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Human Resource Management (Top-up) BA(Hons)

2025-26 (also available for 2024-25)

Start date

22 September 2025

Duration

1 year full-time
2 years part-time

Places available (subject to change)

50

About the course

Reasons to study

  1. Our staff rank in the top three in England for the proportion who hold doctorates, who have higher degrees, and hold teaching qualifications (HESA 2022).
  2. We are second in the country for National Teaching Fellowships, which mark the UK's best lecturers in Higher Education, winning a total of 18 since 2008.
  3. Study at an AACSB International accredited Business School. Globally, less than 6% of institutions offering business degrees achieve this accreditation.

Why Human Resource Management?

This top-up course lets you build on your existing knowledge and skills to understand the role human resource management plays in a business, and how you can play a part in the industry too.

If you’ve already studied a business subject to diploma level and you want to understand the world of HR, then this course could be ideal for you.

How will you learn?

You will learn through practical application and delivered lectures, workshops, seminars and group work sessions.

  • This course will focus on the strategic elements of people resourcing and the contribution that these activities can make to organisational success and achieving a high performing workforce in a rapidly changing environment.
  • You’ll be given the opportunity to understand the professional skills needed in the HR industry including how to recruit and inspire staff.
  • You’ll have the chance to develop your potential as a Human Resource Management (HRM) professional while looking at wider industry issues too in order to help you develop your business acumen.
  • You’ll have the chance to build up a knowledge of how HRM can help to create a high performance workplace, all by attracting, retaining, developing, managing and rewarding staff.

You'll have the opportunity to learn broader range management theories (in relation to strategy and cross cultural management) which will help you to analyse and solve problems in a globally interconnected environment.

What subjects will you cover?

You’ll explore subjects such as People Resourcing, Human Resource Development, Employment Relations, Strategy in Context, The Future of Work and Managing Across Cultures.

Course detail

Core modules:

People Resourcing

People Resourcing covers a wide range of people management issues from pre-employment (corporate and HR strategic planning, recruitment, and selection), initial and continuing employment (socialisation, performance management), to release from employment (redundancy, retirement, exit interviews). The module will focus on the strategic elements of people resourcing and the contribution that these activities can make to organisational success and achieving a high-performance workforce in a rapidly changing environment.

Human Resource Development

Ever wondered how training and developing employees can add value to an organisation? This module will explore this, looking at how investing in staff in this way builds increased commitment and enhances skills. After a review of HRD, how we identify, plan, develop, deliver, and evaluate training, we will consider interventions to support learning organisations as well as exploring the theories surrounding HRD.

The Future of Work

This module adopts a perspective to examine the dynamics, complexities, and uncertainties of a modern world of work. Topics on the future of work will be studied in a national and global context. You'll explore the impact at an individual, organisational, and societal level of the need for efficiency and effectiveness in managing a diverse workforce, the impact of technological change, and the changing relationship between employers and employees. Through the module you'll develop a critical understanding of the workplace as employees and managers of the future.

Employment Relations

This module focuses on the theory and practical application of Employment Relations in the workplace. It will help develop an understanding of core employment legislation and management interventions that can be applied in the workplace to enable the effective management of the employment relationship.

Managing Across Cultures

In this module, you'll explore how culture affects business and management. You'll learn the essential knowledge and theories in cross-cultural management, which will enable you to compare cultures systematically. You'll also investigate the latest developments in cross cultural research, which will develop your capability in understanding and analysing cross cultural scenarios. You are encouraged to develop an open-minded approach to cultural differences and an understanding of culture’s influence on business and management.

Strategy in Context

In this module you’ll gain an understanding of how organisations develop their strategies in relation to different aspects of their environment. You’ll study how both the internal context (e.g. organisational structure, routines and resources) and external context (e.g. institutional systems, industry structures and competition) shape organisational activities and the strategic decisions that individual managers make.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for this course are normally one of the following:

  • Higher National Diploma or equivalent (eg two year advanced diploma level or comparable qualifications, or European equivalent to 120 ECTS points).
  • Foundation degree or 120 ECTS.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

What our students have to say


The University of Huddersfield offers a diverse and vibrant student environment, located on one central town centre campus site. The Business School provides you with a modern, professional environment to learn and develop, located right next to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal it's in a leafy and picturesque location at the heart of the campus.

Watch our profile video to hear Sana describe why she chose the University of Huddersfield.

Your Career


Previous graduates from this subject area have gone on to roles such as Digital Marketing & Media Assistant, Front Line Manager, HR Recruiter, Customer Service Associate, Account Executive and Operations Manager in organisations including Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Morrisons, ASSIST Sheffield, HSBS, Softcat Limited, Deltec International Courier Ltd and Hoardtek. **

* Percentage of graduates from this subject who are in work and/or further study fifteen months after graduating (HESA Graduate Outcomes 19/20, UK domiciled graduates).
**Source: LinkedIn

88.4% Graduates employed*

Student support

​At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Important information

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes:

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment, or pandemics.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.

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