Business and Human Resource Management with Foundation Year
Business and Human Resource Management is a degree that combines the strategic and operational knowledge of business management with a specialist focus on how organisations attract, develop, and retain the people who make them work. Human resource management sits at the heart of organisational performance: the decisions made about recruitment, development, performance, wellbeing, and employment relations shape the culture and capability of every organisation, and HR professionals are increasingly central to how businesses navigate change and build the workforces they need.
At Birkbeck College, this four-year programme with foundation year introduces you to the key functions of business while developing specialist knowledge of how people management contributes to business success. The foundation year provides a supported entry route for students who would benefit from additional academic preparation before engaging with the full degree curriculum. You will develop both the breadth of business understanding that effective HR professionals need and the depth of specialist knowledge in people management, employment law, organisational behaviour, and talent development that equips you for professional practice.
Birkbeck's flexible model makes the degree accessible to students with other commitments.
Graduates are well placed for careers across the full range of HR and people management roles: recruitment, learning and development, organisational development, employee relations, HR business partnering, and HR leadership are all natural directions. The combination of business knowledge and HR specialism prepares you both for entry-level roles in larger HR departments and for more general management positions where people management knowledge is valued. Professional membership and qualification routes through the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development are a natural progression for those building a career in HR.
Postgraduate study in HRM or business is also available for those who wish to develop further.