On our exciting Master’s programme, you’ll experience first-hand what it’s like to innovate, solving real-life problems and coming up with smart solutions. Inspired by serial entrepreneurs and our academic experts, you will cultivate your entrepreneurial mindset, improving your ability to identify viable business opportunities – whether you launch your own enterprise or support others to do so.

Individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit don’t always start up a new business, but they repeatedly come up with ideas that change the way we live and work, inspiring new products, services and activities that create jobs and spur economic growth. Their innovation, big picture outlook, willingness to take calculated risks and ability to build positive relationships make them an asset to any employer.

On this course, your journey begins in the pre-start-up phase, with the formation of ideas on a possible business venture, right through to potentially pitching your plan to prospective investors or raising money via crowdfunding campaigns. You will be mentored and coached throughout, developing the personal and professional skills needed to envision new products or services capable of attracting investment, then guide them to completion.

Practical in approach, you’ll learn through experience both as an individual and part of a team, participating in educational games, workshops, international and local business challenges and project-based assessments. These not only develop your awareness to detect business opportunities, but also test your capacity to generate ideas and your resolve to progress projects – often in difficult and changing circumstances. As an example of the exciting activities students are exposed to: in 2018, we took students to Greece, visiting a wide range of different organisations, including a maritime institute, a local council working on a food bank project, a DIY family-owned chain store and a wine cooperative. In 2019, the international business challenge took place in Tallinn, Estonia, working with exciting firms such as an international accounting firm, an optician chain, packaging and logistic companies as well as a major Estonian waste management and recycling business. Students were given a series of related tasks, such as coming up with a new business or product idea, revising a current business model and devising supply chain savings.

On our programme, you have plenty of opportunities to connect with London’s vibrant business start-up communities through our networks of entrepreneurs, accelerators, incubators and investors. On another project to put students design thinking to the test, for example, they visited the nearby Church Street Regeneration Base and worked with a small business client to come up ideas for development opportunities – anything from a digital estate agent to a pizza place. 

On graduation, you’ll be ready (if you choose) to launch your start-up, which has led to past students launching successful ventures as diverse as a recipe and food blogger website, mealz.com, and the InterNeurs tv series on Amazon Prime.

Although all our activities are highly experiential, we also provide a sound grounding in current entrepreneurship and innovation theory. Having an entrepreneurial mindset, the ability to think outside the box and skills to innovate will increase your attractiveness to a wide range of employers looking for opportunities to retain or develop competitive advantage. You may choose to pursue a career in mid or senior level management in-house or as a business consultant identifying and fixing problems. Alternatively, idea generation could lead to a role in new product development or research and development, while knowledge of how to successfully attract investments could be transferred to a career as a fundraiser.

Past students have gone on to create successful ventures ranging from a gym for women and a barber franchise, to a VR company, molecular cocktail company, an upmarket bar saloon and organic farm.

The University's Careers and Employability Service has built up a network of over 3,000 employers around the world, helping all our students explore and connect with exciting opportunities and careers.