MSc in Business Psychology with Coaching
Heriot-Watt University Dubai
Key Information
Campus location
Academic City, United Arab Emirates
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
1 - 2 year
Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
AED 88,452 / per year *
Application deadline
Request info
Earliest start date
Request info
* all tuition fees inclusive of VAT
Introduction
Overview
Coaching Psychology is a thriving area of applied psychology which deals with professional and personal issues in a practical way. There is a growing demand for experts in evidence-based coaching who can offer effective non-clinical interventions to help individuals and teams by increasing productivity, managing talent, and dealing with conflict, stress and change. This demand exists across a number of sectors and areas of performance including occupational, educational, health, counselling, sports psychology, leadership, management, organisational development and human resources.
Admissions
Curriculum
Course content
MSc students take all of the courses listed over a one or two-year period. The Postgraduate Diploma is awarded to students who pass all of the taught courses but do not continue on to the Master’s thesis. To gain the Postgraduate Certificate, students must pass any four of the eight taught elements.
The Business Psychology curriculum is complemented by a series of professional development activities to build academic and personal skills, consult with organisations and acquire additional accredited certificates (where available).
Core courses
- Social and Organisational Change – the processes of individual and group change and the concept of resistance.
- Psychology of Coaching – introducing the practice of coaching and its background in counselling theory.
- Psychology for Marketing – exploring consumer behaviour, including cognition and perception in retail environments and the social psychology of persuasion.
- Introduction to Human Factors and Ergonomics – the importance of workspace design and the impact of the environment on human error and performance.
- Organisational Culture – analysing the concept of culture and its impact on employees.
- Leadership – introducing the concept of power and how this relates to leadership in the business setting.
- Diversity – looking at diversity from an individual identity perspective and examining the success of diversity management programmes.
- Research Methods – research design, both qualitative and quantitative, relevant to the Master’s thesis.
Dissertation
An MSc thesis is undertaken by students once they have completed and passed all taught courses. Students work individually with a project supervisor to design, carry out and present a formal project, applying psychology to their workplace. Students must show academic achievement in the taught courses to be considered eligible for the project.
Career Opportunities
The practical and theoretical focus of the programme ensures that graduates are able to make a positive and effective contribution through coaching practice with learning from Business Psychology. This may be through taking the degree into a career in coaching in the workplace or as a step to becoming an accredited Coach in other contexts such as Education, Counselling, or Sports. The skills developed through the programme can be applied in the workplace through various wider roles e.g., management, consultancy, HR, as well as through specific coaching roles e.g., Executive Coach, Talent Management, Career Coaching, Mentoring.