Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration

Purpose

The purpose of the Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration is to deepen learners' knowledge and skills as well as applied competence to supervise/manage administrative functions in a business enterprise. Qualifying learners will have the competence to integrate and oversee the application of appropriate concepts, facts, principles, rules and theories of the fields of business administrative management to unfamiliar but relevant contexts. Learners will be equipped with knowledge and skills to communicate effectively and to utilise entrepreneurial skills to support business decision making processes.

Learners will be equipped with knowledge and research skills to write and complete a research project. The programme also prepares learners for a Master's Degree on Level 9.

Rationale

The lack of adequate management and business management skills in South Africa plays an important role in the high failure rate in the Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMME) arena. This qualification will provide a set of very important and essential skills to support national efforts to equip prospective business managers and entrepreneurs to produce better economic results.

The qualification focuses on the entrepreneurial and strategic management aspects of commerce as well as on change management aspects, including research. It includes important business related modules to ensure a balanced perspective of modern corporate business to inform the environment within which the qualifying learners must operate.

Learners will develop depth and specialisation of knowledge, together with professional skills, to enable qualifying learners to apply their learning in the workplace.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration partially fills the gap between undergraduate and postgraduate studies in this discipline which was created by the discontinuation of the Baccalaureus Technologiae qualification in order to create a coherent pathway for learners wishing to pursue a vocational and/or academic career in this discipline in compliance with the requirements of the new Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF). Relevant stakeholders, including academic peers from outside the institution and employers represented on Advisory Committee, were involved in the development of the programme.

This qualification accommodates learners from different fields of study and completion of the Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration qualification may be presented for entry into the Master of Business Administration at Level 9.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

This qualification may be achieved in part through the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) which includes formal, informal and non-formal learning and through prior experience as a practitioner in the field of business administration. Providers are required to develop structured means for the assessment of individual learners against the exit level outcomes of the qualification on a case-by-case basis and assessment is done by means of Integrated Assessment strategies as mentioned above. Such procedures, and the assessment of individual cases, are subject to moderation by independent-assessors. The learner will be thoroughly briefed on the mechanism to be used and support and guidance that will be provided. The necessary evidence as required by the exit level outcomes, and presented by the learner, should meet the following principles: currency of evidence, sufficiency of evidence, validity of evidence and authenticity of evidence. If the learner is able to demonstrate competence in the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes implicit in this qualification the appropriate credits will be assigned to the learner. A maximum of 10% per cohort may be admitted to this qualification through RPL.

Entry Requirements

• Advanced Diploma in Business Administration, Level 7.

Or

• Advanced Diploma in Administrative Management, Level 7.

Or

• Advanced Diploma in Management Services, Level 7.

Or

• Bachelor Degree, Level 7.

This qualification comprises compulsory modules at Level 8 totalling 120 Credits.

Compulsory Modules (120 Credits)

• Strategic Management V, 30 Credits.
• Advanced Research Methodology, 30 Credits.
• Change Management V, 30 Credits.
• Corporate Entrepreneurship V, 30 Credits.

1. Analyse management theories and strategies.
2. Interrogate multiple sources of knowledge of national, regional, international and global socio-economic, business and financial contexts in which enterprises operate and evaluate such knowledge and processes of knowledge production.
3. Manage and administer change within a business enterprise.
4. Use a range of specialised skills to identify, analyse and address complex or abstract problems drawing systematically on the body of knowledge and methods appropriate to the field and practices of business administration.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1

• Analyse the implementation of management strategies.
• Analyse Vision and mission of companies.
• Analyse Internal and external audits.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2

• Identify sources of micro and macro social, economic and technological forces that influence business establishments and growth.
• Evaluate knowledge sources in terms of processes of knowledge production and their understanding of the dimensions of domestic and global economic impacts on businesses.
• Integrate the concepts creative environment, local economic development and entrepreneurship to promote sustainable businesses and environments.
• Introduce entrepreneurship theories which support economic development in regional, national, international and global environments.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3

• Analyse the different approaches and theories to organisational development.
• Analyse factors that causes resistance to change.
• Evaluate the transition process within the context of management.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4

• Develop a quality research proposal which meets the standard and requirements for access to a Master's Degree.

Integrated Assessment

Formative Assessment strategies are continuous and aimed at giving learners feedback on their progress in the achievement of learning outcomes as well as to integrate theoretical and practical competence. Such strategies include informal assignments, discussions, case studies, informal tests and tutoring. Some of the criteria may be assessed through observation of the learners during classes.

Summative assessment strategies are aimed at judgement of the learning in relation to the Exit Level Outcomes of the programme. Such strategies include examinations, reports, projects or equivalent such as a portfolio of evidence which is representative of a selection of the outcomes.

The outcomes of the formal assignments will contribute to a cumulative class mark as per pre-arrangement with the learners. In the formal assignments, and in the respective examinations learners will have to demonstrate the ability to communicate and integrate knowledge of the key issues, highlighted in the respective modules, and identify and resolve typical problems in the subfields as indicated. This will require critical and creative thinking as well as the ability to make practical applications of the learning outcomes as indicated in the module descriptors.