Study Human Resource Management and graduate with a university degree

For businesses today, managing people is crucial. Human Resource Management (HRM) deals with the management of an organisation’s workforce, from the most junior member of staff to the chief executive.

Organisational success depends upon developing appropriate methods of recruitment and selection, motivation, reward, training and development, grievance and discipline, performance management and career progression.

HR specialists work closely with operational managers to manage the employment relationship, enhance individual and team performance and ensure that workers are fairly treated. HRM also attempts to increase the organisation’s ability to adapt within its environment through broadening the skills of the workforce. As such, HR specialists also need to have a good understanding of the labour market and their organisation’s wider social, economic and political environments.

Year 1

Highers BBBB.
A-levels BBC.
IB Diploma with a total of 32 points.
HNC or HND with Bs in graded units.

Access courses and other UK/EU and international qualifications are also welcomed.

Year 2

A-levels or Advanced Highers ABB to include Business Studies/Management.
Scottish HND in business-related subjects with Bs in graded units.

General entrance requirements apply.

International students can study our Undergraduate Certificate if they do not possess the necessary entrance requirements to be admitted directly to the first year of an undergraduate degree course.

Other information

If examinations are taken over two sittings, or there are repeats or upgrades, the entrance requirements may be higher.

Required subjects

English Standard Grade (2), Intermediate 2 (C), GCSE English (C) or equivalent.
Applicants with English Standard Grade (3) will also be considered, although alternative entry conditions may be made in this case.
Mathematics Standard Grade (3), GCSE (C) or equivalent.

information on possible sources of funding

Full-time (three modules per semester).
Part-time (one or two modules per semester).
February entry also available.

Semesters 1 – 3

You will study three general modules in Business and Management:

• The Firm
• The Business Environment
• Business in the 21st Century

These modules form a foundation for the course. They introduce the main functional areas of management and consider the ways in which the behavioural sciences contribute to the understanding of business/organisational behaviour and people at work. These modules also consider the wider business environment and how it is changing. They also provide some of the analytical techniques that underpin organisational activity – data collection, presentation and analysis – and are crucial for management decision making. Students study these modules alongside students from Business Studies, Management Science, Marketing, Public Management and Administration and Retail Marketing.

Additional modules are taken from other subject areas, and you may wish to study related subjects such as Business Law, Economics, Psychology and Sociology.

Semesters 4 – 8

You will take the following core modules covering the broad field of Human Resource Management:

• Introduction to Human Resource Management
• Managing Organisations
• Employment Relations
• Managing People
• Learning and Development
• Contemporary Personnel Policy
• Employee Ownership and Participation
  
• Human Resource Management
• Business and Organisational Research

In addition, you will choose three optional modules from Business Studies, Management Science or Public Management and Administration or from one of the other subjects for which you are qualified.

Teaching is by lectures, seminars and practical work. In the advanced modules there is more opportunity for group work, case study analysis and skills development.

Assessment is by a combination of coursework and formal examinations. In Year 4, all students complete an Honours dissertation which allows concentration on areas of particular interest.

General texts which may be of interest include:

Beardwell, J and Claydon, T. (2010) Human Resource Management a Contemporary Approach (6th edn.), London: FT Prentice Hall.

Gilmore, S., & Williams, S. (2009) Human Resource Management, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Grey, C. (2009) A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying organizations (2nd edn.) London: Sage.

Noon, M., & Blyton, P. (2007) The Realities of Work (3rd edn.) Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan

For additional information on each subject included in Combined Honours courses, refer to individual subject entries.

(For a Combined Honours degree the higher entrance requirements of the subjects usually apply.)

Business Studies; Management Science; Marketing; Psychology; Retail Marketing; Sociology and Social Policy.

The University of Stirling’s HRM degree takes an approach which provides students with the essential critical thinking and analytical skills needed to manage and thrive in today’s organisations. The degree is not prescriptive and encourages students to critically examine organisational policies as well as claims made about employment and the labour market more widely. As such HR ‘best practice’ is questioned throughout the degree. The Stirling Institute for Socio-Management, which houses the degree, has a focus that goes beyond traditional businesses to include the public and non-profit sectors, community organisations and employee-owned organisations. Employee ownership, for example, is covered extensively within a specific advanced level module on the HRM degree.

You have the opportunity to study abroad through Stirling's well-established connections with several international universities.

Teaching provision in Business and Management has been assessed by the Scottish Funding Council and rated as 'highly satisfactory'.

The HRM degree critically examines HR policies and employment, where these don’t work as they should and how they may be improved. The degree focuses on the wellbeing of employees as well as organisational success and considers a number of different organisational forms, as well as the wider labour market. Staff come from a number of academic and employment backgrounds and bring a rich variety of perspectives to their teaching.

Dr Scott Hurrell studied Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management at undergraduate level at the University of Kent following this up with an MA by Research in Industrial Relations at the same institution. Scott later completed his PhD in Human Resource Management at the University of Strathclyde and has worked at Strathclyde, Aston and Stirling Universities. Scott’s research interests include skills and work organisation, recruitment and selection, the interactive service and non-profit sectors and labour market policy. Scott has a variety of wider employment experience mainly in the hospitality and university administration sectors.

Students completing the degree are well qualified for specialist careers in Human Resource Management as well as management more generally. With the increasing importance of everyone’s performance to organisational success, all managers need to possess HRM skills. Opportunities for employment are broadly available in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Given the focus of the degree on understanding employment in the widest sense, careers may also be followed in trade unions, employment-related charities, government departments, non-governmental organisations or employment research bodies.