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LUXURY BRAND MANAGEMENT
MA
Accredited by University College Birmingham
Award
MA
Duration
Sep: 1 year FT | Feb: 15 months FT
Placement
3 or 6 month (optional) - Sep: 18 months FT
Entry
September, February
Fees
View Fees
The largest segment in the luxury market is luxury fashion (approximately one-third of the total market)
The luxury market has been demonstrating consistent growth for the past two decades and is expected to reach £500 billion by 2030 (Luxonomy, 2025)
Start date options
Full-time September - 1 year
Full-time February - 15 months
Full-time with Placement September - 18 months
MA Luxury Brand Management is designed for visionary thinkers and innovators seeking a dynamic career in the luxury brand sector. This programme equips students with the essential skills and knowledge to thrive in luxury brands' competitive and high-profile world. By building a culture of innovation, creativity, and holistic learning, the curriculum integrates theoretical frameworks with practical applications, mirroring the complexities of real-world luxury brand management.
The program features a series of forward-looking modules that explore both the business and consumer aspects of luxury branding and experiential luxury. Students will understand the principles required to effectively manage and market luxury brands in today's global marketplace.
With its innovative and commercially focused approach, MA Luxury Brand Management emphasises strategic thinking and creative problem-solving, empowering students to develop a growth mindset and a competitive edge. The curriculum also prepares students to navigate the digital future with integrity and a commitment to sustainability, enabling thoughtful decision-making in an evolving industry landscape.
A key feature of the program is its emphasis on diversity within the luxury market, allowing students to tailor their studies and pursue a specialised pathway. This is further enriched by an international study trip, providing a global perspective on luxury brand management.
Students also have the option to undertake a professional placement before their final project. Offering hands-on experience, invaluable industry exposure, and the chance to apply skills in a real-world setting aligned with specific interests within the luxury sector.
Whether aspiring to shape the future of luxury branding or lead in a globally influential sector, our MA in Luxury Brand Management provides the tools, insights, and opportunities needed to excel in this dynamic field.
Why should I choose this course?
- SECTOR EXPERTISE – Developed in collaboration with a range of experts working within luxury brand management, the programme focuses on equipping students with the necessary knowledge and highly applicable skills required for the industry.
- SECTOR SKILLS - modules have been developed in line with industry demands to explore the latest digital trends and emerging technology and address the importance of sustainable literacy as a requirement of graduate employment.
- EXPERT TEACHING – With a wealth of industry experience and knowledge, the teaching team are experts within their field. Our continuous engagement with industry enables us to ensure that curriculum is up-to-date and reflective of the most recent trends.
- INDUSTRY LINKS – Our strong industry links provide you with opportunities to explore real-world practice and engage in guest speaker events to give in-depth insight into career prospects.
Our facilities
Our learning spaces at University College Birmingham ensure you have the right environments to build your knowledge, from lecture theatres to interactive group working spaces and extensive library resources.
Our £44 million Moss House campus includes an exhibition space to showcase your work to assessors and prospective employers.
Our campus buildings feature lecture theatres equipped with the latest technology, as well as comfortable tutorial and seminar rooms and private meeting rooms
Located in our McIntyre House campus, ThinkSpace features glazed study pods to discuss group projects and glass wipe boards to mind-map your ideas
Our library facilities offer more than 50,000 print resources and over 60 million digital resources, with expert support from qualified library professionals and research specialists
Course breakdown
- Course modules
POSTGRADUATE
The Business of Luxury
You will be introduced to the concept of luxury branding to understand how luxury brands operate within a competitive and fast-evolving global context. The module explores the definition and evolution of luxury and how different stakeholders perceive it. It will provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities for luxury brands by exploring key business and marketing strategies through a commercial lens to build brand equity. Analysing the role of heritage, innovation, customer experience, sustainability and digital technology, you will examine key factors that define luxury. You will be equipped with the skills to navigate the luxury market from the perspective of a strategic business leader to respond to the needs of today's luxury consumers.
