MA International Spa Management

Start date: September and January for the MA traditional route, May for the MA with integrated work placement.

Course length: Full time: one year, full time with integrated work placement: 20 months, part time: two years and up to six years.

Campus: Buxton Campus

This course is available to international students

During this course you will develop a critical understanding of the global spa industry, its practices and the changing nature of consumer behaviour. You will develop the skills you will need to work in management roles by studying spa operations, project management, sustainable management systems, risk management, marketing, financial planning and strategy.

You will meet a variety of industry representatives, who regularly collaborate with us. We are working with Danubius, Mandarin Oriental, Elemis and Ananda Spa, the world's number one spa destination. And in 2011, we hosted the Spa Industry Education Conference at our Buxton Campus.

Our team specialises in international spa management, not just generic business. Some of our staff are actively engaged in day spa consumer profiling, and others are looking at the regeneration of heritage towns through spa tourism.

We have strong international links and partners in teaching and research, including HCB Associates and universities in Italy, New Zealand and Hungary.

You can study this course full or part time. You will learn through on campus teaching, e-learning, block study and/or a combination of these options to suit your individual needs and specific interests. All the modules involve experiential learning, which will help you to add to your skills base in your individual portfolio.

You will have the opportunity to test your research ideas in the Devonshire Spa, our on site commercial day spa, or get involved in consultancy work with some of the leading spa providers.

This is a classroom based course.

UK/EU students

• £695 per module (you usually take 9 of these modules in total)

International students

• Full time: £10,455 (in total)

*These fees apply if you're starting this course between September 2013 and August 2014. We recommend you check fee details with us though, as they can change. Costs can increase each year.

All of the Postgraduate MA programmes at UDB are delivered both face to face and through blended learning (mixture of face to face and distance learning).

All of our modules are taught within Academic Calendar (September through to July), but the pattern of delivery is dependent upon cohort, industry and University input. This may include weekends, a block study week, weekly during the academic year or blended learning. The emphasis is on flexible teaching and learning.

Whether you are studying Full-time or Part-time, the MA courses require a great deal of independence of learning and application. Normally 20 Credits modules will take you about 200 hours to complete and 40 or 60 Credits modules will take you 400 or 600 hours to complete.

Learning in each module will be directed through lecturing input, module teaching materials and a variety of supporting learning activities. However, you should keep in mind that at Master’s Level you will spend approximately 60% of your time on independent learning, review, revision and assignment preparation.

Par-time students have the flexibility to study between 2 and 4 modules per year.

The teaching and learning methods used are diverse and may include lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops, practical fieldwork exercises and online learning materials. The assessment methods allow you to further develop professional skills you can use in the workplace. Assessments include briefing reports, pitches, presentations, essays, unseen examinations, and case studies.

If you are already working in the spa industry and wish to progress to managerial level jobs, whether you want to work in the UK or pursue a career abroad in Spa or related organisations, this course will provide you with the knowledge, professional skills and practical tools necessary to work at management level. Many of our students have accessed senior management positions in Spa organisations or moved onto into academia and the research arena.

Janet Dale-Evans, MA International Spa Management (Class of 2010-2011)

"Thank you for making 'The Spa Consumer' an amazing module. I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt inspired with all the knowledge. It was intense, full on and fab."

Rohit Justa, MA International Spa Management (Class of 2010-11)

"I chose the University of Derby Buxton as this is the only university in the world which offers a Masters in Spa Management."

Victoria Higgs, MA International Spa Management (Class of 2009-2010)

"I absolutely loved my time at the University of Derby Buxton completing both a course in BSc International Spa Management and MA International Spa Management."