Course overview
The Cork University Business School (CUBS) Executive MBA at UCC is designed to prepare our participants to become organisational managers, innovators, and leaders.
Our aim is to not only provide a strong understanding of core organisational functions and disciplines but to move beyond that to facilitate an integrative, critical understanding of the foundations and practice of management and leadership.
Accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), our MBA provides you with an internationally recognised qualification on graduation.
What you'll learn
Our MBA participants develop an understanding of the core disciplines by exploring:
- Organisational decision-making and strategy
- Operations management
- Human resource management
- Financial analysis and performance
- Business innovation and transformation
- Sustainability and governance
- Leadership development
On this programme, you will develop an appreciation of how all aspects of a complex organisation interconnect, and an appreciation of the role each function must play in delivering on organisational goals; this often requires an understanding of functions and disciplines outside of your existing professional competence and our MBA will help you formalise this learning.
Central to the development of this understanding of the complexity of organisations is our careful approach to class composition, intended to ensure that class participants are exposed to a variety of professional expertise and career backgrounds. To this end, we place considerable emphasis on creating an environment that is conducive to the peer-to-peer learning that we believe is vital to the UCC CUBS Executive MBA experience.
Recognition
Study method
- In-class
- Blended
- Online
Duration study load
- 2 Years Part-time
Entry requirements
To apply for this course, you will have:
- A primary honours degree (NFQ, Level 8), or
- A primary ordinary degree + a minimum GMAT score of 600* or
- An appropriate professional qualification
And
- At least three years of significant managerial experience/responsibility** or
- Significant senior managerial/professional work experience + a minimum GMAT score of 600*
Plus two referees’ reports.
Note: applicants may be required to attend an interview.
*If you feel the skills covered by the GMAT can be demonstrated elsewhere in your application, then you may request a waiver – this may be granted at the discretion of the Director of the Executive MBA.
** If you feel that you possess significant managerial experience/responsibility, achieved in a period of fewer than 3 years, and this can be demonstrated elsewhere in your application, then you may request a waiver – this may be granted at the discretion of the Director of the Executive MBA.
The GMAT test can be taken at any time, and the results generally are valid for three years.
For Applicants with Qualifications Completed Outside of Ireland
Applicants must meet the required entry academic grade, equivalent to Irish requirements. For more information, please submit an enquiry.
International/Non-EU Applicants
For full details of the non-EU application procedure, please submit an enquiry.
- In UCC, we use the term programme and course interchangeably to describe what a person has registered to study in UCC and its constituent colleges, schools, and departments.
- Note that not all courses are open to international/non-EU applicants; please check the fact file above. For more information, please submit an enquiry to find out more.
English Language Requirements
Applicants who are non-native speakers of the English language must meet the university-approved English language requirements.
Professional recognition
Accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA)
Assessment
Continuous assessment of individual and group assignments is the most commonly used form of assessment on the course.
Delivery
The UCC CUBS Executive MBA will be delivered on a part-time basis over four parts, across two academic years.
- Part 1: September 2025 – December 2025
- Part 2: January 2026 – April 2026
- Part 3: September 2026 – December 2026
- Part 4: January 2027 – April 2027
The delivery model is a series of three-day block lectures delivered within each part.
Each three-day lecture block comprises lectures as follows:
- Thursday 09:00-18:00
- Friday 09:00-18:00
- Saturday 09:00-18:00
Blocks
- Part 1 has 5 blocks.
- Part 2 has 3 blocks + 1 week-long international study visit.
- Part 3 has 5 blocks.
- Part 4 has 5 blocks.
Please contact s.ensko@ucc.ie for lecture dates.
Part-time
The programme is taught during weekdays and weekend working hours over two years. Our lectures take place in the heart of Cork’s business district at the UCC Centre for Executive Education on Lapp’s Quay in Cork.
Subjects
We deliver the programme via a Leadership Development Framework across all four parts of the MBA.
Part 1
In Part 1, Year 1 students attend a Leadership Development Framework (Introduction) workshop.
Part 2
In Part 2, Year 1 students attend a Leadership Development Framework (Business Research Methods & Consultancy Skills) workshop.
Leadership Development Framework learning in Year 1 is captured through a 50-mark, individual Reflective Learning Log assessment in the 10-credit module BU6511 Managing Change in an International Context.
Parts 3 & 4
In Part 3, Year 2 students attend a Leadership Development Framework (Sustainable Leadership) workshop. Thematics from the workshop will also be covered in Part 4, Year 2, 10-credit module BU6504 Leadership Project.
Leadership Development Framework learning in Year 2 is captured through a 50-mark, individual Reflective Learning Log assessment in the 10-credit module BU6504 Leadership Project.
About University College Cork
University College Cork is ranked in the top 1.1% of universities in the world. It is Ireland’s leading institution for the delivery of research impact and the top Irish institution for highly cited researchers. We are the leading global university for sustainability and the Irish university with the highest level of industry collaboration.
The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Colleges located in Belfast, Cork, and Galway. It became University College, Cork, under the Irish Universities Act 1908. The Universities Act 1997 renamed the university as National University of Ireland, Cork, and a Ministerial Order of 1998 renamed the university as University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork, though it continues to be almost universally known as University College Cork.
