Level 8 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership Practice
A 180-credit diploma at doctoral level with a sixty-credit research core, delivered by LSPM to small cohorts of senior leaders over eighteen to twenty-four months. Of the two regulated Level 8 diplomas it is the more research-led, and the one we suggest to anyone who may later want to progress to a DBA.
In brief
This is the larger of the two Level 8 diplomas and the one whose structure most closely resembles the first phase of a professional doctorate. Five mandatory units carry 120 credits; three optional units chosen from six carry the remaining 60. Sixty of the mandatory credits sit in two research units, which means a third of the whole diploma is spent learning to design and carry out research rather than studying management topics.
The strategic-practice units on leadership potential, strategic change and project development are written so that the work you produce for them can feed a research proposal. Learners typically arrive with a problem from their own organisation and leave with that problem framed as a researchable question, a critical reading of the literature around it, and a justified method for investigating it.
OTHM does not set a single entry qualification for this diploma. It requires the centre to run a selection process, which at London School of Planning and Management (LSPM), the approved centre, means an application with CV, personal statement and two referees, followed by an interview with LSPM's admissions team. In our experience of advising applicants LSPM normally expects a master's degree or a Level 7 diploma in a management field, and we say so plainly at the outset so that nobody spends an afternoon on documents they will not need.
Particulars
- Qualification
- OTHM Level 8 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership Practice
- Level
- RQF Level 8, the level of a doctorate. A diploma, not a degree.
- Credits
- 180
- Total qualification time
- 1,800 hours
- Guided learning hours
- 900 hours
- Awarding body
- OTHM, an Ofqual-recognised awarding organisation
- Ofqual number
- 603/6996/6
- Duration
- 9 months (standard) or 6 months (fast track) alongside work, as offered by LSPM
- Study modes
- Online, live seminars; Blended, some seminars in person. Confirm the timetable with LSPM.
- Fees
- From £999 (9 months, standard) or £1,299 (6 months, fast track); see fees and payment
- Next intake
- Rolling intake — course starts when the fee is paid
- Specification
- OTHM specification
Level, credits, hours and Ofqual number are the awarding body's published values.1 Duration, study modes, fees and intake dates are set by London School of Planning and Management, the approved centre, and are shown as placeholders until LSPM confirms them.
Units and credits
The specification leaves the order of delivery to the centre. The sequence we have seen LSPM follow, and the one that makes most sense of the structure, opens with Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Potential and Advanced Research Design and Methodologies side by side, because the research unit needs a topic and the leadership unit tends to produce one; puts Managing Strategic Change and Project Development, Planning and Management in the middle third; and closes with Developing Research Capability, once there is a design worth testing. Optional units are confirmed with your LSPM tutor early in the programme. Our advice is to choose three that bear on the research problem you intend to pursue, so that the diploma reads as one body of work. Confirm the current sequence with LSPM before you enrol.
| Unit | Credits |
|---|---|
| Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Potential | 20 |
| Managing Strategic Change | 20 |
| Project Development, Planning and Management | 20 |
| Advanced Research Design and Methodologies | 40 |
| Developing Research Capability | 20 |
| Unit | Credits |
|---|---|
| Globalisation and Corporate Governance | 20 |
| Entrepreneurship and Innovation | 20 |
| Strategic Human Resource Management | 20 |
| Supply Chain and Operations Management | 20 |
| Strategic Financial Management | 20 |
| Strategic Marketing | 20 |
| Unit titles and credit values from the OTHM specification.1 | |
Entry requirements
OTHM states that entry to this diploma is considered on the basis of:1
- an up-to-date and comprehensive CV
- submission of a personal statement
- centre interview to assess suitability and potential to achieve
- details of 2 referees or 2 references, one of which should ideally be an academic reference
- ability to demonstrate appropriate links to the practice the proposed research refers to
How LSPM applies this in practice
Admission is LSPM's decision. From the applicants we have introduced, LSPM admits people who hold a master's degree or a Level 7 diploma in a management or related discipline and who have held director-level or senior-manager responsibility for several years, and it will consider an applicant without a master's where the CV shows sustained strategic responsibility and the personal statement demonstrates writing at the standard the research units require. Those cases are decided at LSPM's interview. Our practice is to say early if we think an application is unlikely to succeed, rather than let someone apply for work they are unlikely to finish. Where English is not your first language, OTHM expects evidence of proficiency; the specification gives the accepted forms.
