Program Overview

Nature of the programme

The programme is an online programme composed of 8 taught modules of 25 credits each, of which five are core modules and three are elective modules relating to a specialist stream, culminating in a research based dissertation of 40 credits. The modules may be taken continuously on a full-time basis or spread over a longer period on a part-time basis, depending on the circumstances and needs of the student. Each taught module lasts for seven weeks and the material is available online 24 hours per day, seven days per week during that period. The student may opt to supplement the online taught modules during this period with face-to-face tutorials in a blended approach. The research is supervised by a PhD-qualified tutor within a structured format over a period of 14 weeks, resulting in a dissertation that is both internally and externally examined.

During the taught modules students interact virtually with their tutor and fellow class students. The number of students taking any one module is limited to 30, thus encouraging personalised interaction and sharing of knowledge and experiences among students from a diverse background.

The module material and e-library access is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week for the duration of the modules and for the entire period of the dissertation, through a purpose-designed Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Through the VLE, in addition to their module material, students are able to gain instant access to thousands of the latest versions of text-books and journals from Unicaf University’s e-library to support their work. The recommended textbooks and the entire e-library are directly available to the student from their VLE platform at the click of a button. Through the online library help desk, students are able to request for further reading materials that they may need.

Upon completion of this Master students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate effective analytical and critical thinking skills to make an appropriate business related decisions.
2. Distinguish and analyse ethical problems that occur in business and society.
3. Illustrate how current technologies and decision-support tools can be utilized to the advantage of business operations.
4. Explain the role and significance of effective management information systems, and describe how they contribute to optimizing organizational performance.
5. Explain fundamental database concepts and apply these concepts to the design and development of relational databases.
6. Demonstrate the major steps in the design and implementation phases of the system development life cycle (SDLC).
7. Apply programming skills to solve common business problems and Web development techniques.
8. Explain fundamental concepts of data communications, computer networking, and the related hardware.
9. Demonstrate technical knowledge of computer networks, information security and information assurance.