THE STUDENT EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR Our Business School BA (Hons) Marketing student has won the Student Employee of the Year, South East and London Region, at the Student Employee of the Year Awards.
IN PARTNERSHIP
Business School
TALKING BUSINESS STUDENT ROOM
BedsBiz AUTUMN EDITION | November 2013
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We imagine, we change, we create A refreshed look for the University of Bedfordshire Business School corridors
ALUMNI STORIES - Rising to the top in less than a year
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A warm welcome to the start of a new academic year For those students who are starting their studies with us for the first time we are very pleased that you have chosen to come to our Business School. A particularly warm welcome to all our students from overseas – we hope you enjoy your studies in the UK. All the staff within our Business School wish you every success in your studies for the coming year – we know you will be working hard but also that your student experience will take in the broader opportunities of coming to university. A warm welcome to the many new staff too who have joined us in recent months. We are delighted to have you here. You have the opportunity to build an exciting future for yourself whilst shaping
an imaginative Business School. With this issue we are onto the third edition of BedsBiz. It’s a challenge to capture the many successes of our staff and students and do justice to each story. We are able to do it however, because you are continually helping generate these. I hope you find this issue
interesting and informative. There are lots of exciting things going on in the School. A number of projects are at their peak and others are being incubated. Read on for more! Dr Sonal Minocha, Executive Dean
JOINERS MOVERS SHAKERS
JOINERS
n Faculty Staff Ketan Bhimani, Professor in Management Practice Colin Bradshaw, Professor in Management Practice David Harding, Professor in Management Practice Dr Cathy Minett-Smith, Associate Dean (Student Experience) n Department of Accounting and Finance Arthur Dyirakumunda, Tutor Socrates Karidis, Senior Lecturer Ade Otukoya, Senior Lecturer Humphrey Shaw, Principal Lecturer Iyala Stewart, Lecturer
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n Department of Management and Business Systems Dr Gendao Lo, Senior Research Fellow Gabrielle Ford, Senior Lecturer Christian Richter, Principal Lecturer Sarah Williams, Lecturer
MOVERS
SHAKERS
n Department of Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality Dr Ioannis Kostopoulos, Lecturer Dr Petia Petrova, Lecturer
n School of Law Narissa Ramsundar, from Teaching Fellow to Lecturer
n Department of Management and Business Systems Caroline Bolam, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader
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Karl Russell, Senior Lecturer Dr Rohini Vijaygopal, Lecturer Augusto Voltes Dorta, Senior Lecturer
n School of Law Konstantinos Sergakis, Senior Lecturer
n Department of Accounting and Finance Andrew Ekuban, from Academic director and Course Leader to Sub Dean (Quality)
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CONTENTS
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Cover Story
We imagine, we change, we create
Thought Leadership The Wrong Sort of Customer: Selective Demarketing
8 Student Room
Cosmo Blog Awards Student Employee of the Year Bryan Roe Prize for the best overall first class honours Students explore China
10 From the Classroom
Added value for marketing, advertising and public relations students School of Law launches new postgraduate courses Guy Parrott wins the Inspirational Teaching Award
16 Talking Business
Practice Weeks Work placement “on track� for accounting student Visiting the London Stock Exchange
17 The Research Pod
Big Data in higher education - Strategic ICT for Managing Student Engagement
18 In the News
School Summer Forum Best Paper Award in Entrepreneurship Outstanding Reviewer Award 2013 Educating on social media Farewell to Language and Communications Study help: always on hand
12 Alumni Stories
Rising to the top - in less than a year
14 In Partnership
University of Bedfordshire extends partnership links in South-East Asia Our staff visits Majan College Kaplan Singapore students make their mark Students from Oman and Vietnam join in July graduation celebrations
This magazine depends on the excellent stories of success our staff and students generate. Deadline for inclusion of these in the next edition is 31 January 2014.
Please email your stories and images to bbsdirect@beds.ac.uk AUTUMN EDITION | November 2013
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COVER STORY
We imagine, we change, we create The start of the new academic year saw a refreshed look for the University of Bedfordshire Business School corridors at our Luton campus. The “wall art project” as it’s come to be called completed its phase 1 over summer. The intention was to embody and embed our vision and our journey towards this vision in the soul of our space. “The project was given meaning and artistic input by a number of colleagues – in no particular order – Dr John Beaumont-Kerridge, Eliot Lloyd, Sallie Phillips, Guy Parrott, Sidrah Mahboob, Ingrida Bertasiute. Tim Priestman closely project-managed the implementation,” says Dr Sonal Minocha. “I am aware that the final impact hasn’t been positive in all cases - the work on the windows, for example, has impacted the lighting in the roomswe will move to rectify this over the coming year (as soon as budgets can be found for this!). Overall, however, I hope that you agree that we have been able to uplift our space through our messages. The next phase (if approved) will focus on refreshing our pods and Moot Court over the coming months. I am hoping staff and students will co-create this space.”
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AUTUMN EDITION | November 2013
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COVER STORY
The n tio intenembody o was tembed ourr and n and ou ds visio ey towar journs vision in r thi ul of ou the ssopace.
