MSc Commercial Project Management / Course details

Year of entry: 2025

Course description

Expansive yet meticulous, this course is designed to provide you with the skills needed to streamline and advance commercial organisations.

People and organisations, contract management, risk management, conflict management - equipped with these skills you are able to make businesses more efficient in both time and costs. Not only that, but your commercial background will enable you to enhance marketing and sales, financial management, procurement, bidding and contract management.

This is just one of four MSc courses within our Management of Projects Group of Programmes. The other courses are: Management of Projects, Commercial Project Management and Construction Project Management.

Here at The University of Manchester, we have a long history of delivering project management Master's courses and as a student of this course you will be taught by experts drawn from across a wide variety of specialisms and industry backgrounds.

Special features

  • Gain the highly coveted skill of making business more efficient with Commercial Project Management
  • The first English university to offer an engineering degree, we've pioneered the way since 1824 with decades spent at the cutting-edge of the Management of Projects field on a global scale
  • Named one of the targeted universities by top graduate employers (The Graduate Market, 2024)
  • Recognised as 2nd in the UK for Research Power in Engineering (REF, 2021)
  • This course is listed by the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM) as an Approved Further Learning Scheme for Chartered Engineers
  • Learn in our world-class £400m Home of Engineering and Materials , plus facilities including wind tunnels and laser laboratories

Teaching and learning

The Commercial Project Management MSc is a full time course which is studied over 12 months, starting in September each year. The course comprises eight taught course units, each worth 15 credits, and a research dissertation worth 60 credits. Students on this particular MSc study four core units fundamental to project management, and which are shared by students on the other MSc courses. In addition, students on this course study Contract Management and programme specific unit, Commercial Management, where students work in teams to produce documents related to the buying and selling side of a case study activity. Students must also select two optional units and carry out a Commercial Project Management based dissertation.

Assessment of the taught part of the programme is via a combination of formal written examinations and coursework assignments, which will include group work and oral presentations. Some assessment is based on online material provided by the Association for Project Management (APM) and PRINCE2 (a process-based method for effective project management).

Course unit list

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
People and Organisations ENGM60011 15 Mandatory
Project Management Research Methods ENGM60050 15 Mandatory
Fundamentals of Project Management ENGM60061 15 Mandatory
Project Planning and Control ENGM62012 15 Mandatory
MoP Dissertation ENGM63000 60 Mandatory
Commercial Management ENGM63012 15 Mandatory
Contract Management ENGM66062 15 Mandatory
Smart and Sustainable Infrastructure Management ENGM60022 15 Optional
Risk Management ENGM60032 15 Optional
Project Finance for Infrastructure Projects ENGM64011 15 Optional
Conflict and Negotiation ENGM66061 15 Optional
Managing Projects with ICT ENGM67061 15 Optional
Displaying 10 of 12 course units

Additional fee information

Deposit to accept your offer

Due to the competition for places and limited availability, if you are made an offer to study this course we require a deposit of £1,000 to secure your place. The deposit amount will be deducted from your tuition fees when you register on the course.

You will have 6 weeks from the date on your offer letter to log in and accept your offer and make the £1,000 deposit payment to secure your place.

Refund Policy

The deposit is non-refundable, except in the following situations:

  • you fail to meet the conditions of your offer (see below for further information); and/or
  • you are refused a visa or entry clearance to enter the UK (proof must be submitted)

Proof required for Refund

If an offer has been made specifying an English Language condition which you do not meet, the Admissions Team will require the official certificate of an English Language test taken  after  the date of offer as evidence that you have attempted to meet your offer conditions for a refund to be approved. Any English Language certificate provided with your initial application (which is below our minimum requirement) will not be accepted as proof that you have attempted to meet your offer conditions, as this certificate will predate the offer.

If an offer has been made specifying an academic condition, the Admissions Team will require an official transcript/document showing that you have not met this academic condition, as evidence for a refund to be approved.

The Admissions Team reserves the right to refuse to refund any deposit payments that do not fall within the exceptions outlined above.

Scholarships and bursaries

Across our institution, we offer a number of postgraduate taught scholarships and awards to outstanding UK and international students each year.

The University of Manchester is committed to widening participation in master's study, and allocates £300,000 in funding each year. Our Manchester Masters Bursaries are aimed at widening access to master's courses by removing barriers to postgraduate education for students from underrepresented groups.

For more information, see the Fees and funding page or visit the University of Manchester funding for masters courses website for more information.

Facilities

When it comes to learning facilities, the Home of Engineering and Materials at The University of Manchester is unmatched.


Purpose-built and ready to take to take on some of the world’s most pressing issues, you can enjoy over 1200 informal study spaces, high-spec teaching and research labs, and not to mention lecture theatres equipped with high-density Wi-Fi and power to every seat.

In the words of Senior Lecturer, Dr Tim Craft: “This space smooths the journey to industry in many enriching ways, enabling cross-discipline collaborations to take flight much akin to those experienced within a rewarding engineering career.”

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service. Email: dass@manchester.ac.uk