Course overview
MSc Business Intelligence and Analytics with Advanced Practice in partnership with Grant Thornton
Hear from our expert teaching team and partners at Grant Thornton and discover how you’ll gain real-world experience through live projects, case studies, industry briefs, and an Advanced Practice research project.
Blending academic expertise with real-world experience, the course develops your technical, analytical, and business skills—focusing on areas including generative AI, data analysis, machine learning, and ethical data use.
With an Advanced Practice research placement, you’ll apply your learning in real business settings, while gaining the insight and critical thinking needed to lead in data-driven roles across global industries.
- Learn directly from the guest speakers and industry experts who apply analytics in real-world consultancy and access cutting-edge market trends.
- Work on live projects, case studies, briefs, and an Advanced Practice research project with Grant Thornton.
- Stay ahead of evolving trends in business intelligence and gain access to insights from Grant Thornton professionals.
Develop career-ready skills and take part in a Graduate Employability Forum designed to boost your prospects. Graduate ready to launch a career. You'll benefit from the perfect fusion of academia and industry - preparing you for leadership roles in business intelligence and analytics on a global stage.
This extended, full-time (including Advanced Practice) programme enhances the qualification by adding a vocational or research-based internship to the one-year programme. This is a great way to gain work experience and give your CV a competitive edge. A research internship provides the opportunity to develop analytical, team-working, research and academic skills by working alongside a research team in an academic setting. We guarantee a research internship, but cannot guarantee a vocational internship. We provide practical support and advice on how to find and secure vocational internship positions.
View our study dates for detailed information about the duration based on your course start date.
Course details
Course structure
Core modules
Advanced Practice with Grant Thornton
Real-world experience is essential for standing out in today’s competitive job market. Our Advanced Practice module delivered with Grant Thornton, offers you the opportunity to apply your academic knowledge in a practical setting, enhancing both your employability and professional skill set with input from case studies and scenarios from Grant Thornton.
This module prepares you for practice-based opportunities that align with your career aspirations. You’ll receive tailored support from Grant Thornton colleagues along with guidance from an academic supervisor.
You’ll engage in an employer-led project-based opportunity with that complements your skill set and future goals. Assessment is through a reflective evaluation, equivalent to 3,000 words, marked on a pass/fail basis. Although this module does not contribute to your overall degree classification, it provides invaluable hands-on experience that prepares you to excel in your career a certificate of participation will be provided by Grant Thornton on successful completion of the module.
Big Data and Business Analytics
Develop your ability to design and implement databases, big data, and analytics applications to meet business needs. Use case studies to follow the system development life cycle, developing a plausible application, from inception to implementation for a real-world scenario. Investigate the issues and technologies associated with implementing and supporting large-scale databases, and the services needed to maintain and access a data repository. Focus on big data, data warehouses, legacy data integration, data management, and approaches supporting the modelling and visualisation of data for various uses.
This module features a guest lecture from industry experts at Grant Thornton.
Develop a piece of work that brings together key elements of your learning. Demonstrate the knowledge you have acquired, an understanding of practice and its application in a professional context.
You choose the unique composition, content and context of your project, demonstrating reflective practice with a commitment to continual learning and development.
Gain a deep understanding of real-world organisational challenges and how to develop effective solutions. Become a proficient planner who can execute in-depth research in business and management. Through a blend of quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques, you dissect data to propose standardised solutions to intricate industrial issues, and finish with a professional report presentation.
This module features a guest lecture from industry experts at Grant Thornton.
Data Analytics and Decision Making
Decision-making involves selecting a course of action from multiple alternatives and can impact individual and organisational performance. Business intelligence tools provide managers and leaders with detailed information about an organisation’s current, past, and sometimes future, state to facilitate faster business decision-making. You are introduced to the techniques available for analysing large datasets and interpreting patterns and trends, so you can extract meaningful insights that aid effective decision-making.
In this module you will work on a live brief set by Grant Thornton and apply your analytical skills to real-world data. Using industry tools and techniques, you’ll develop strategic recommendations and present your findings to a panel of academic staff and Grant Thornton professionals.
Global Strategy: Challenges and Choices
As the global business environment becomes ever more complex and volatile, there is a need for organisations of all shapes and sizes to think and act more entrepreneurially, innovatively and creatively in order to be able to change and adapt. This interdisciplinary module provides you with an understanding of the internal and external factors that impact strategic decision-making.
You are introduced to a variety of strategic theories, tools and concepts, all in the context of the external environment and its impact on strategic challenges and choices. You are exposed to a variety of academic and practical material, that you apply to your own organisation, or a live-case organisation, to appreciate the importance of developing and implementing innovative strategic plans for the success of the organisation, its key stakeholders and society more broadly.
This module features a guest lecture from industry experts at Grant Thornton.
Explore the power of interactive visualisation to uncover insights within complex, multi-dimensional datasets. Unlike static visuals, interactive graphics allow you to zoom, filter and drill down into data, providing both macro and micro perspectives. Using JavaScript libraries like D3.js, you learn to create dynamic, web-based visualisations that enhance user engagement. You also develop skills in dashboard design, tool generation and understanding how users interact with data.
Modules offered may vary.
How you learn
This course prepares you for success in the global workplace. You become research-active, future-ready, globally connected, socially and ethically engaged, and digitally empowered. Project-based learning is core, drawing directly on industry projects, real-world scenarios, and access to work experience opportunities and global initiatives. Modules are delivered face-to-face, with high-quality online materials available throughout. The classroom is a core learning environment, but you also learn in environments such as workplaces, partner organisations and international partner sites where possible.
How you are assessed
You are assessed through business reports, case study analyses, presentations, self-diagnostic assessments, a research proposal, and a dissertation.
Entry requirements
You need to have one of the following:
- an honours degree (at least a 2:2)
- a post-experience or professional qualification
- equivalent qualifications (including international qualifications).
- For EU and international students, you need an IELTS score (or equivalent) of 6
International applicants
International applicants can find out what qualifications they need by visiting Your Country
What you need
To access the on-campus facilities you need a HTML5-capable web browser on a computer such as a Windows, Mac, Chromebook, or Linux computer. HTML5-capable web browsers that can be used include the following:
- Google Chrome
- Mozilla Firefox
- Safari
- Microsoft Edge
For some sessions you can also access sessions on the following browsers and devices:
- Chrome or Safari on an iPad (iOS 11 or later)
- Android (Android 8 or later)
- Microsoft Surface Pro (Windows 10) tablet
Don't have your own device yet?
Don't worry - we have a bank of devices available for you to loan whenever you are on campus.
You can also access Adobe Creative Cloud - a suite of 20+ world-class, industry-standard creative apps including Photoshop and InDesign.
Employability
Career opportunities
Graduates will be well equipped to pursue roles including:
- Business Intelligence Consultant
- Business Analyst
- Financial Analyst
- Strategy and Insights Executive
- Data Consultant in Accountancy Firms
- Risk and Compliance Analyst
Work placement
- Learn directly from the guest speakers and industry experts who apply analytics in real-world consultancy.
- Work on live projects.
- Stay ahead of evolving trends in business intelligence and gain access to insights from Grant Thornton professionals.
Information for international applicants
Qualifications
International applicants - find out what qualifications you need by selecting your country below.
Select your country:
Useful information
Visit our international pages for useful information for non-UK students and applicants.