Course overview

The MSc Strategic Quality Management will help in making a significant contribution to implementing policies for achieving excellence. If your goal is to improve performance at a professional and organisational level, then this course will put you on the right track.

You will gain knowledge and understanding of a broad range of modern theory and techniques covering the operational, functional and strategic management of quality. Critical thinking and self-directed study are important aspects of working at postgraduate level, and the programme includes practical ways to sharpen up existing skills and apply them in both academic and business settings.

The programme will also enable you to make an effective contribution to the implementation of policies in order to achieve customer focus and continuous improvement. Such contributions will be developed in respect of the operational, functional and strategic management of quality.

The course is very flexible. You may either study by distance learning over two years, or on-campus full time over one year.

The course will be of interest to:

• managers at any level who wish to add quality to their existing skills
• quality practitioners who wish to obtain academic qualifications
• recent graduates who plan to make a career in quality management or wish to improve their skills portfolio as part of their career development

The course aims to provide you with quality, organisational and people management skills, and techniques to enable you to make a significant contribution to an organisation's strategic vision for success.

The Business School is a member of the European Foundation for Quality Management and has strong links with the British Quality Foundation.

Find out more

For further information, please contact our Admissions Team (details above). We hold regular postgraduate open evenings at which you can see our facilities, enjoy a guest lecture and meet academic staff and current students over drinks and canapés. Applicants will be interested to know that each year Portsmouth Business School offers a number of scholarships for self-funding students (taught on campus).

Course content

This is a well-established course that will give you a firm footing in strategic quality management and achieving excellence through customer focus and continuous improvement.

Following the taught aspects of the course you will complete a 15,000 word dissertation, which requires at least six months of study. You will study the following units:

• Business Transformation through Quality Management: you will learn about the fundamental concepts of quality management and organisational behaviour, and focuses on the application of those concepts in the organisation. The unit complements the Strategic Organisational Excellence unit.

• Quantitative and Research Methods: this unit considers concepts of quantitative methods and their use in aiding decision-making in an organisation, and covers the theory and application of research methodologies, to support you with your dissertation writing.

• Business Systems: Concepts, Management and Evaluation: the topics in this unit address the principles of business management, their encapsulation in management standards and application in the workplace by way of business systems.

• Strategic Organisational Excellence: during this unit you will examine the links between concepts of excellence and their use in the strategic management of an organisation. the unit explores issues concerning culture and sector, both within the organisation and in its relationships with stakeholders.

• Dissertation: this unit will enable you to demonstrate your ability to identify, design, plan and undertake research on a specific quality management issue, and communicate your findings effectively in an individual research project.

Teaching and assessment

For students undertaking distance education, the course is delivered entirely online via the university’s web-based virtual learing environment. There are also staff-led online tutorials with other DL students. Your studies also involve reading - a wealth of online resources such as academic papers and e-books may be accessed via the university library. An example of an online unit reading list is available here.

The units on the course are assessed using a variety of methods such as individual and group work (case study analyses and reports, essays) except for the Quantitative and Research Methods unit which is assessed by a combination of individual coursework and an exam (which may be taken externally).

Career prospects

Our graduates have gone on to undertake a variety of roles including:

• quality manager/director
• quality engineer
• quality adviser
• quality analyst
• quality consultant
• quality environmental and health and safety manager
• quality assurance/quality control
• procurement
• operations management
• training and development
• auditing and business process improvement

All students registered on this course are eligible to apply for Associate and Practitioner membership of the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI).

You also may qualify for ‘Chartered Quality Professional’ status through the qualification route, subject to satisfying the work experience. Routes to CQP are shown on the CQI website.

Facilities and features

Students have access to a range of online resources:

• the University Library’s comprehensive online resources including e-books, and electronic academic and business journals
• the EFQM’s “Knowledge Base” containing premium resources
• CQI member-only resources including “Quality World”

Comprehensive study resources for students studying at a distance are available online. There are also staff-led online tutorials with other distance learning students.

Entry requirements

The entry requirements for MSc Strategic Quality Management (Distance Learning) are shown above, for more detailed information please contact:

Department: Portsmouth Business School
Tel: +44 (0)23 9284 8200
Email: pbs.postgradadmissions@port.ac.uk