MSc Operations and Supply Chain Management Curriculum
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September-December Michaelmas Term |
January-April Hilary Term |
May-August Trinity Term |
Note: Modules offered each academic year are subject to change. The modules listed above and below are the modules and timetable for 2025/26.
Module Descriptions
Business Ethics (5 ECTS)
Challenge conventional thinking and explore the ethical dilemmas facing global businesses today. Learn how to address stakeholder conflicts, shape responsible strategies, and lead with integrity in a complex world. You'll examine critical theories, real-world cases, and emerging standards in sustainability and corporate responsibility.
How this fits your MSc journey: Builds your ability to navigate ethical challenges across supply chains and corporate environments, vital for sustainable leadership.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand ethical foundations: Gain clarity on key concepts in business ethics, sustainability and stakeholder management.
- Solve real-world dilemmas: Apply ethical frameworks to develop responsible solutions to business problems.
- Analyse across functions: Explore how ethics interacts with sourcing, finance, marketing and operations.
- Communicate with impact: Build strong oral and written skills through group presentations and essays.
- Work across perspectives: Collaborate in diverse teams to deliver ethical and practical solutions.
Supply Chain Finance (5 ECTS)
Make smarter operational decisions by mastering the financial tools that underpin supply chains. Learn to evaluate investments, manage budgets and assess risks using real-world data and analytics. This module equips you with practical finance and accounting skills through the lens of supply chain efficiency.
How this fits your MSc journey: Builds financial fluency to support strategic, data-driven decisions across supply chain functions.
Learning outcomes:
- Value decisions financially: Apply time value of money and capital budgeting to evaluate supply chain investments.
- Drive efficiency: Analyse operational metrics to improve service and cost performance.
- Control costs effectively: Understand budgeting and reporting in a supply chain context.
- Improve through Lean: Use Lean tools to identify waste and streamline financial and operational processes.
- Link finance to operations: Integrate quantitative and qualitative analysis to boost value creation.
Operations Management (5 ECTS)
Optimise how organisations create and deliver value. Learn to manage people, processes and performance across both service and manufacturing environments. This module provides the foundation for understanding operations in the context of broader strategy and end-to-end supply chains.
How this fits your MSc journey: Lays the groundwork for more advanced topics in supply chain and sustainability by introducing core operational concepts and tools.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand operations strategy: Connect operations decisions to long-term organisational goals.
- Improve performance: Analyse trade-offs in time, quality, cost and flexibility.
- Plan resources effectively: Learn the essentials of capacity, inventory and resource management.
- Design processes: Develop layouts and workflows that support efficient service and production.
- Manage risk and recovery: Apply structured approaches to operational challenges and disruptions.
Global Supply Chain Management (10 ECTS)
Build the foundations to manage supply chains in an international context. Explore how global networks function from procurement to distribution, and learn to apply frameworks to tackle issues like outsourcing, risk and pricing. Real-world case studies connect theory to practice throughout.
How this fits your MSc journey: Introduces core supply chain principles that underpin the rest of your learning on the programme.
Learning outcomes:
- Grasp end-to-end supply chains: Understand how goods, services and information flow globally.
- Solve supply chain problems: Apply frameworks to decisions on sourcing, inventory and distribution.
- Improve performance: Assess the impact of supply chain choices on business competitiveness.
- Adapt to uncertainty: Evaluate risk and resilience strategies in a changing world.
- Think globally: Develop a systems view of interconnected supply networks and cultures.
Business Analytics (5 ECTS)
Turn data into decisions. Learn how to apply descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics to solve complex business problems. Through hands-on exercises and real-world cases, you’ll build the analytical mindset and skills to lead data-driven improvements in operations and beyond.
How this fits your MSc journey: Empowers you to make evidence-based decisions across supply chain, operations and research modules.
Learning outcomes:
- Frame problems with data: Translate real-world challenges into analytical tasks.
- Summarise insights: Use descriptive statistics and visualisation to explore datasets.
- Predict outcomes: Build forecasting and regression models to anticipate trends.
- Optimise decisions: Apply multi-criteria techniques and decision tools for complex choices.
- Use analytics tools: Gain experience with widely used business analytics software and platforms.
Research Methods (5 ECTS)
Master essential tools to investigate real-world business challenges. Build the confidence to design rigorous, ethical research that drives insight and impact in marketing, operations and supply chain management.
How this fits your MSc journey: Sets the foundation for your dissertation by guiding your research from concept to proposal.
Learning outcomes:
- Craft meaningful research questions: Define relevant management problems and select suitable research designs.
- Choose and apply methods effectively: Identify robust techniques for data collection and analysis.
- Conduct responsible research: Apply ethical and methodological best practices in management research.
- Evaluate and integrate theory: Use theoretical frameworks to shape and assess your research design.
