Fees and funding

Fees

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

  • MSc (full-time)
    UK students (per annum): £16,300
    International, including EU, students (per annum): £30,500

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

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Learn more about - student finance options for UK students.

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Graduates of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University can receive a 10% discount on their master's degree tuition fees as part of our Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount scheme.

Course unit details:
Strategic Supply Chain Management

Course unit fact file
Unit code BMAN70111
Credit rating 15
Unit level FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree
Teaching period(s) Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

A strategy is a decision-making framework for playing the “game” of business. These decisions, which occur daily throughout every firm, include major tasks like capital investments and operational priorities to more mundane or routine tasks like how each individual working in an organisation shuffles through their To-Do list every single morning. Without a strategic framework to guide these decisions, organisations will tend to run in several directions, incur costs, plunder profits, and suffer enormous discord. The supply chain is simply a network of firms in complex contracts to source, make, and deliver products or services to customers. The complexity of supply chain interactions, the variety of contracting arrangements and the sheer number of parties involved makes it challenging, interesting and practically worthwhile to develop the requisite knowledge and capabilities for defining and designing network-level strategies to underpin successful supply chain management (SCM).

The indicative lectures covered on this course include an Introduction to Strategic SCM, The Theory of Make-Buy, Supplier Portfolio Management, Supplier Selection, Negotiation, Supplier Performance Measurement, Supplier Relationship Management, and Managing Supply Chain Risks.

* Required for CIPS accreditation

Pre/co-requisites

BMAN70111 Programme Req: BMAN70111 is only available as a core unit to students on MSc Operations, Project & Supply Chain Management, and as an elective to students on MSc Business Analytics and MSc Data Science (Business & Management pathway)

Aims

  • Introduce students to the basic issues of supply chain management.
  • Provide an understanding of the role of theory within supply chain management.
  • Explore the broad range of activities associated with the sourcing process
  • Provide a foundation for Global SCM.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course unit, students should be able to:

  • Appreciate the role of SCM within the organisation 
  • Understand organisational theory and how to apply it to SCM problems and issues 
  • Understand and analyse the overall sourcing process

Teaching and learning methods

Formal Contact Methods

Minimum Contact hours: 20 

Delivery format: Lecture and Workshops 

Assessment methods

Written Exam (100%)

 

Feedback methods

Informal advice and discussion during a lecture, seminar, workshop or lab.
 
Online exercises and quizzes delivered through the Blackboard course space.
 
Responses to student emails and questions from a member of staff including feedback provided to a group via an online discussion forum.
 
Specific course related feedback sessions.
 
Written and/or verbal comments on assessed or non-assessed coursework.
 
Written and/or verbal comments after students have given a group or individual presentation.
 
Generic feedback posted on Blackboard regarding overall examination performance.

Recommended reading

MAIN TEXT BOOK:Cousins, P; Lamming, R; Lawson, B; and Squire, B (2008) Strategic Supply Management: Principles, Theories and Practice. FT/Prentice Hall: Harlow.

ADDITIONAL READING: David Simchi-Levi, Philip Kaminsky, Edith Simchi-Levi, (2014) Designing and Managing the Supply Chain: Concepts, Strategies and Case Studies, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Assessment written exam 2.5
Lectures 30
Independent study hours
Independent study 117.5

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Joao Quariguasi Frota Neto Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Informal Contact Methods

Office Hours

Online Learning Activities (blogs, discussions, self-assessment questions)

Drop in Surgeries (extra help sessions for students on material they may be struggling with)

Return to course details

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