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Course overview
Why study business in the Tees Valley?
Explore the world of business in our unique, dynamic region. With landmark developments, ongoing regeneration, and opportunities for students and graduates, the Tees Valley is your gateway to a thriving career.
Whether you're aiming to run your own studio, manage projects for a major game developer or launch a digital start-up, this course gives you the commercial insight, leadership mindset and creative expertise you need to thrive in a fast-evolving industry.
Learn how to build sustainable, scalable businesses rooted in creativity, balancing artistic vision with real-world commercial success. Study core business principles including strategy, marketing, finance and entrepreneurship, and explore creative pipelines including 3D character design, concept art, game environments, and real-time engine workflows. You gain the confidence to lead multidisciplinary teams and drive innovation across entertainment, media and interactive technology sectors.
From live consultancy projects to showcasing your creative work at Animex and ExpoSeries, this course offers unrivalled exposure to both sides of the industry: the boardroom and the studio.
Top reasons to study this course
- Creative enterprise focus: learn how to launch, lead and grow businesses in the games, digital and media industries. Turn your ideas into reality through our Launchpad start-up community, where over 500 student-led ventures have been created.
- Industry collaboration: work with world-leading studios on real-world briefs and projects.
- Nationally recognised: Teesside University is ranked 8th for business studies (Daily Mail University Guide 2027, tees.ac.uk/source).
- Value added: ranked 1st for Value Added for Business & Management in the Guardian University Guide 2027. (120 institutions ranked.) tees.ac.uk/source).
- Future-facing skills: explore the role of AI, emerging tech and digital disruption in shaping the future of creative leadership.
- Career-ready confidence: graduate with a powerful blend of business acumen, creative skills and industry experience, ready to step into leadership roles across the creative sector. Develop future-facing skills - explore the role of AI, emerging tech and digital disruption in shaping the future of creative leadership.
- Excellent academic support: business studies at Teesside University scored a positivity measure of 95.8% for academic support (National Student Survey 2026, tees.ac.uk/source).
We’re a proud signatory of the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative, which aims to globally raise the profile of sustainability and responsible leadership to equip current and future leaders with the knowledge, skills and behaviours to solve the global business challenges.
Whether you see yourself as a future creative director, studio founder, innovation strategist or digital entrepreneur, this course empowers you to shape the creative industries of tomorrow.
Course details
Course structure
Year 1 core modules
Study the circular economy and the business opportunities it presents. Develop your own business idea and create a venture with social impact that's part of the circular economy. Consider the fundamentals of user experience and user interface design, and learn about current, appropriate digital tools to design an app for your business idea.
This is a 30-credit module.
Gain the skills you need for game creation using a contemporary game engine. Understand the fundamentals of modern game development, including scripting, asset creation and level design.
This is a 30-credit module.
How to be a Responsible Leader
Reflecting on your own skills and attributes, you explore the importance that organisations and society place on individual values and behaviours. Through psychometric tests and peer reviews, you understand your own behaviours and the impact this has on your own and others professional practices. You explore links between personal development and success in the workplace, considering the skills required in chosen careers.
This is a 30-credit module.
Technology in the workplace is changing at a fast pace, with organisations striving to utilise technology to develop efficient business models. You are introduced to emerging technologies and shifting attitudes in the workplace, examining how these new technologies are impacting business and identifying opportunities for the future. Explore shifting cultures and attitudes in the workplace environment and the development.
This is a 30-credit module.
Year 2 core modules
Games, Business, Marketing and Publishing
You focus on the business, marketing and publishing aspects of the games industry, examining new trends and business models for games development. Examine the process for turning a digital concept into an attractive business proposal to acquire funding and investment, and explore how marketing, publishing and distribution get a game to market.
You work with students from across all the games courses to develop a game slice in a team. Experience working in a production environment, and focus on specific skills in your own field of study while gaining valuable teamwork skills.
This is a 30-credit module.
Develop your cultural awareness through a business lens, focusing on common humanity and equal worth. Explore a culture of your choice and consider the development of a new business or the expansion of an existing business into that culture. Learn about the social, environmental and economic actions of people and communities across the world and consider the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and how these impact globally.
This is a 30-credit module.
Create content and manage social media accounts, experimenting with different types of content and analysing the results in real-time. You develop your understanding of how to create high-performing content in a world where social media is used for client engagement and product promotion.
This is a 30-credit module.
Final-year core modules
Utilising the skills acquired throughout the course, you work on an individual project, investigating a practical business issue, a relevant issue of academic interest, or a live problem-solving project related to the subject. You conduct research to validate hypotheses, test solutions, create outputs, make recommendations and present conclusions. The project is relevant to a business client or industry partner and is an individual piece of work, developed with supervisor support.
This is a 60-credit module.
Narrative Design and Integration
Explore the theory and integration of games narrative concepts. Investigate elements of storytelling including narration, character creation, story arcs, point of view, voice, tense, cutscene, narrative wash and texture, backstory, storytelling using affordances and signifiers, world building, emergent storytelling, and found text and audio.
This is a 30-credit module.
Reimagining the Future of Business and Society
Unpack the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and explore the utopian and dystopian possibilities of the goals being met or unmet. You develop your understanding of the global impact of these goals while considering global challenges and possible solutions.
This is a 30-credit module.
Modules offered may vary.
How you learn
Modules are taught through lectures, seminars, practical workshops, work-based activities and group work. Teaching staff adopt a range of web-based technologies to deliver module content, assess, provide feedback and communicate with students.
How you are assessed
Our assessment methods help you develop sought-after business skills and qualities. These include business planning, case study analysis, presentations and market research proposals.
Our Disability Services team provide an inclusive and empowering learning environment and have specialist staff to support disabled students access any additional tailored resources needed. If you have a specific learning difficulty, mental health condition, autism, sensory impairment, chronic health condition or any other disability please contact a Disability Services as early as possible.
Find out more about our disability services
Find out more about financial support
Find out more about our course related costs
Entry requirements
2027-28 entry requirements
For Clearing 2026 entry requirements, please refer to the information in the box above.
We welcome applicants with a background or interest in business or the creative industries.
A typical offer is 80-104 tariff points from at least two A levels, T level or equivalent, but you could also be a mature student without conventional entry requirements. We take into account any alternative qualifications or other experience you may have.
For general information please see our overview of entry requirements.
International applicants can find out what qualifications they need by visiting our international country pages.
Employability
Career opportunities
Graduates are uniquely positioned to take on leadership and project management roles in one of the fastest-growing global sectors. By combining strategic business insight with hands-on creative and digital expertise, you are equipped to drive innovation across industries such as games, animation, media, tech and digital enterprise.
Graduate with a powerful mix of business skills, entrepreneurial thinking and creative capability – prepared to lead studios, manage cross-functional teams or launch your own ventures. Whether your career goal is to become a creative director, digital entrepreneur, innovation strategist or project lead in a major studio, this course prepares you to thrive in both the boardroom and the studio.
With strong industry links, practical experience and a future-focused curriculum, you’ll leave Teesside career-ready, confident and capable of shaping the creative industries of tomorrow.
Information for international applicants
Qualifications
International applicants - find out what qualifications you need by selecting your country below.
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Useful information
Visit our international pages for useful information for non-UK students and applicants.