International Business and Management

International business and management examines how organisations operate across national borders, navigating different legal systems, cultural environments, currencies, regulatory regimes, and competitive landscapes. The discipline brings together strategy, finance, marketing, organisational behaviour, and economics and applies them to the specific challenges of managing in a globalised world, where supply chains span continents, teams work across cultures, and competitive advantage can shift rapidly with changes in technology, trade policy, or geopolitical conditions.

The University of Reading's three-year full-time programme includes a sandwich year and a year abroad, giving you both an extended professional placement in an international business environment and the opportunity to study at a partner institution in another country. These two experiences together provide the kind of immersive, real-world development that distinguishes international business graduates from those with a purely theoretical education. Reading's business school has strong industry connections and a research environment that informs the curriculum with current thinking on strategy, finance, and global management.

You will study international business strategy, cross-cultural management, global marketing, international finance, supply chain management, and the institutional and political contexts in which international trade and investment take place.

Graduates from international business and management programmes go on to work in multinational corporations, management consultancy, international financial institutions, trade bodies, the civil service, and a wide range of organisations that operate across borders. Roles in strategy, marketing, business development, operations, and general management are all natural destinations. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study, including MBA programmes, to develop leadership and specialist expertise that supports progression to senior roles.