FCE: Masters in Administration and Business Management (2121)

Why study this Master's Degree?

Cartagena is the most important industrial town in the Murcia Region. It is also relevant at the national level, most of its industry consisting of large companies within the transport, but also naval, refinery and chemical sector, what generates a great deal of industrial employment. The crisis in Cartagena in the early 1990s was mainly due to the imbalances in these sectors and their influence on subsidiary companies (for example, metal processing companies). In spite of the current economic crisis, companies such as Sabic (formerly General Electric Plastics, of the chemical industry), Navantia (naval sector) or Repsol (energy industry), now maintain a high level of investment, expanding their facilities, and also promoting research and development activities. The economic activity in Cartagena has also focused on the manufacturing industry, with a large number of small and medium-sized companies, which continue to be the most important activity sectors, including the food, drink, and commercial distribution industry. As with the rest of Murcia, a small lively business community has developed in Cartagena. Such development usually presents certain limitations in human resources, as happens at the national level. This requires gradually making important improvements in management team training, an objective of the proposed Master. In particular, it seeks to improve training in management skills, human resources management and use of new technologies in the company.

More specifically, the reasons that justify interest in this Master’s degree are mainly based on the fact that it provides degree graduates, such as those in Business Administration and Management or Tourism, the opportunity to extend their official studies. It is also an opportunity for other graduates from UPCT or regional, national or European Higher Education centers, to study Business management at a Master’s level. It also provides academic access to professionals who wish to update their knowledge about the economic, industrial and commercial sectors of the area of Cartagena and the Murcia Region. This new Master’s degree is the first of its kind at the UPCT, aimed at improving the average training of economic agents, in line with the needs highlighted by the regional, national, and international experts in the forums consulted.

As for the academic interest of this Master’s degree, this is reflected in the fact that the courses offered have been adapted to the needs expressed by relevant agents of the aforementioned sectors and especially those located at their managerial levels. This eminently professional orientation of the Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA) makes it possible to complement the more general training received by students in previous academic stages. The degree’s academic-oriented subjects include the participation in training activities, such as conferences of renowned academic experts in Business Management together with a relevant group of professionals coming from outside the university.

The studies offered combine subjects including the most recent developments in management techniques and business management, taught by a balanced set of professionals and academics, together with a constant concern to transfer the knowledge, skills and concerns needed by students in their future professional activity. In addition, the degree comes as a response to the much-needed lifelong learning and professional updating activities increasingly demanded by management professionals of the Cartagena region. The aim is to position the official University Master's programs as flexible, affordable, competitive professional updating activities, with a quality guarantee certified by the Ministry of Education and the regional and national certification agencies.

The scientific interest of the degree lies in the opportunity it gives to university graduates to pursue a more research-oriented training in Business Administration in the doctoral program of the Business Faculty at UPCT. For this reason, the launch of this Master's program within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) will allow access to scholarships that offer the possibility of advancing and completing research and doctoral theses on new management techniques aimed at the new economy based on information and knowledge. It would be interesting to mention at this point that Master's degrees are increasing students’ interest in pursuing more specific and applied doctoral studies, as well as interest in R & D & I. This situation is relevant for the Spanish economy as a whole, since it will allow the training of PhDs in Business Administration, an aspect of great relevance at the moment.

Another relevant issue of the MBA proposed here is that it also presents distinguishing traits with respect to the existing offer, among which the following can be underlined:

It lasts one year, an aspect of wide interest for professionals seeking to update their skills and for those students who, already having a degree, do not wish to take more than a year to enter the labor market.
With a total workload of 60 ECTS credits, it focuses on those subjects which serve as revision and extension of Business Management activities, with the participation of professionals of the teaching sector and with an approach based on the special features of regional companies: small business size, family businesses, limited resources, dependence on public administrations, state of infrastructures, etc. The contents of the Master’s degree provide students with a more complete view of the national and regional reality of the business sector, which is very necessary to subsequently achieve a correct approach to Business Management in the new economy based on information and knowledge.
The academic offer is also focused on a geographical area with a large business component where there is a need to improve the competitiveness of companies. The academic offer is currently very attractive for the sector's professional agents, who regard it as a way to stand out from the national and international competition.

