The University of Edinburgh - Edinburgh Futures Institute
MSc in Service Management and Design
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
MSc
DURATION
1 year
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
GBP 32,000 **
STUDY FORMAT
* another round of applicants will be selected 15 December 2025
** for international students | 18900 GBP for UK citizens
Key Summary
About: MSc in Service Management and Design at the Edinburgh Futures Institute integrates service management and design in an AI context. Taught by management, design and data experts, the programme develops critical, human-centered and analytic skills to design, deliver and embed services across public, private and third sectors.
Career Outcomes: Graduates move into operational and strategic roles in service design and delivery. Roles may include Service Design / Innovation Lead, Customer Insight Director, Digital Transformation / Innovation Consultant, Product Manager, Operational Service Manager. Employers include financial services, tourism and leisure, public and health services, education, retail, IT, and management consultancy.
Services, and how they are designed and managed across the public, third, and private sectors, are vital to the future of economies and societies across the globe.
This innovative programme uniquely integrates service management and service design in the context of an AI and data-driven society, and is taught by academic experts from management, design, and data-related fields.
It is intended for those who plan to build careers in service-related areas across the private, public, and third sectors. It supports you to develop the critical, creative, and data skills that are essential to your success.
What makes this programme unique?
This distinctive MSc programme considers service management and service design as part of an integrated whole. We cannot design services without understanding how they are to be delivered and managed, and we cannot manage services without understanding how, why, and with whom they have been designed.
Working from this perspective, you will develop an engaged and critical understanding of service management and service design that will underpin your career development.
Developing core data skills, both human-centred and digital, and an advanced understanding of the implications of service design and management, you will:
- explore the core characteristics of ‘service’ and ‘services,' understanding how they can be designed, managed, and delivered to add value to their consumers and users
- look at the implications of a data-driven society for the service sector, and what this means for the management and design of services
The programme will also give you a deep understanding of how value is defined, created, and embedded in service delivery.
Programme benefits
- Learn from world-leading experts: Draw on the expertise of leading academics from across management, design, and data-related fields.
- Integrate service management and design: Gain a unique understanding of how services are created, delivered, and managed as interconnected processes, preparing you to work across diverse sectors.
- Develop critical and data-driven skills: Build the creative, analytical, and digital capabilities needed to design and manage services in an AI- and data-driven society.
- Apply your ideas to real-world challenges: Collaborate with external organisations and apply your skills to pressing challenges, gaining valuable practical experience and professional connections.
What you will study
Students on this MSc programme will study a range of courses to complete 180 credits, including:
- core courses specific to your programme
- a choice of option courses
- a project
Core courses
Your core courses provide essential knowledge and skills specific to your area of study and provide a strong foundation for the rest of your degree.
In your core courses, you will explore areas such as:
- an introduction and critical approach to service design, with a focus on combining effective methods and frameworks toward practical application
- the nature of services, the key stakeholders involved, and the challenges of service management in the contemporary world across private and public sectors
- applying both service management and service design theory in interrogating the nature of value and value creation
Option courses
Alongside your core courses, you’ll shape your degree by choosing from a wide range of EFI option courses, taught by academic staff from across the University.
Our portfolio evolves each year in response to emerging trends, topics, and new research. You can choose from courses on themes such as:
- how the climate crisis is connected to health
- the inter-relationship of place, people, and nature in urban regeneration
- critical perspectives on how new technologies are changing society
- data, programming, and research skills that build on your core expertise
- how new and rapidly changing technologies and data sources are transforming the future of democracy
- what the future of education might look like
- how narratives drive the way we understand the world
- service design and service management in a data-driven society
- current challenges and futures for the creative industries
The project
Your final project brings together everything you have learned, giving you the opportunity to apply your learning in depth to a domain, issue, or concern that drives you. Your final project can be:
- based on your own personal or professional interests
- defined by your employer
- sponsored by one of the Futures Institute’s industry, government, or community partners
- aligned to one of our research programmes
You will submit your final project as a written piece of work or combine text with other forms – for example:
- video
- visualisation
- a digital artefact
- performance
- code
You will begin to identify your project topic relatively early in the programme, and work on it in parallel with the taught courses. We expect you to take an interdisciplinary approach to your project to connect with the creative, data, and future-oriented nature of EFI.
On successful completion of this programme, you will:
- possess a critical understanding of value and values across service management and service design and of how they interrelate
- be able to identify, generate and apply appropriate research methods in order to resolve live problems across diverse service settings, with a focus on the co-creation of knowledge
- be able to critically evaluate, synthesise and integrate information from across the service management and service design disciplines
- communicate effectively and sensitively within complex and dynamic environments to support the development of co-creative cultures
- develop the personal and intellectual aptitudes to become a facilitative leader at the interface of service management and service design
- confidently identify, appraise and develop technical tools and approaches, and apply them across digital and analogue environments
If you are a University of Edinburgh graduate, you will be eligible for a 10% discount on your tuition fees for this programme. You may also be eligible if you were a visiting undergraduate student.
You can apply for scholarships from a variety of institutions, including:
- the University of Edinburgh
- government agencies
- research councils
- charitable trusts
- external bodies like private companies
The programme is intended for applicants who are either already working in, or are in interested in, a career in service management and/or service design – in the public, private and third sectors. The service sector comprises around 75% of developed economies globally and 40-50% of developing economies, and is growing fast. Consequently, it is a major source of employment and career enhancement opportunities.
Careers in service management and service design can be found in the public, private and third sectors. We expect that graduates from the programme will aspire to operational and strategic management posts across the fields of service design and delivery.
Career opportunities can include roles such as:
- Service Design / Innovation Leads
- Customer Insight Director
- Digital Transformation / Innovation Consultants
- Product Manager
- Operational Service Manager
Potential fields of employment include:
- financial services and banking
- tourism, leisure and sport
- public services and health services
- education
- business services
- creative industries
- retail and fashion
- IT and information services
- Management consultancy
The core elements of the programme address the data and higher-order skills we know are important for the future of work, confident and critical citizenship, and a thriving, just society.