Prospective Students

Degree Information:

The DCU Executive MBA is widely recognised as the degree of choice for rising executives with senior management ambitions.

DCU Business School is pleased to offer an exciting and innovative programme to reflect and respond to the ever-changing demands of the 21st century workplace.

Our MBA is designed to be professionally and personally transformative, aimed at developing business leaders with ambition, enterprise and leading-edge thinking who can create tangible and sustainable outcomes from the application of their learning.

Reflecting DCU's position as 'University of Enterprise', the MBA places a strong emphasis on engagement with the enterprise sector, both indigenous and international, through its new Enterprise Engagement (Domestic) module which features site visits, seminars and a residential workshop.

Also new to the syllabus is the Consultancy Skills Project which brings together all the learning points throughout the course in a 'live' situation undertaken on behalf of an existing Irish enterprise.

DCU Business School draws on strong links with renowned academic institutions in the US in the delivery of its MBA programme.

The Enterprise Engagement (International) module, undertaken in Boston, includes presentations from leading experts at Harvard Kennedy School and Boston University as well as site visits to US installations.

Dr John Loonam
MBA Programme Director

The DCU MBA Value Proposition

An educational experience that is both professionally and personally transformative, aimed at developing business leaders with the ambition and enterprise to create new value for society, and featuring leading- edge thinking with tangible application.

Aims and Objectives:

Programme Objectives

The DCU MBA prepares students for the challenges of business leadership. The specific competences that students develop during their MBA programme are:

• The ability to lead and manage independently or as part of a multidisciplinary management team

• The capacity to apply business and management theories, tools and knowledge in tackling complex structured and unstructured management and organisational problems and opportunities. at both a strategic and business functional level

• The expertise to critically evaluate problems and alternative solutions in a variety of undefined and unfamiliar contexts; to appraise, evaluate and prioritise between alternative courses of action; and to exercise judgement in assessing complex organisational and strategic problems

• The skill to draw upon specific personal, managerial and organisational tools and techniques to address both specific and imprecise problems, and the ability to draw on their own and others' experiences of management practice

• The confidence to initiate and lead change in organisations. This includes the ability to justify solutions to management and organisational problems, to be accountable for such solutions and to communicate clearly to professional and lay audiences

Programme Structure:

The programme is a two year part-time programme. It begins in mid-September and finishes at the end of August, two years later.

Each year is divided into three semesters with most modules being delivered within a semester and with one module, Personal Leadership and Management Skills, running over the two years.

Year One
The programme begins with an intensive two day induction event. The first two semesters of the MBA programme develop an understanding of the range of foundation disciplines and their potential contribution to business leadership and organisational effectiveness.

Students will engage in a range of assignments and assessments. During the third semester of Year 1, students will take a Domestic Enterprise Engagement module.

This module will allow students to engage with both indigenous companies and foreign companies operating from Ireland.

It will assist them to understand the economic and competitive environment in which these companies operate.

It will introduce students to the challenges of doing business in the current climate, both domestically and globally. The module will involve site visits and an applied project.

Year Two
The second year of the programme will be characterised by an integrated approach, which focuses more specifically on the key strategic drivers of sustainable growth, operational excellence, entrepreneurship and innovation, technology management and international enterprise engagement.

In the second semester of Year 2, students will take a Strategy, Leadership and Renewal module.


Key Programme Modules

Strategy, Leadership and Transformation

The module is delivered in semester two of year two. The module focuses on the unique roles, tasks and responsibilities of corporate leadership and governance in the overall strategic development, performance and transformation of an enterprise.


Innovation & Entrepreneurship
This module introduces new venture creation process and business planning in the context of new ventures. It explores innovations as they occur through new venture creation. it examines models of new venture creation process and the growth of new ventures.
This requires an understanding of how entrepreneurs identify or discover new opportunities; how they amass the resources needed to start a new business; and how they manage in the context of a new or growing business.

Participants will be required to identify a new business opportunity and to prepare a comprehensive business plan and a 'business pitch' for the new venture opportunity.