Aims

The general objective of this Master’s degree is to train professionals specialized in the field of Business Management and Administration at a senior management level. The postgraduate training proposed here presents a dual aspect: first, it aims to provide students with the general and specific skills necessary for their individual professional improvement and that of the whole business organization. Secondly, it seeks to promote the professionals’ ethical and social responsibility in their daily activities. Working towards these goals, the program is designed to provide postgraduate quality training in the business field, in order to meet the needs of society and complement the skills and abilities acquired in undergraduate education. This program also appears as a response to the growing needs detected in the managerial segments of the business world, and it has been designed as a natural continuation to the current Spanish university degree studies in Business Administration and Management, Business, Economics, Market Research and Techniques, Labor Sciences, Engineering, Legal Sciences, Architecture, Tourism, Social Graduate, Labor Relations, among others.

The regional and national business sector has its own features in terms of company size, specific training of its employees, characteristics of the offer in general and the relevance and dynamism of its demand in the most developed markets, such as the Spanish and the Mediterranean. The interest and the academic, scientific and professional relevance of a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, framed in a continuously changing environment (laws, society, labor market, etc.) undoubtedly has an important impact on demand for higher education for professional practice. In this sense, the knowledge, skills and competences that the student will be acquiring throughout the degree are consciously focused on the understanding of these particularities, enabling them to develop strategies and short and medium term responses for ongoing improvement of the regional, national and international business sector, for example for the European and Ibero-American areas. Training outside and inside the classroom includes the participation of relevant professionals and researchers active in the business sector, what allows students to acquire first-hand knowledge and professional and research attitudes difficult to transfer otherwise. The use of case studies, own and corporate, by internal and external teachers allows the student to make real decisions and observe how experienced professionals face this type of issues so relevant to their daily work. By applying the set of training activities advocated by the EHEA such as group work, use of new teaching methodologies and new technologies in and outside the classroom, and by placing the student at the center of the training process, as well as with the facilities of the new headquarters of the UPCT Business Faculty, we aim at achieving the main objective of the Master’s degree: to allow the student to develop the management activity with maximum efficiency, professionalism, creativity and social responsibility, together with training at the personal level of values and rights-duties, which must accompany all higher education.

This Master’s degree is especially directed to the training of postgraduates for companies and institutions, public administrations and the free exercise of the profession. In addition to the face-to-face first level training provided in the classrooms, students participate in activities outside the classroom, such as visits to public institutions linked to the business sector, and training sessions at the headquarters of companies associated with the Master’s degree , which give the student direct exposure to the functioning of the business world. Also, the participation of experts and conference professionals provides students with a high-level professional vision, which allows them to better choose their future professional activity. This implies an important added value for the student on the part of the degree, according to the spirit of the Bologna Declaration.

Likewise, the Master's program includes research training credits with a dual purpose. First, to train research technicians in the field of interdisciplinary business organizations, public administration and the free exercise of the profession, in order to achieve greater visibility in the European context of national research in the business sector, together with greater knowledge on the part of companies of the possibilities for improvement that research confers on their activities and businesses; secondly, to provide training support to potential students of official doctoral programs. This academic proposal aims to achieve increased mobility for our graduates within the EHEA in their search for a job.

What students will learn

Competence is defined as "the set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes acquired or developed through coordinated training experiences with the purpose of achieving functional knowledge which efficiently responds to a task or problem of daily and professional life which requires a teaching and learning process".

According to the classification used by the Ministry of Education in the Registry of Universities, Centers and Titles (RUCT), competences can be differentiated according to their level of concretion:

Basic or general competences, which are common to most of the Titles but are adapted to the specific context of each of the Titles. Within this block you can find personal skills, interpersonal skills, etc.
Specific competences, which are specific to a field or degree and are aimed at achieving a specific graduate profile. These competences are limited to training aspects and areas of knowledge which are very close to the Title.
Transversal competences, which are common to all students of the same university or university center, regardless of the degree they take.

LINK TO THE LIST OF COMPETENCES ACQUIRED BY THE STUDENT

All the curricular actions of the Study Plan are aimed at students acquiring a set of competences, and therefore, in each module or subject, we define what is expected from the student on completing their degree. The competences of each subject are available in the Course Unit Description of the same, and they are accessible from Study Plan > Courses Structure and Course Unit Descriptions.

Is professional experience or previous studies recognized?