Luxury Brand Marketing and Communication
This module addresses the marketing and management of luxury brands from a contemporary outlook. You will focus on exploring creative marketing strategies and brand signalling models and how to apply these to capture the attention of your consumers to build brand value through identity. The module provides insight into communications tactics to inspire and disrupt the marketplace and respond effectively to the ever-changing luxury landscape. You will focus on applying analytical skills, creative communication concepts and critical thinking professionally, preparing for leadership roles in luxury brand marketing.
Strategic Brand Management
Strategic Brand Management will prepare you for a professional role in luxury brand management by providing you with the tools, skills, and knowledge needed to make strategic marketing decisions and an awareness of the future of the luxury market to ensure sustainability and innovation. By exploring the luxury market sectors, you will build strategic knowledge to drive forward as a business leader. This module will expose you to the complexities and nuances of luxury brand marketing and communication and present the opportunity to engage with strategic decision-making. Taking an international approach, you will be challenged to critically analyse, apply practical knowledge and evaluate global trends to commercial strategies. The module examines the key factors contributing to a successful brand, including brand equity and identity and the relationship between the brand and communications through effective brand management.
Luxury Innovation & Sustainable Futures
Responding effectively and demonstrating adaptability is a key requirement of luxury brand management. Within this module, you will address the speed of the industry to develop business strategies aligned with modern market complexities. You will acquire a strategic mindset with sustainable practices and technological advancement at the forefront, ensuring that commercial objectives are aligned to leverage the innovative approaches to creative communications presented by digital futures. Recent developments in digital technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), are changing the luxury market, and experts in this field are key to navigating the change to find commercial and responsible business solutions and omnichannel delivery on an international scale.
Leadership & Entrepreneurial Practice
Following an entrepreneurial ambition, you will learn how to identify and capitalise on opportunities for investment in the luxury sector, manage risk and navigate market challenges to realise commercial success through innovation. The module fosters the development of practical skills required to cultivate and explore entrepreneurial ventures. The module enhances an analytical, creative, and practical skill set, encouraging the exploration of theories to prepare for leadership roles in the dynamic and evolving world of luxury industries and business. Through strong industry links and working with a professional mentor, you will examine industry insights and trends that will shape the future of business in the luxury sector, highlighting key business behaviours and applying these to real-world scenarios.
Experiential Luxury Environments
In response to the major growth area of ‘experiential luxury’, you will explore the concept of design and execution of luxury customer experiences, analysing the complex relationship between tangible luxury products and digital experiences to build brand equity. Experiential Luxury Environments provides an exciting opportunity to respond to a live project, enabling you to develop skills and evaluate and implement effective experiential marketing strategies on a truly global scale within your chosen field of specialism.
Optional Work Placement
Following the completion of core modules, students will have the option to undertake a 3 or 6-month Work Placement module.
Final Luxury Brand Management Project
The Final Luxury Brand Management Project will present the opportunity for students to consolidate their learning and undertake a supervised independent project. Students will have autonomy in choosing their area of specialism to expand on the skills learnt and apply these to a real-world context in preparation to pursue graduate roles in the luxury sector. Students who have completed the optional placement may be able to focus their project on the placement organisation.
The modules listed above for this course are regularly reviewed to ensure they are up to date and informed by industry as well as the latest teaching methods. On occasion, we may need to make unexpected changes to modules – if this occurs, we will contact all offer holders as soon as possible.
Entry requirements
Entry requirements
- A grade classification of 2:2 is required, or an international equivalent.
Work-based
- We also consider applicants who are currently employed and wish to apply to University College Birmingham.
- To apply, you must have 5 years of relevant managerial work experience, demonstrating in-depth knowledge of the sector for the subject matter you are interested in pursuing.
- A reference detailing your roles and responsibilities from your line manager and a meeting with the programme team will usually be scheduled prior to a place being offered.
International students
For academic and English entry requirements for EU and international students, please visit the Country Specific Information page.
Please note: As an International Student, when choosing optional placement, a visa extension may be required.
Additional
If you have any questions, please send us an email:
Home and EU applicants: pg@ucb.ac.uk
International applicants: international@ucb.ac.uk
Key information
Teaching and assessment
Teaching
A range of teaching and learning methods will be utilised including, but not limited to lectures, seminars, practical workshops, guest speakers, industry visits, synchronous and asynchronous technology-enhanced activities, independent study/research, debates, complex case study material, peer to peer discussion, industry events, field trips, group and individual active learning tasks, experimental and experiential practice and use of virtual learning environments to ensure an interactive and personalised learning experience.