Enterprise Engagement (Domestic)
This module focuses on organisations operating in Ireland who are developing their business both at home and internationally. It will feature a site visit to an Irish indigenous company and a multi-national organisation operating in Ireland. Participants will attend a 2 day residential workshop with lectures and seminars on current business issues such as competitiveness, globalisation and sustainability. There will also be a number of lectures over the course of the module from experts in particular areas. This module and the following module on Enterprise Engagement (International) are linked.


Enterprise Engagement (International)
This module focuses on business operations in a global environment and international models of best practice. The centrepiece of the Enterprise Engagement (International) module will be a study visit to Boston during the first semester of second year. This visit will consist of presentations in Leadership and Organisational Change by faculty members from Harvard Kennedy School and Boston University as well as site visits to US companies which provide practical insights into international business practice

Capstone Module
The capstone module for the programme is a Strategic Consultancy Project, which brings together all the skills developed and knowledge acquired over the course of the programme.

Working in teams, students will undertake a substantial project on behalf of an Irish-based organisation. While allowing students to deepen their knowledge of a specific industry or sector, it offers an opportunity to apply their learnings in a live situation and add value to the organisation.

The project will be presented to a panel of industry representatives and Business School Faculty in the final semester of the programme.

Personal Leadership and Management Skills
This module will run throughout both years of the programme.

It will include topics such as trust, conflict management, consulting skills, coaching and mentoring, ethics and communications as well as a substantial personal development process facilitated and delivered in association with our partner institution, Northeastern University in Boston.

View the subjects currently taught on this course (2011 - 2012)

Flexible Delivery
The programme is delivered in two formats. Students may attend the programme on one day per week (Thursdays 2.00pm to 9.00pm) or one evening (Thursday 7.00pm to 9.00pm) plus Saturday (8.30am to 1.00pm).

The Domestic Enterprise Engagement project which takes place in Semester 3, Year 1, will involve two consecutive days on a Friday and Saturday during early summer and will include a site visit.

Semester 3 in Year 2 is based around the Consultancy Skills Project.

Career Prospects:

The DCU MBA is about much more than just acquiring some useful extra tools for the management toolkit; it is a transformative experience at a personal level.

Graduates of our programme talk about how much they have grown in confidence, how their own self-awareness as leaders has deepened, and how their perspective on business management has been raised to a more strategic level.

Our graduates tell us that these 'personal growth' effects of the MBA become very apparent back in their workplaces, in terms of the issues to which they are invited to contribute, the roles the are asked to take on, and in how they are perceived as future leaders.

DCU Business School
Part-time Executive Programmes

Information Sessions in Dublin City Centre

Thursday, 12th April,

Shelbourne Hotel

Are you an ambitious professional seeking a genuine competitive edge?

Attend our walk-in information sessions in Dublin City Centre on 15th of March to learn how a postgraduate qualification from DCU Business School can boost your career:

12pm - 2pm: Shelbourne Hotel

Meet with programme chairs, academic and support staff of our executive postgraduate programmes.

Entry Requirements:

Candidates should normally have an honours primary degree and/or a relevant professional qualification and have at least five years relevant managerial experience. Overseas candidates must have secured an acceptable standard in IELTS (composite score 6.5-7.0, not less than 6.5 in any one component). All candidates must have an adequate standard of mathematical and statistical ability.
International Applications
International candidates are expected to have educational qualifications of a standard equivalent to those outlined above. In addition, where such candidates are non-native speakers of the English language they must satisfy the university of their competency in the English language. For further information on international applications click here.

Dates for Submission of Applications 2012

EU Applicants
Apply online through the Postgraduate Applications Centre (http://www.pac.ie/dcu) by 31st July 2012.

Non-EU Applicants
Apply online the Postgraduate Applications Centre (http://www.pac.ie/dcu) by 13th July 2012.

Applying through the Postgraduate Applications Centre (http://www.pac.ie/dcu)
When applying for this programme use PAC code DC951 (one day per week option) or DC952 (One evening per week and every second Saturday option) . Please submit a C.V. along with other supporting documentation to PAC.

Queries on Completed applications:

Queries on completed applications can be made by e-mail to Catherine.Gallagher@dcu.ie

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Fee information

Indicative Timetable
(Weeks 20-31)