Graduates with the following qualifications will be admitted:

Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management; Diploma in Business Studies.
Bachelor’s Degree in Economics.
Bachelor’s Degree in Market Research and Techniques; Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising and Public Relations; Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing.
Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Engineer and Technical Engineer (in any of its branches).
Bachelor’s Degree in Actuarial and Financial Sciences, Bachelor’s Degree in Financial and Actuarial Economics, Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Accounting.
Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism; Diploma in Tourism.

Graduates with the following qualifications will be admitted, although they must complete the Complement Learning for Administration and Business Management described in this annex:

Bachelor’s Degree in Law.
Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture; Architect.
Bachelor’s Degree in Labor Sciences; Bachelor’s Degree in Labor Relations and Human Resources; Diploma in Labor Relations; Diploma in Social Graduate, Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Public Management.
Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics, Bachelor’s Degree in Science and Statistical Techniques, Diploma in Statistics, Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics.
Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.

These are structured as a UPCT special degree title called Complement Learning for Administration and Business Management, with a teaching load of 9 ECTS and taught prior to the start of the Master's Degree at the Faculty of Business Sciences. It includes contents of Business Economics, Accounting and Finance, in particular, Business Organization - with two credits-, Marketing - with two credits- , Accounting - with three credits - and Finance - with two credits.

Admission requirements

You can access a Master’s degree in each of the following cases:

If you have an official university degree in Spain or one issued by a higher education institution of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) which entitles you to access Master's degrees.
If you are a graduate from an educational system outside the EHEA, you will be able to access official Master's studies without having to approve your degrees. Previously, the University must verify that you accredit a qualification equivalent to the corresponding official Spanish university degrees and that the degree obtained entitles you, in the issuing country, to access postgraduate courses. Access by this way will not imply in any case the homologation of the previous title possessed by the interested party, nor its recognition for other purposes than that of studying the Master's degree. To gain access to the Master's studies, those who accredit having a foreign degree not approved in Spain must request, prior to the admission process, verification of the equivalence of their studies with respect to official Spanish qualifications.

The request for verification of equivalence will be managed in the Postgraduate Section, who will request a technical report from the Master’s Academic Committee. The admission resolution will correspond to the UPCT Governing Board Commission, competent in official Masters’ teaching matters.

Further information can be obtained in Resolution R-686/17, of October 16th, of the Rectorate of the Universidad Politècnica de Cartagena, by which the Admission and Enrollment Regulations and Instructions for official Master's degree studies at the UPCT for the academic year 2019-20 are approved in a unified text.

Admission regulations

PLACES AVAILABLE (Academic year 2020-21): 25 + 30 (English Itinerary)

In this Master’s degree, students are admitted before completing their enrollment.

It is also planned that, in the event that the number of students exceeds the maximum number of places established in the Master's degree, their applications will be prioritized according to the adequacy of the degree presented and their academic record. The qualifications that do not require Complement Learning for Administration and Business Management will be a priority over those that do require it. Within each of these two degree groups, applications will be ordered according to the academic record of the degree which grants access to the Master.

All the details regarding the admission and registration process can be found in Resolution R-686/17, of October 16th, of the Rector of the Universidad Politècnica de Cartagena, which approves the Admission and Enrollment Regulations and Instructions for official Master's degree studies at the UPCT for the academic year 2017-2018 in a unified text.

Progress and continuity requirements

Each UPCT student must comply with the progress and continuity requirements in all academic courses from the moment they start a degree until its completion. These requirements define aspects such as the study regime (full-time or part-time), the number of exam calls to which you can submit or the number of ECTS you must pass each course. In the event that due to any duly justified circumstance you cannot meet these conditions, you may request the withdrawal of your application and will be assessed according to the provisions in the requirements.

Students on a full-time basis

First enrollment: You must enroll for 60 ECTS, although you can exclude the Master's Final Project, i.e. you can enroll for 52 ECTS.

For second enrollment and subsequent, the number of annual credits must be greater than 30 ECTS and equal to or less than 60, or be made up of all pending ECTS to complete studies, when these are equal to or less than 30, without considering the Final Master's Project for this last calculation.

Students on a part-time basis

First enrollment: The number of credits must be between 18 and 30 ECTS.

For second enrollment and subsequent, the number of annual credits must be greater than 18 ECTS and equal to or less than 30, or of all pending ECTS to complete their studies, when these are equal to or less than 18, without considering the Final Master's Project for this last calculation.

The complete text can be found in the Progress and Continuity Requirements of the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, approved in the Social Council of June 23rd, 2017.