Note: Indicative information only – actual timetables and assessment regimes will be issued at your induction.
Example of a typical teaching week (up to 12 contact hours)
Lectures – 6 hours
Seminars – 3 hours
Tutorials – 1-2 hours
Lectures are scheduled across 2 – 3 days per week and it is expected that independent learning is engaged with to support development and completion of assessments.
Assessment
You will be assessed by a range of methods which may include, but will not be limited to essays, reports, presentations, reflection, skills development and case studies. This will include live client briefs set by our industry partners.
The programme assessments will include both written coursework and live presentations.
Estimated breakdown of assessment for this course :
- Coursework – 75%
Practical Assessment – 25%
Our teaching and assessment is underpinned by our Teaching, Learning and Assessment Strategy 2021-2024.
Timetable
We understand that you need to balance study with work, so wherever possible lessons will be timetabled into 2-3 days a week, although you may wish to attend independent workshops across the week.
Tuition fees for home students
If you are a home student enrolling on a postgraduate degree course at University College Birmingham in 2024/2025, the tuition fee for full-time study will be £9,350 per year. For part-time study, the fee will be £4,675 per year.
In 2025/2026, the tuition fee for [Band 4] courses for full-time study will be £12,000 per year. For part-time study, the fee will be £6,000 per year.
Tuition fees for international students
If you are an international student (or have been fee assessed as an international fee payer) and enrolling on a full-time postgraduate degree course in 2024/2025, the fee for the academic year will be £15,000. If you complete a placement year, there will be an administration fee of £500 for a full year or £250 for a half-year placement.
In 2025/2026, the tuition fee for [Band 1] courses will be £17,000 for the academic year.
Unibuddy Community - meet other students on your course
Starting university is an exciting time, but we understand that it can sometimes feel a little daunting. To support you, you will be invited to join our Unibuddy Community, where you can meet other students who have applied for the same course at University College Birmingham, before you start studying here.
As soon as you have been made an offer, you will be sent an invitation email to complete your registration and join the Unibuddy Community. For more information, check out our Unibuddy Community page.
70%
Work placements
Work placements are vital for gaining real-life experience and building your confidence and skills before you finish your course, and they may even lead to a job when you graduate.
Our Luxury Brand Management programme offers you the option of a 3 or 6-month placement on successful completion of the taught aspect of the course. You are required to secure your own placement with the support of our experienced HIRED team and industry partners.
“We are thrilled to offer our unique MA Luxury Brand Management programme, a distinctive opportunity within the sector. Students will acquire invaluable, real-world insights into the luxury market, combining advanced strategic creative skills with critical business acumen. Graduates will be prepared to pursue a range of highly skilled roles across a broad spectrum of luxury sectors, from fashion to hospitality and beyond.”
“As the first industry Patron for the Luxury Brand Management MA, I am excited to work with the students at University College Birmingham to foster a culture of collaboration and introduce valuable opportunities for students to apply their skills practically and respond to real-world scenarios.
At Vaughtons, working with luxury automobile brands such as Aston Martin, Garrard, Rolls Royce and Mclaren, we embrace the importance of heritage and craftsmanship while exploring the power of technology to embrace innovative opportunities in our sector. The Luxury Brand Management MA champions a future-focused outlook, and I’m looking forward to exploring new ideas and the possibilities this partnership will present for us all."
Career opportunities
The example roles and salaries below are intended as a guide only.
Luxury brand manager
£32,500 - £53,528
Lead luxury brand manager
£53,528 - £69,709
Senior global brand manager
£60,000 - £70,000
Social media manager
Average Salary: £25,000 – £32,000
Marketing manager
£40,000 - £50,000
Luxury travel account director
£49,000 - £60,000
Postgraduate - regional winner
We are proud to be regional winners for our postgraduate provision. Cementing this, we had stellar results from entirely student-based feedback metrics that placed us first out of 101 higher education institutions for postgraduate student support and resources in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES, 2024), the largest survey of its kind in higher education.
