Management Consultancy and Organisational Change

Modules and Teaching

• One year full-time or two years part-time, on campus, starting in October 2026

  Course structure

  You must complete modules worth a total of 180 credits, consisting of:

  • eight compulsory modules (15 credits each)
  • a practice-based project (60 credits).

  For your project, you can do either:

  • an individual research project on a topic of your choice
  • a consultancy challenge project*, working with a top consultancy firm to hone your consultancy skills and gain practical experience.

  * Places on The Consultancy Challenge are limited and subject to entry criteria.

  Compulsory modules

  • Applied Decision Making
  • Consultancy and Professional Practice
  • Knowledge Management, Organisational Learning and Innovation
  • Managing Organizational Change
  • Organization and Change Perspectives
  • Professional Development and Learning
  • Research Methods
  • Strategy in Practice

  Project options

  • Research Project
  • The Consultancy Challenge

• Teaching

  We encourage innovative and engaging ways of teaching to help ensure you have the best learning experience and provide a range of different modes of learning to help you juggle study with work and other commitments.

  Find out more about our teaching and teaching hours.

  What are the methods of teaching?

  This course combines research-led teaching and experiential forms of work-based learning. Throughout the course the emphasis is on identifying core principles and practices and applying these to cases drawn from your personal experience in the workplace.

  Each module will use a variety of teaching methods, including case studies, class and small-group discussion, in-class examinations and tests, class presentations, role plays, other group activities, videos and written assignments. In addition, you will be expected to set up and take part in a number of learning forums outside the classroom, such as peer review groups and learning sets.

• How will I be assessed?

  Assessment includes examinations at the end of each term, coursework and a project.

  Please see individual modules for more details.

  Find out more about assessment at Birkbeck, including guidance on assessment, feedback and our assessment offences policy.

Entry requirements

Our standard postgraduate entry requirement is a second-class honours degree (2:2 or above).

Managers and consultants without a degree but with experience in a wide range of public and private sector organisations may be able to benefit substantially from the course, and their applications are welcomed.

• What are the English language requirements?

  If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, our usual requirement is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests. We also accept other English language tests.

  If you don't meet the minimum English language requirements, please contact us or see our international study skills page for more details about how we can help.

  Visit the International section of our website to find out more about our English language entry requirements and relevant requirements by country.

• What are the visa and funding requirements?

  If you are not from the UK and you do not already have residency here, you may need to apply for a visa.

  The visa you apply for varies according to the length of your course:

  • Courses of more than six months' duration: Student visa
  • Courses of less than six months' duration: Standard Visitor visa

  International students who require a Student visa should apply to study on our courses full-time as these qualify for Student visa sponsorship. If you are living in the UK on a Student visa, you will not be eligible to enrol to study part-time courses at Birkbeck (with the exception of some modules).

  As a Student visa student, you should also apply to study on campus only, as online and flexible options of study (if they are available for your course) may affect the conditions of your visa.

  For full information, read our visa information for international students page.

  Please also visit the international section of our website to find out more about relevant visa and funding requirements by country.

  Please note students receiving US Federal Aid are only able to apply for in-person, on-campus programmes which will have no elements of online study.

• Credits and accredited prior learning (APL)

  If you have studied at university (or have an HND or Foundation Degree), you may have accumulated credits. It may be possible to transfer these from your previous study to Birkbeck or another institution.

Fees

• Birkbeck's Lifelong Learning Guarantee

  If you've studied at Birkbeck before and successfully completed an award with us, take advantage of our Lifelong Learning Guarantee to gain a reduction on the tuition fee of this course.

• Can I apply for an international scholarship?

  We provide a range of scholarships for eligible international students, including our Global Future Scholarship. View Birkbeck's available scholarships.

Careers and employability

On successfully graduating from this MSc Management Consultancy and Organisational Change, you will have gained an array of important transferable skills, including:

• client-facing consultancy techniques for scoping projects, engaging stakeholders, managing projects and presenting compelling insights
• teamwork, adaptability, creative problem solving and ethical judgement under real-world pressure
• full-cycle change management skills for planning, mapping, communicating, evaluating and sustaining change
• critical thinking
• strategic approaches to market, product and consumer analysis.

The course will prepare you for a career path in a range of fields and professions including in:

• management consultancy
• change management
• learning and development
• project management
• strategic analysis
• management and leadership roles where core consultancy skills are increasingly essential.

Graduates from this course have gone on to be employed at organisations including:

• Deloitte
• Arup
• PA Consulting
• Arcadis
• Kantar.

Student support

How to apply

• When should I apply?

  You are strongly advised to apply now, to ensure there are still places left, and to give you enough time to complete the admissions process, to arrange funding and to enrol.

  You don't need to complete your current programme of study before you apply - Birkbeck can offer you a place that is conditional on your results.

• How can I get help with my application?

  Get all the information you need about the application, admission and enrolment process at Birkbeck.

  Our online personal statement tool will guide you through every step of writing the personal statement part of your application.

• International agents

  If you are an international agent applying to Birkbeck on behalf of an international student, please use Birkbeck's agent portal.