The Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies, Post-nominal letters

Post-nominal letters

Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles or designatory letters, are letters placed after the name of a person to indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accreditation, office, or honour. An individual may use several different sets of...

 DMS

DMS

DMS may refer to:* Degree-Minute-Second, a method of writing angles * DMS Derivatives Market Specialist, professional designation...

, is a university management qualification.

Early structure

The post-graduate qualification was accredited by the DMS Committee of the DES. It originally required either one year full time or 3 years part-time study, and was arranged in two discrete sections: Part A and Part B. It was compulsory to pass the Part A examinations and assessment first before being allowed to take Part B. Part B consisted of the final examinations and a project dissertation. Overall the marks achieved in coursework, examinations and the final dissertation had to exceed a weighted threshold for the candidate to pass and be awarded a DMS. It was thus quite an intensive course with a large workload.

Entry Requirements

Normally a Bachelor's degree or extensive managerial experience and/or other professional qualifications.

Accreditation

Initially in the UK the qualification was accredited by the DMS committee of the DES. It was originally accepted by the BIM as its core qualification for admission as a full member. The BIM subsequently was renamed to The Institute of Management when combining with the Institute of Industrial Managers, and now has again been renamed to become the Chartered Management Institute

Chartered Management Institute

The Chartered Management Institute is a professional institution for managers, based in the United Kingdom.In addition to supporting its members, the organisation encourages management development, carries out research, produces a wide variety of publications on management interests, and publishes...

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Assessment

The CMI offers professional qualifications at Level 7, these are assessed internally by the professional body and a mark of pass or fail is awarded. The University pathway requires students to pass a mixture of exams and written assignments; or sometimes exclusively one method or the other. Some courses also require a project dissertation. The assessments are marked against the University's grading system; meaning 40% is enough to pass a module.

Controversy

It has been argued by some that the move away from mainly or wholly exam assessed courses has lessened the 'value of the qualification' however the change from exams to coursework, projects and assignments is fairly in keeping with most postgraduate UK qualifications, although some exams are normally required.

Recognition

The DMS is accepted as part of the required qualification for Chartered Manager, and the Institute has management diplomas under its own auspices ). These are at various levels including level 5 for middle managers, and level 7 for senior managers (at a parallel level to the DMS).