Bachelor of Business (Fashion and Global Brand Management)

The Bachelor of Business (Fashion and Global Brand Management) is a three-year degree at the International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS), with delivery also associated with Aspire English, Aspire Institute and the International Sport College of Australia. The degree sits in the business administration family and turns its attention to how fashion labels are built, positioned and sold across borders. You study marketing, brand strategy, consumer behaviour, retail operations, merchandising, global supply chains and the commercial side of fashion, alongside core business subjects in accounting, economics, management and law. It is a business degree first, with fashion as the lens.

How the degree is structured

Australian bachelor degrees are normally three years of full-time study, and this one follows that shape. Teaching runs across semesters or trimesters, and you enrol in units of study, each carrying credit points. You need to pass a set number of credit points to graduate, made up of core business units, specialist fashion and brand management units, and electives. Most students take four units a semester. The later part of the degree usually includes a capstone unit, where you pull together what you have learned on a real brand problem or a major project, and a professional placement or industry experience component, which is common in business and fashion programmes because employers expect graduates to have spent time in a workplace.

What you actually learn

You learn how a fashion brand decides who it is for, what it stands for and what it charges. That means market research, brand positioning, campaign planning, digital and social media marketing, buying and range planning, and the logistics of getting product from factory to shop floor or online store. You also cover the money side: budgets, margins, pricing and financial reporting. Group projects and presentations are a big part of assessment, as they are across Australian business degrees, because the work you will do in industry is collaborative. By the end you should be able to write a brand plan, read a profit and loss statement, brief a creative team and explain why a collection sold or did not.

Who it suits, and the Australian context

This degree suits school leavers and career changers who want a business qualification but care about fashion, retail and consumer culture. Sydney is a natural place to study it: the city has a large retail sector, fashion wholesalers, e-commerce businesses and marketing agencies, and the college's industry links feed into placements and guest speakers. Business degrees of this kind are not tied to a single professional registration, unlike teaching or nursing, so you graduate with a degree rather than a licence to practise. International students should note the study conditions that apply to a Student visa: you can work up to 48 hours per fortnight while your course is in session, and after graduating you may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream, which lets you stay and work in Australia for a period set by your qualification level and circumstances. English requirements for entry sit around IELTS Academic 6.0 to 6.5 overall for undergraduate courses like this one, with TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and the college's own English programmes accepted as equivalents; the Department of Home Affairs also sets its own English threshold for the visa. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 106411M. Check the official page for current unit lists, entry requirements and intake dates before you apply.

• Brand assistant or brand coordinator with fashion labels, wholesalers and retailers
• Marketing coordinator in retail, e-commerce or an agency
• Retail buyer or assistant buyer, working on range planning and supplier negotiation
• Merchandise planner or allocator, managing stock across stores and online
• Social media and digital marketing roles for consumer brands
• Product developer or production coordinator linking design, sourcing and factories
• Account or sales roles with fashion wholesalers and distributors
• Visual merchandising and retail operations roles
• Graduate roles in supply chain and logistics for apparel businesses
• Further study, such as a master's in business, marketing or fashion management

Hiring industries in Australia include fashion and apparel wholesale, department stores and specialty retail, e-commerce, advertising and marketing agencies, and consumer goods distribution.