Assessment
Every unit is assessed by written work marked against its learning outcomes and assessment criteria. There are no examinations, no thesis and no viva. To pass a unit you must meet every criterion, with no compensation between units and no grade above a pass. For Advanced Research Design and Methodologies expect a substantial research proposal with a critical literature review and a justified methodology; for Developing Research Capability, a report on a bounded piece of research you have carried out, with reflection on method and ethics. Work is first-marked by your LSPM tutor, moderated by a second LSPM assessor and sampled by OTHM's external verifier before results are confirmed. The guide chapter on assessment at Level 8 describes the cycle the awarding body requires.
Time and workload
The specification gives 1,800 hours of total qualification time, of which 900 are guided learning hours: seminars, tutorials, supervision and feedback.1 The remaining 900 are your own reading, writing and fieldwork. Divided evenly over the durations LSPM offers, the weekly commitment is as follows.
Eighteen months is the usual choice for anyone in a senior post, and twenty-four is sensible if the role is unusually demanding. The load is uneven across the programme: reading is heaviest at the start of the research design work, data collection concentrates into a few weeks, and assignment deadlines arrive in clusters. Ask LSPM for the current timetable pattern and whether sessions are recorded.
Progression
OTHM's own account of progression is that completers take a research proposal to a university with a DBA, DProf or PhD in mind, or move directly into senior practice. We think that is accurate, with one qualification that matters more than any other: what the diploma is worth on entry to a doctorate is decided by the admitting university, one application at a time, under its own rules for recognising prior learning.
What you can reliably expect to hold at the end is a research proposal developed under supervision and assessed at Level 8, a portfolio of written work at doctoral standard, an academic referee who knows that work, and a clear sense of whether you want to spend several more years on a thesis. If a particular university is your goal, ask its admissions team about its policy on this qualification before you enrol. We will send you the specification to forward to them, and you should ask LSPM directly whether it holds any written progression arrangement with that university and what its terms are.
Who it suits
- You hold a master's degree or a Level 7 diploma and have spent several years at director or senior-manager level.
- You have a strategic problem in your own organisation that deserves proper research, and the access needed to research it.
- You are weighing a DBA and want to build a proposal and test your appetite for doctoral work before committing four or more years.
- You want to shape the diploma through the optional units rather than follow a fixed programme.
- You want the title of doctor, or a degree. This is a regulated diploma awarded by OTHM, not a university award.
- You want an all-mandatory programme centred on international strategy; the Qualifi diploma may fit better, and we are happy to talk it through.
- You cannot set aside roughly twenty hours a week for eighteen months, or seventeen for twenty-four.
- You do not yet hold a Level 7 qualification or equivalent senior experience that LSPM can verify.
The other regulated Level 8 diploma is the Qualifi Level 8 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership. The home page sets the two side by side.
Questions
How does this differ from the Qualifi Level 8 diploma?
This diploma is 180 credits, with sixty in research and a choice of three optional units from six. The Qualifi diploma is 160 credits, all mandatory, with three units on strategy in cross-border and global organisations and a single Research Methods unit. Qualifi names a Level 7 qualification or a master's as its entry point; OTHM sets out a selection process built on your CV, statement, interview and references.
Can the optional units be chosen at the start?
They are settled with your LSPM tutor a few weeks in, when the shape of your research problem is clearer, and LSPM will tell you how late a change is possible. Our only advice is that the three you choose make sense together and alongside your research.
What if there is no academic referee to ask?
OTHM asks for two references, one of which should ideally be academic. If your master's was some years ago and you have lost contact, LSPM has, for applicants we know of, accepted a professional referee who can vouch for your analytical writing and discussed the point at interview. Check with LSPM before you apply; we have not seen two professional references treated as a bar to admission.
Can it be completed entirely online?
LSPM offers this diploma online with live participation and a blended option with some seminars in person. Ask LSPM whether sessions are recorded and how the in-person element is scheduled for the intake you want; those arrangements are LSPM's to confirm.
Can research done for the diploma be used in a later DBA?
Often, yes, as the foundation of a proposal. Whether any of it counts towards the doctorate itself is for the admitting university to decide under its own regulations. The research units are specified so that your proposal is one you could put in front of a doctoral supervisor with confidence, and that is how LSPM's tutors, from what learners tell us, approach them.
Enquire, then apply
Start with an enquiry: it leads to a call with our adviser at LearnLoom Consultants, who will tell you frankly whether this diploma is the right next step. If it is, you apply to London School of Planning and Management on LSPM's own website with your CV, personal statement and referees, and LSPM arranges the interview and makes the decision.