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MSc Human Resource Management

Key information

Human resource management benefits employers, employees, and creates wider social benefits including lower unemployment, inclusion for marginalised people, reduced demand for out-of-work and in-work benefits while reducing healthcare burdens due to work-related illness and disability. 

Level
Postgraduate Taught
Delivery type
Full Time, Part Time
Degree qualification
MSc
Mode of delivery
On-Campus
Duration
1 year
Location
Edinburgh
Start date
September, January

Our MSc Human Resource Management provides you with the crucial insights, skills, and knowledge to develop sustainable and socially responsible HR practices for managing people. You’ll gain a critical understanding of the core theories, principles and concepts that underpin contemporary organisation practice and explore socially responsible and sustainable models of human resource management (HRM). You’ll gain a critical awareness of the current and emerging issues in research and knowledge creation and gain the skills to develop original, creative solutions in response to these problems. The MSc will provide you with the skills to apply your knowledge and understanding to professional practice and solve contemporary organisational problems.   

Beyond subject knowledge and skills, you’ll gain key transferrable skills which will aid you throughout your professional career. You’ll be able to make formal presentations about specialised topics to audiences with a variety of levels of expertise, effectively communicate using both written and verbal means to a range of audiences and undertake critical evaluations of a wide range of written, numerical and graphical data. This invaluable skillset will make you highly sought after upon graduation.   

You’ll have the opportunity to specialise and choose an optional course – from team craft, managing diversity in business, and psychology of leadership – to customise your learning and develop your specific interest. Your human resource management dissertation will allow you to further build on these subject interests, by presenting you the opportunity to carry out an original research project at the forefront of knowledge. The knowledge base, subject and transferable skills you will gain will prepare you for lifelong learning and personal development.   

You’ll focus on real-world problems and explore ways human resource management can help us address them. The career-focused master’s degree provides you with the practical knowledge and skills necessary for the workplace. You’ll explore a range of organisational contexts and practices which will set you up for a professional HR career. 

The programme is accredited and approved by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which enhances career opportunities, networking, and events. Reflecting HRM's strategic role, the programme focuses on how HRM professionals can create a positive work environment, make informed decisions, and learn skills to be influential in an HR role at both strategic and operational levels. 

Your student experience

Your learning will be informed by the expertise of our research-active academics whose work covers four key areas:  

  • Employment, Work and the Professions  
  • Logistics and Sustainability  
  • Networks and Enterprise Excellence  
  • Social and Economic Data Analysis  

Go Global

With Go Global, Heriot-Watt's global student programme, you can carry your studies to new places and experience new cultures, expanding your horizons on the way. You'll discover what it means to be a true global citizen and emerge prepared for wherever your career journey will take you.

Inter-Campus Transfer

Some of our Postgraduate Taught Masters Programmes are eligible for Inter-Campus Transfer. Please contact studywithus@hw.ac.uk for further information.

Course content

September Intake - Edinburgh

Mandatory September

  • Digital Human Resource Management
  • HR Strategy and Practice
  • The Legal Context of Work
  • Organisational Behaviour

Mandatory January

  • Research Philosophy and Practice
  • Employment Trends
  • Sustainable HRM

Optional January

  • Managing Diversity in Business
  • Psychology of Leadership

Mandatory May

  • Dissertation in HRM

January intake - Edinburgh

Mandatory January

  • Employment Trends
  • Research Philosophy and Practice
  • Sustainable HRM

Optional January

  • Managing Diversity in Business
  • Psychology of Leadership

Mandatory September

  • Digital Human Resource Management
  • The Legal Context of Work
  • HR Strategy and Practice
  • Organisational Behaviour

Mandatory second January

  • Dissertation in HRM

Fees and funding

/ intake tuition fees
StatusFull TimePart Time
UK£12,344£6,172
International£24,176£12,088
  • Status: Your residency status is usually defined as the country where you have been ordinarily resident for the three years before the start of your course.
  • International: 'International' includes applicants from European Union countries who do not hold Pre-Settled or Settled status in UK. (This does not include students from the Republic of Ireland - see above).

Additional information

Note: the fees indicated above will apply if you begin your studies in September. If you choose to join us in January instead, the fees below will apply.

January 2025 intake tuition fees

Status Full Time Part time
UK £10,736 £5,368
International £23,248 £11,624
  • Status: Your residency status is usually defined as the country where you have been ordinarily resident for the three years before the start of your course.
  • International: 'International' includes applicants from European Union countries who do not hold Pre-Settled or Settled status in UK. (This does not include students from the Republic of Ireland).

Scholarships and bursaries

Postgraduate scholarships and bursaries

We aim to encourage well-qualified, ambitious students to study with us and we offer a wide variety of scholarships and bursaries to achieve this. Over £6 million worth of opportunities are available in fee and stipend scholarships, and more than 400 students benefit from this support.

View details

Entry requirements

We have standard entry requirements for all of our courses that you will have to meet.

A minimum of honours degree at 2:2 or non-UK equivalent in a related subject. Suitable degrees often include Business, Economics, Psychology, Sociology or other Social Sciences degree. Non-relevant degrees with evidence of essay writing or critical thinking will also be considered, in conjunction with 2+ years of work experience in HRM.

Why Heriot-Watt

We're the top university in Scotland for graduate outcomes which means that more of our graduates are employed or in postgraduate education than any other institution in the country and we ranked 5th in the UK.

We're also rated number one in the UK for CEO or MD roles, meaning more of our graduates go on to become CEOs or MDs than any other university in the whole of the UK. On top of that, we have beautiful campuses, across the globe, so you'll get a truly international education. Our Edinburgh Campus is home to Oriam, Scotland's National Sports Performance Centre combined with plenty of wellbeing resources, prioritising fitness and mental health for all students. Our Global Research Institutes look at solving real world issues such as climate change and saving our oceans as well as working on the next medical technological breakthrough and the future of AI and robots.

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