructive system out of control, as its detractors argue? Should the market be given even freer rein? Or should capitalism be reformed and restricted? Or should it be abolished and replaced altogether? And, if so, what would replace it?
This year, we will explore some of the things that worry people about morality. These are matters that may be thought of as challenges to morality and that seem either to make morality impossible or to undermine our commitment to it. For instance, if morality is just a matter of what we happen to like or dislike, or it is only relative to the standards of one's culture, the idea that we can ask and give moral reasons appears to be undermined, or significantly limited. Analogously, the fact that moral discussions (unlike arguments about matters of fact) often end up in irresolvable disagreements seems to threaten the rationality of moral arguments. The role that matters of luck play in our moral evaluations seems to involve holding people responsible for things that are not really under their control, thus compromising the idea that we can really assess the moral value of their actions. In the first term, we will look at these and other challenges to morality, and we will also explore some of the metaethical questions that these challenges raise: can we say that our moral judgements are capable of being true or false? If they are, does their truth depend on certain moral facts? Can we describe these facts as natural?
This is an intensive final-year module running over five weeks during the summer term. It involves a guided and structured approach to support you in completing a research project of your own.
This module builds on your understanding of management and organisation by considering the ethics of business activity. You are introduced to the origins, practice and theory of business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). You consider a range of perspectives and use business literature to critically examine organisational ethics and analyse its constraints. This module has been designed to enable students to integrate their subject knowledge with an understanding of sustainable development, acquiring the skills and competencies essential for addressing the urgent sustainability challenges of the 21st century.
Political, economic, and socio-cultural changes have culminated in the emergence of Human Resource Management (HRM) as a distinct function within many organisations. In particular, HRM has taken an increasingly strategic view of the organisations' employees as drivers of competitive advantage with primary HRM functions including recruitment and selection, performance and reward management, and training and development, which are correspondingly aligned with this aim. This is also accompanied by an increasing emphasis being placed on a host of new devolvement's including the use of digitised employee management systems and an emphasis on promoting organisational sustainability. This module will explore existing theories and approaches to contemporary strategic HRM, while also adopting a critical perspective on their impact and implementation. In doing so, it will consider how institutional and cultural contexts shape the ways in which employer-employee relationships are constructed, enforced, and normalised and will seek to highlight and explain the oft-observed gaps between theory and practice. This will enable you to develop a critical appreciation of strategic HRM challenges and an understanding of its potential impact on individuals, organisations, and the wider society.
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