Program Overview

MSc Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Overview

To thrive in a disrupted world, you will need creativity as well as commercial acumen. Come to the home of innovative, design-led, creative business education and transform your prospects.

The MSc Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship will teach you how to apply your existing undergraduate degree knowledge in real-world business challenges appropriate to joining innovative organisations. You'll get the chance to:

• start-up your career and ideas in a professional-supported environment,
• undertake applied commercial projects in collaborative teams,
• learn human-centred techniques for designing and developing ideas of real value.

We welcome students from any discipline who are thinking about building a career either in large commercial organisations or startups.

This programme shares much of its teaching with our other Innovation and Entrepreneurship programmes (MSc and MA) but has a specific focus on intrapreneurial activity adding value within existing organisations.

This course will develop the high-level skills and critical competencies needed for successful organisational innovation and intrapreneurship, through a largely practice-orientated educational approach based on collaborative teamwork across disciplines and cultures.

During the programme, you get opportunities to work alongside innovators and their businesses to develop a deep understanding of opportunities and challenges.

Bristol is a recognised hub for innovative and entrepreneurial business, being ranked within the top five best places in the UK to start-up outside of London (Startup Cities Index, 2022), and home to some of the most impactful, innovative, and creative organisations in the world.

Key Information

• Programme duration: One year full-time
• Start date: September 2025
• Application deadline:
  • Overseas applicants: 25 July 2025
  • Home applicants: 8 August 2025
• Delivery method: On-Campus
• Location: Clifton
• Awards available: MSc

Programme Structure

The degree is delivered through practical units on innovation-led entrepreneurial skills; design and systems thinking; and developing and prototyping ideas.

In the first term, you will learn about human-centred design thinking to develop innovations that create value by meeting real human needs. This involves understanding your target audience and the issues they face, and developing and testing ideas for possible solutions. You will gain insight into the technological, social, and political influences on design and innovation, drawing on case studies of success and failure to help you think about future opportunities.

In the second term, you will explore solutions for a real-world client, iterating to develop an unexpected range of possibilities and creating prototypes to test with customers or users. You will learn about different kinds of enterprise, how to explore your ideas from a business perspective and how to place them in the appropriate context. And you will assess the viability, feasibility, sustainability, and desirability of a proposed venture while writing compelling business plans.

In your final project over the summer, you will pull together all you have learned to create a product or service as an entrepreneurial or innovative new venture.

There are no exams, only coursework, which typically includes both individual and group assessments, and you will get the chance to work in interdisciplinary teams throughout the year.

Entry Requirements

• You will typically need an upper second-class honours degree or an international equivalent in any discipline.
• If you are currently completing a degree, we understand that your final grade may be higher than the interim grades or module/unit grades you have achieved during your studies to date.
• We will consider your application if your interim grades are currently slightly lower than the programme's entry requirements and may make you an aspirational offer. This offer would be at the standard level, so you would need to achieve the standard entry requirements by the end of your degree. Specific module requirements would still apply.
• We will also consider your application if your final overall achieved grade is slightly lower than the programme's entry requirement. If you have at least one of the following, please include your CV (curriculum vitae / résumé) when you apply, showing details of your relevant qualifications:
  • Evidence of significant (minimum two years), relevant work experience in a formal title role within any organisation in any sector or industry.
  • A relevant postgraduate qualification

Fees and Funding

• Home: full-time £19,700 per year
• Overseas: full-time £35,300 per year
• Fees are subject to an annual review. For programmes that last longer than one year, please budget for up to an 8% increase in fees each year.

Career Prospects

You may create an entrepreneurial venture or join an existing one. Whatever you choose, you will be able to hit the ground running.

You will graduate with a portfolio of work that shows what you can do – you may even have an emergent venture. You will build a network of contacts to draw on whether you are starting-up or seeking innovative roles.