Course overview

Every facet of business life requires a degree of human input and management. For contemporary organisations, the management of people is a critical success factor. For such businesses, it is not just about practical issues. Practice needs to be appropriately considered alongside technical and theoretical issues. Our human resource management degree with psychology offers a valuable grounding in both academic theory and critical business thinking, which allows graduates to grow into a business role faster and with more confidence.

The University of Portsmouth is an Approved Centre for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The CIPD is the professional body for HR specialists and is the world’s largest Chartered HR professional body. BA (Hons) Human Resource Management and Psychology meets the knowledge required for the CIPD HR Professional Map at Intermediate Level. On completion, you will be eligible to seek Associate membership of the CIPD providing you have the relevant work experience.

This degree facilitates an increased understanding of various factors, without which a business cannot run efficiently. The course incorporates the consideration of both generalist and specialist areas, with scope to choose additional options particularly during the latter part of the course. This degree can be taken over four years with the third year spent on placement, working in a full-time, paid job.

If you are interested in gaining a degree that incorporates the opportunity to understand more about managing people at work, as well as enhancing your job prospects and earning potential, this course is definitely a way forward.

Course content

Year one

The first year will introduce main functions of business considered from a number of viewpoints. Units studied include:

• Introduction to Human Resource Management
• IT and Academic Skills for HR Professionals
• People Work and Organisations
• Business Operations
• Business Accounting
• Understanding Markets and the Economy

The psychology units will complement the business units, introducing students to Key Ideas in Human and Animal Psychology and the Psychology of Everyday Life.

Year two

The second year is designed to develop your understanding of human resource management. You will study various units where the degree of specialisation increases. These include:

• Human Resource Development
• Contemporary Employment Relations
• Managing Business Relationships
• Business and Employment Law (option)
• Research and Quantitative Methods for Business (option)
• Organisational Analysis and Leadership (option)

In psychology you can study subjects that are relevant to your increasing knowledge as an HR practitioner, choosing two from Social and Developmental Psychology, Biological and Cognitive Psychology, and Individual Differences and Psychometrics.

Placement year

This degree includes the opportunity for a one-year placement working in a paid, full-time role with continuous progression and a suitable level of responsibility. You will return to your studies from your placement with contemporary business experience, which will improve your ability to engage in debate and develop your strategic thinking, and perhaps indirectly boost your degree classification.

With employers now requiring graduates to have the key business competencies and experience alongside a good degree, work experience is more vital than ever. Due to its very nature a placement year is the best and most involving type of work experience you can do during your time at university. As such, a placement will help insure you are as employable as possible upon graduation.

The Portsmouth Business School Placements Office will support you not only during your placement search and the subsequent recruitment processes, but also once you secure your placement and are working away from the University. Our students have gained much from their work placements – listen to some of our students’ experiences.

Final year

The final year offers the opportunity to concentrate on key areas together with further specialised units. You will study two HR units during the year:

• Strategic and Comparative Human Resource Management
• HRM Developments and Debates People Resourcing

Along with a major piece of independent research into an aspect of HR that particularly interests you in the form of a dissertation, work-based learning project or business research project, you will study study two units from:

• Health and Clinical Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Language and Communication
• Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology
• Atypical Development

Throughout your course of study you will have the opportunity to study a modern foreign language through our Institute Wide Language Programme. This can be taken as credits in some instances but all students are encouraged to study an language for interest and their own personal development.

Teaching and assessment

Here at Portsmouth we place a lot of emphasis on student support. At the start of each academic year, you will be assigned a personal tutor who will be available for regular meetings to discuss your progress, as well as help resolve any problems or questions that you may encounter along the way.

Innovative methods of teaching and assessment are also part of life here. They include traditional lectures, workshops, seminars and where relevant presentations.

In addition, some units include computer-based interactive learning. You will also be involved in learning on both an individual and team basis.

We have at our disposal a very experienced group of lecturers who have substantial relevant experience. Many of our staff have held senior managerial positions in industry and you will therefore be able to learn from lecturers who have both theoretical and applied knowledge and experience.

A variety of assessment methods are used such as exams, coursework, presentations, group-based projects, formative tests and on occasion IT-based work. The assessment is generally based on taught and learned material. However, particularly in the final year, independent learning opportunities are also offered. Course work and assessed presentation can take place throughout the teaching year, but exams only take place in our assessment period following the Easter vacation.

Career prospects

Rates of employability among Portsmouth graduates have been considerably above the national average and our excellent employment record bears testimony to the quality of our courses and most importantly our students.

This degree is specialist by nature and so has a career-specific HRM focus. As people form the essential part of any business, small or large, the nature of the degree also allows you to consider a wide variety of opportunities, from setting up your own business through to working as part of a small business team or working in a major business or international business operations.

However, as people are to varying degrees involved in every aspect of business, this degree will also be applicable to a broad selection of fields, from event management and service sector management to multinational operations.

Facilities and features

The University of Portsmouth is an Accredited Centre for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Your degree can pave the way towards CIPD recognition through our postgraduate CIPD Certificate and Diploma courses. We are also in the process of seeking accreditation for our undergraduate programme from the CIPD and anticipate that this will be granted for the 2012 intake. Both the initial joining fee and annual membership during year two, the work placement and year three are funded. This level of membership gives significant access to CIPD resources not normally available to students.

You will attend lectures in the purpose-built Richmond Building, where the Business School is located. It offers a computer drop-in and resource centre containing a wireless network access area, as well as printing and photocopying facilities.

The University Library is at the centre of academic life and is only a short walk away. Open from 8am until midnight every day during term-time, it provides a variety of information to help with study and research.

The Library has also invested heavily in the purchase of electronic resources. There are thousands of electronic journals and ebooks that can be accessed across campus, from home or wherever there is an internet connection.

For international students we have a dedicated team of advisors to support you as you settle into life in Portsmouth and at the University. One of the team almost certainly has direct experience of your culture and may even speak your language.

Entry requirements

View all the entry requirements for BA (Hons) Human Resource Management with Psychology for the academic year 2013/14 (opens in new window).