Lead What’s Next: MA in Leading Innovation and Change from Beijing, China

Living in Beijing does not mean putting your ambitions on hold to study abroad. The MA in Leading Innovation and Change, delivered online in an exclusive partnership between York St John University and Robert Kennedy College, offers a way to develop your leadership thinking while continuing your life and career in China’s capital. Its ideas and approaches can be applied across industries and international contexts.

Earn a British Degree with International Recognition

Graduate with a British degree awarded by York St John University while studying online from Beijing. A British qualification can help communicate your academic achievement to employers and professional networks internationally.

Whether you hope to progress in China or pursue opportunities elsewhere, the degree offers a credential you can carry into conversations across borders. Recognition for particular roles or further study may depend on local requirements.

Study 100% Online

The programme can be completed entirely online, allowing you to pursue postgraduate study without relocating or stepping away from the professional and personal commitments you have built in Beijing.

How quickly you complete your studies will depend on the programme requirements and your pace of progress. The online format gives you a practical way to work towards your qualification alongside a busy life.

Learn Without Fixed Login Times

You are not required to be online at specific times and dates. That flexibility can make it easier to fit learning around working hours, family responsibilities and other commitments.

Rather than arranging your day around a scheduled lecture, you can plan study time when you are ready to focus. You remain responsible for meeting applicable coursework deadlines while choosing when to engage with the materials.

Take Your Studies Wherever You Go

Your studies can travel with you, whether you are at home in Beijing, working elsewhere in China or travelling internationally. The online format helps you maintain continuity as your location changes.

Through the mobile app, you can download study materials and watch lectures offline. That means a journey or a period without a reliable connection need not prevent you from making use of available study time.

Show Your Understanding Through Open-Book Assessments

Instead of classical question-and-answer exams, the programme uses open-book assessments. This approach gives you the opportunity to work with resources as you develop and present your understanding.

For a subject centred on innovation and change, engaging thoughtfully with ideas can be especially valuable. Open-book assessment lets you concentrate on interpreting concepts and making well-supported arguments, rather than relying solely on recall.

Learn with Globally Educated Faculty

The programme’s tutors and faculty include graduates of world-renowned universities such as Oxford, Harvard, EPFL, the University of Basel and Washington University in St. Louis.

Their varied academic backgrounds can broaden the perspectives you encounter as you examine leadership, innovation and organisational change. You can benefit from that breadth of experience without leaving Beijing.

Join an International Learning Community

Study alongside a diverse student base drawn from more than 130 countries. Encountering different professional experiences and viewpoints can help you consider how approaches to change may work across cultures and sectors.

Our alumni work for organisations including Tencent, ICBC Bank, ICBC Standard Bank, AIA, Sinopec, PetroChina, CNOOC, RYB Education, JKFZ Cambridge International School, SAIC, the United Nations, Google, the ICRC, the World Bank, Microsoft, Intel, Samsung, Siemens and Sony.

Plan Your Payments

Programme fees can be paid in up to 18 monthly interest-free instalments. Spreading payments over time may make it easier to plan your study expenses alongside other commitments.

With a clear payment schedule, you can consider how postgraduate study fits into your longer-term plans. Review the current fee information to understand the costs and instalment arrangements before applying.

Put Your Learning to Work in Beijing

Beijing’s technology sector creates opportunities for people who can guide teams through new products, evolving processes and organisational growth. The programme’s focus on leading innovation and change can help you think more deliberately about how ideas become workable initiatives—whether your interests lie in digital services, artificial intelligence or other technology-driven fields.

As a major centre for banking, insurance and financial services, Beijing is also a place where organisations must respond to changing customer expectations and new ways of working. Studying leadership and change can strengthen the way you analyse complex decisions, build support for initiatives and help teams adapt.

Beijing’s connections to energy, manufacturing, education and the public sector offer further settings in which change leadership matters. The programme’s internationally applicable theory can help you approach transformation with a broader perspective while deciding how best to apply what you learn in your own organisation and industry.

Ready to explore what your next step could look like from Beijing? Request our course catalogue.