- Boost your research confidence: Gain practical experience that prepares you for your MSc dissertation and beyond.
Project Management (5 ECTS)
Master project success by learning how to lead change, manage complexity and deliver value. Explore why so many projects fail – and how modern tools, frameworks and strategies can drive better outcomes. From risk to contracts, you’ll gain practical knowledge to manage projects across sectors.
How this fits your MSc journey: Develops core project management skills needed to lead initiatives and support business transformation from the start of the programme.
Learning outcomes:
- Deliver successful outcomes: Learn strategies and tools to meet project goals on time, on budget and to quality.
- Manage risk and uncertainty: Explore how to navigate and mitigate challenges in complex projects.
- Engage stakeholders: Understand how to drive alignment, manage contracts and build trust across stakeholders.
- Promote organisational learning: Discover how to embed project learnings for long-term business benefit.
- Link projects to strategy: Align project execution with broader organisational objectives and competitive goals.
Supply Chain Science (5 ECTS)
Explore cutting-edge research shaping the future of supply chains. Investigate resilience, AI integration, and risk management using data-driven models and real-world cases. Develop the skills to analyse, formulate and critique solutions to today’s most pressing supply chain challenges.
How this fits your MSc journey: Prepares you for dissertation success by building deep research capabilities and analytical rigour.
Learning outcomes:
- Engage with current trends: Identify and analyse emerging supply chain issues from academia and practice.
- Apply proven methods: Use modelling and analysis techniques to solve real-world supply problems.
- Formulate practical solutions: Translate theory into strategies using structured problem-solving approaches.
- Critically assess outcomes: Evaluate and refine recommendations based on data and stakeholder needs.
- Collaborate on research: Build teamwork and project skills through structured assignments and peer feedback.
Global Procurement (5 ECTS)
Strategically source goods and services in an interconnected world. Learn to manage supplier relationships, negotiate contracts, and integrate sustainability and risk considerations. You'll explore the complexities of global procurement and how it creates competitive advantage across industries.
How this fits your MSc journey: Equips you to manage procurement as a core function of supply chain performance and strategy.
Learning outcomes:
- Procure strategically: Understand procurement’s evolving role from transactional to strategic.
- Source smartly: Evaluate sourcing options, supplier selection, and performance management.
- Build supplier relationships: Develop skills in negotiation and collaboration for long-term value.
- Mitigate risks: Navigate contracts and manage global supply risks with agility.
- Create social value: Explore the intersection of procurement, sustainability and ESG performance.
Design & Planning for Sustainability (5 ECTS)
Design supply chains that deliver both performance and sustainability. Work hands-on with tools like AnyLogistix to model green and circular systems. Learn how to optimise decisions that balance environmental, social and economic outcomes in an increasingly complex global landscape.
How this fits your MSc journey: Builds practical and strategic skills to lead sustainability initiatives across operations and logistics.
Learning outcomes:
- Design sustainable systems: Plan and optimise green and circular supply chains.
- Balance trade-offs: Understand the real-world decisions behind sustainable operations.
- Use analytical tools: Apply modelling and simulation to improve design outcomes.
- Explore emerging tech: Discover the role of digital innovation in achieving sustainability goals.
- Think critically: Assess sustainability challenges and propose feasible, impactful solutions.
Operations Analytics (5 ECTS)
Transform data into actionable insights for smarter operational decisions. Gain practical experience in solving real business problems using statistical learning, predictive modelling and advanced analytics tools in R. You'll learn to frame challenges analytically and communicate data-driven solutions clearly and persuasively.
How this fits your MSc journey: Builds hands-on skills in forecasting, machine learning and analytics essential for consulting, strategy and supply chain roles.
Learning outcomes:
- Translate business problems: Turn operational challenges into statistical models and analytic tasks.
- Use machine learning effectively: Apply core techniques like regression, clustering, trees and neural networks.
- Match methods to problems: Select appropriate tools based on data type and business context.
- Extract insights: Evaluate models and translate outputs into strategic, actionable recommendations.
- Communicate clearly: Present analytics findings in a way that drives business impact.
Dissertation (30 ECTS)
Pursue an in-depth investigation of a critical issue in operations or supply chain management. Demonstrate your ability to apply theory, conduct research and draw meaningful conclusions. This is your opportunity to create original insight and showcase your expertise to future employers.
How this fits your MSc journey: Serves as the capstone of your degree, combining research skills, subject knowledge and strategic thinking.
Learning outcomes:
- Define a meaningful question: Identify and frame a relevant problem or opportunity in your field.
- Review literature critically: Position your research in academic and practical contexts.
- Choose the right methods: Apply appropriate qualitative or quantitative approaches with rigour.
- Deliver insights: Present findings that are clearly analysed and practically relevant.
- Communicate effectively: Write and structure your work to a professional academic standard.