Structure
The AGSM MBA (Policy Leadership) is a part-time program and can be completed in anywhere between 2 to 6 years. There are 12 courses in the program, includes six core courses and six specialisation courses.
Compulsory core courses
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This course is a comprehensive introduction to the topic of leadership. It aims to help students to build the confidence, knowledge and skills to engage in effective leadership in a broad range of contexts. It also provides guidance on self-leadership and actively managing the process of growing as a leader.
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The Strategy course aims to equip students with the skills, knowledge and experience to formulate, evaluate and implement value-creating strategies for organisations. The course introduces students to the contemporary principles, tools and frameworks of strategic management that support the work of successful strategists in leading sustainable organisations. Whether students work in small or large organisations, whether in a startup, scale up or incumbent, domestically focused or a major international or global organisation, in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors, strategic management plays a central role in achieving the objectives of the organisation as we navigate an increasingly complex, disrupted, technology-infused, and dynamic business environment.
Core courses - choose four
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Marketing Management is a course designed to introduce fundamental marketing concepts, theories and analytical tools to managers working in today's highly competitive and complex business environment. The course places particular emphasis on the management of profitable exchange processes in the context of modern organisations and covers a diverse range of marketing topics including marketing strategy and planning, the marketing environment and how to monitor it, consumer and organisational behaviour, marketing research, market segmentation and development of target markets, new product development, pricing, distribution, promotion and international marketing. Participants are required to tackle real life marketing problems and demonstrate their ability to apply classroom knowledge to their own work situations.
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Accounting and Financial Management is designed for those who use accounting information, rather than those whose task it is to prepare it. The focus is on the understanding and use of accounting information as well as the composition and meaning of the financial statements. The course covers accounting reports prepared for external users as well as accounting reports used by managers to plan, control and make decisions.
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Accounting and Financial Management is designed for those who use accounting information, rather than those whose task it is to prepare it. The focus is on the understanding and use of accounting information as well as the composition and meaning of the financial statements. The course covers accounting reports prepared for external users as well as accounting reports used by managers to plan, control and make decisions.
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This course stresses the fundamentals of corporate financial decision making with special reference to investment, financing and dividend distribution. The course develops distinct conceptual frameworks and specialised tools for solving real-world financial problems at both the personal and corporate level. Examples include funds management, mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings, portfolio selection of financial securities, public floats and the pricing of assets in the stock market. Illustrations from real-life corporate practices are used to highlight the importance and relevance of financial management to the realisation of personal and corporate financial objectives.
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This course stresses the fundamentals of corporate financial decision making with special reference to investment, financing and dividend distribution. The course develops distinct conceptual frameworks and specialised tools for solving real-world financial problems at both the personal and corporate level. Examples include funds management, mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings, portfolio selection of financial securities, public floats and the pricing of assets in the stock market. Illustrations from real-life corporate practices are used to highlight the importance and relevance of financial management to the realisation of personal and corporate financial objectives.
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Evidence-based decision-making, supported by a data-driven culture, is critical to the success of organisations. It is essential that professionals can define problems clearly and systematically, know what techniques can be applied in order to solve these problems, and communicate the results concisely and effectively. This course helps students to frame business problems in a quantitative matter and learn how data collection and experimentation can help provide management insights. As the second step, students will learn how to solve problems through predictive models. This requires a basic understanding of statistics and therefore students will study the basics of regression provided by the Harvard Quantitative Methods online course during the first five weeks. This will help improve students’ data literacy in order to communicate more effectively with data scientists, as well as contribute to the democratisation of data within their business. Finally, students will learn the basics of using Tableau, one of the leading Data Analytics and Visualisation tools in the field. Through data storytelling, students will learn to communicate data more effectively and improve their ability to simplify problems and facilitate decision-making.
Policy Leadership specialisation courses - choose six
Must complete four Policy Leadership specialisation courses from below and two other electives.
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In order to be an effective policy leader, it is critical to have a solid understanding of how contemporary public policy challenges exist in systems. In multi-layered, multiple stakeholder, federal networks, a policy leader at any one level will not have the ability to direct policy at other levels, or in the private/not-for-profit sectors. Further, past policy leaders have addressed many of the policy challenges that respond to a single program, leaving today’s most pressing policy problems which are complex and multi-faceted. This means that policy leaders require a deep understanding of governance at the project, program, organisation and systems levels. Governance in Policy Systems will focus on providing future policy leaders with strategic insight and practical skills to provide stewardship of policy through complex systems.
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Projects play a central role in public policy. It’s important to understand how they impact on organisational objectives, the effect of organisational decisions on project success or failure, the organising principles of project governance, and the project manager’s role in managing stakeholder expectations and delivering project outcomes. This course is about projects as activities that are conducted by people, who make conscious decisions about the types of tools and techniques that are used. Effective policy leadership applies best practice from both public and private sectors in support of these decision. In complex policy networks and systems, policy leaders need to select and match the most suitable strategies. This course expands student awareness of public sector management strategies and encourages them to translate strategies from their previous MBAX studies. The Business of Managing Projects will focus on the key project management concepts to explain the interactions between people and processes in projects, formulate evidence-based solutions to complex challenges that projects face, and develop skills in communicating those solutions to diverse stakeholders.
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Adaptive leadership is a practical framework to assist individuals and organizations confront and diagnose difficult situations and flourish in turbulent and challenging circumstances. It meets the needs to respond dynamically, creatively and respectfully to intractable problems, as well as emerging crises and ambiguous system and worldview changes. This course offers an additional tool to the mainstream leadership repertoire that relies on a heroic, visionary individual at the top of an organization to chart a course and marshal people along a path towards achievement of pre-defined solutions.
The course meets the contemporary needs of practitioners from across Australian society who confront massive systemic challenges, shifting geopolitical forces and social movements, and significant domestic public sector reform agendas, all requiring new ways of collaborating and practising leadership as a collective endeavour. The course will equip students with practical tools to contribute to the advancement of Australia’s interests both domestically and in the Indo-Pacific region.
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Technological advance means that the range of data available to support policy leadership is constantly evolving. While professional experience will provide some knowledge of particular data types and possibilities, it is difficult to grasp the breadth or keep up with the pace of data advance. However, policy leaders need to know how to request, design and interpret data for its reliability, validity and relevance as evidence. This course will focus on the range of data sets currently available, how they should be interrogated and ways they should be presented to support policy and political decision-making.
UNSW Online Handbook Summary
UNSW Class Timetable
Electives:
Students must take two elective courses from any courses with an AGSM prefix (e.g. core courses and courses from other specialisations) including the AGSM9155 Strategic Consulting Project or participate in an international exchange.
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This course provides you with the opportunity to develop and practise your problem-solving skills by integrating your knowledge, skills, experience and various tools you have acquired during your MBAX studies. By investigating a particular strategic issue in an organisation, working as a team on the client issue, identifying solutions for that issue, and presenting practical recommendations to the client, you will acquire the skills and practical experience to become effective leaders and innovators.
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AGSM @ UNSW Business School partners with over 30 elite business schools across Asia, Europe, UK and the USA to provide exchange opportunities for MBA students.
AGSM is a proud member of both the PIM and GNAM international networks through which students have access to short and international experience.
Partnership in International Management (PIM) is an international consortium of business schools from around the world which provides a framework for international cooperation primarily at the graduate level. Through this network of 65 leading business schools AGSM students can access exchange opportunities.
Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) is a powerful network created by 32 of the world’s leading business schools. As the only Australian university in the network, AGSM students have a unique opportunity to apply for participation in Global Network Weeks and Global Network Courses during their MBA program.