Business and Supply Chain Management

This is a Connected Degree

Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course.

Overview

Supply chain management contributes to every aspect of business, not to mention everyday life.

Recent events like Covid and Brexit have shown how important supply chains are. Ensuring the right products are in the right place at the right time — and at the right cost — is vital to life as we know it. So is ensuring those supply chains are sustainable safe for the environment.

On this degree you'll investigate risk and strategic management, logistics management, and learn how to procure goods and manage supply lines.

You'll use professional industry software, systems and tools to help you explore the ethics and sustainability of global supply chains.

With a focus on global procurement and the sourcing and purchasing of goods, you’ll graduate with more than just an understanding of logistics and the movement of goods. You’ll build your specialist knowledge and understanding of business in general so that you graduate with a set of management and specific skills that are in demand in the workplace.

You can boost your employability and apply you degree knowledge with a paid industry placement year before or after your third year. As Portsmouth is a vital supply chain hub there are great local opportunities to do a placement year with companies like IBM and Boeing, as well as other roles across the UK.

Course highlights

• Stand out in the employment market with your knowledge of procurement and a valued skill set

Practise your skills through our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) immersive simulation game, where you'll use real SAP reports

• Choose from specialist module options including business analytics and data modelling — skills that are in-demand in the industry

• Gain core management skills such as risk management and leadership alongside your specialist supply chain skills

• Benefit from the support of our dedicated Placement Team to help you secure a paid placement year

• Improve your global employability by spending a year abroad at a partner university in Europe, Asia, Australia or North America

• Learn from academics who have supply chain industry experience and research expertise in data driven supply chains

Careers and opportunities

Supply chain management is needed everywhere and there's a great shortage of supply chain skills in the UK. You could work in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, shipping and freight, charities or the public sector - the choice is yours.

Pay is good; the average salary for all UK procurement and supply chain professionals is £47,435 (CIPS Salary Guide 2021) and there are many varied routes for career progression, including working overseas.

Roles you can go on to with this degree include:

• supply chain management

• purchasing and procurement

• procurement management

• logistics analysis

• distribution management

• supply coordination

Previous graduates have gone on to work for companies such as:

• Marks and Spencer

• Apple

• Amazon

• DHL

• UPS

• Automotive (RR)

• Procter and Gamble (P&G)

Alternatively you could go on to specialist postgraduate study, or set up your own business with the help and support of the University.

The University of Portsmouth is passionate about creating career-focused modules that do more than support your studies, they empower your academic journey and prepare you for what comes next.

We design modules that have:

• Clear themes and skills development as you progress through each year
• Assessments that feel meaningful, often based on real-world tasks rather than isolated exams
• Career-enhancing opportunities such as placements, live projects, enterprise and volunteering

For a full list of the modules you will study on this course, please visit https://www.port.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduate/bsc-hons-business-and-supply-chain-management#modules

You’ll be assessed through:

essays
presentations
projects
exams
reflective work
computer-based assignments
You’ll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark. You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future.

The way you’re assessed may depend on the modules you select. As a guide, students on this course last year were typically assessed as follows:

Year 1 students: 58% by written exams and 42% by coursework
Year 2 students: 27% by written exams, 17% by practical exams and 56% by coursework
Year 3 students: 48% by written exams, 5% by practical exams and 47% by coursework

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business