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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
By Prof Jillian Farquhar, Professor in Marketing and Director of the Doctoral Programme in the Business School
The Wrong Sort of Customer: Selective Demarketing Marketing theory and practice is concerned with the creation of value with, and for, customers and other stakeholders. Some customers, however, seem to bring more costs than value to many businesses! What then should they do with these undesirable customers? Do they continue to serve them and lose money, offer reduced service levels or abandon them? In this short piece, the strategy of selective demarketing is discussed, drawing on research in customer value, relationships and stakeholder theory to develop a practical approach to this problem. Firms group customers on a range of variables including purchase behaviour and value to the firm. A surprising number of customers (up to 30% in B2C and B2B markets) make a negative contribution margin, that is, revenue fails to cover direct costs and cost-to-serve. Firms are then obliged to pass the costs of these customers on to other areas including profitable customers. Profitable customers may then find fees raised or service levels compromised, encouraging them to seek another provider. The original firm is then left with a disproportionate number of costly customers and compromised revenues. However rather than deselect such ‘undesirable’ customers immediately, firms may use their relationship
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with these customers to try and convert them to profitability. If that fails, then they may have to dissolve these relationships whether the customer likes it or not. Research shows that firms have three distinct attitudes to dissolving relationships, as Table 1 indicates. Two key points emerge. Firstly, a concern that other, more profitable customers may regard selective demarketing negatively. Secondly, a benefit in that losing costly customers to the competition may be a good outcome, with competitors incurring costs in acquiring these customers and then further costs in serving them. Discussions about selective demarketing generally focus on the relationship between the customer and the firm, but stakeholder theory emphasises a wider network of relationships including suppliers, employees and the community, with firms forming only one part of a complex network mechanism. If firms do not deselect costly customers, they can weaken the whole network. However if firms do deselect costly customers they may encounter negative outcomes particularly from remaining customers. As illustrated in Table 1, a soft style of deselection involving weakening rather than abruptly removing ties may be the approach least likely to provoke negative reactions.
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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Table 1. Firm attitudes towards dissolving relationships Attitude
Approach
Style
Hard-Liners
Rigorous stance in terminating unprofitable relationships, including the regular clearance of their customer portfolio. Hard or direct Negative outcomes include potential loss of trust in relationships with other customers or adverse word-of-mouth.
Appeasers
Considerate or cautious approach to termination of unprofitable relationships. May Soft or indirect be worried about loss of customers to competitors.
Equivocators
Reluctant to terminate unprofitable relationships, mainly because they fear the costs involved in attracting new customers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jillian Farquhar is a Professor in Marketing and Director of the Doctoral Programme in the Business School. She joined the University of Bedfordshire Business School from Oxford Brookes in 2009. Her research is primarily in the field of services marketing and recent work includes branding in financial services, building relationships in football clubs and customer convenience.
Hesitant
A surprising number of customers (up to
30%
in B2C and B2B markets) make a negative contribution margin
Prof Jillian Farquhar This short piece is based on the following chapter: Farquhar, J. (2013), “Selective demarketing”, in (eds) J. Blythe and N. Bradley, Demarketing, Routledge, London.
In 2008 she received the Academy of Marketing Research Award for her joint work with Laura Young “Playing With Matches: Engaging the Community in Football”.
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STUDENT ROOM
Students explore China 150 lucky students out of 800 applicants have travelled to China under the social and cultural exchange programme organised by the University of Bedfordshire and China Agricultural University. 100 students went to Beijing, 25 experienced Guangzhou and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, and another 25 went to Nanjing Normal University. Akeem Quadri, BA (Hons) Business Studies student, was one of Beijing
visitors who stayed in International College Beijing for two weeks learning Mandarin language and Chinese cultural history. He said they visited the Great Wall of China, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Olympic Garden. They also learned some kung-fu, explored the local markets, experienced public transport, visited Beijing Zoo, and went to cinemas and clubs.
Akeem was impressed with the programme, and said: “Obviously the China trip programme has added value to learning and developing student knowledge of the change in a dynamic emerging economy. I got the chance to see how China has opened up for leading industries and international companies to operate in their country, for example the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HSBC, McDonald’s and KFC. The China trip was an adventure for me, it was great experiencing that part of the world.”
Cosmo Blog Awards Sophia Miola’s beauty blog www.sophiameola.blogspot.co.uk with 1,600 followers has been nominated for the “Best New Beauty Blog” at the annual Cosmo Blog Awards. Bloggers with the most nominations were shortlisted in the finals and the winner selected by voting. “This year there were over 31 thousand nominations and to get shortlisted from that many is simply amazing. I love that my blog is a place where I can ramble on about all of the things I love and forget about reality and the hard work of assignments and exams for a short while.”
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“I have been fortunate enough to work with some well-known brands and to be signed up as a collective blogger in collaboration with Handpicked Media. My dad’s business side really inspires me to be more entrepreneurial.” Sophia started blogging in July 2012, not long after she finished the first year of her BA (Hons) Business Management course. She has been following other bloggers and vloggers for years and they inspired her to start writing. The young blogger said she has made some great blogging friends, attended some amazing events and has even been featured alongside
AUTUMN EDITION | November 2013
brands like Benefit, Girl Meets Dress and Chanel. She was also invited to a few London Fashion Week events but was unable to attend due to her trip abroad. “For the future, I hope to arrange something along the lines of a bloggers event/meet up,” to give greater opportunities to share her plans with others.
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STUDENT ROOM
Student Employee of the Year A Business School BA (Hons) Marketing student has won the Student Employee of the Year, South East and London Region, at the Student Employee of the Year Awards. Angelo Karvelas, 22, from Solihull, West Midlands, has been working as a Marketing Assistant within the University’s Careers and Recruitment Services for the past year. The final-year student said: “I am thrilled beyond belief to receive the award but the real prize has been to work in such a supportive environment enabling me to come this far.” Frequently working outside normal working hours and often travelling between campuses, staff in the Careers team nominated Angelo for his “innovative and well thought out approach to
his work”. Acting Head of Careers and Recruitment Services, Maria Meehan, said, “Angelo was central to a revised approach we took to our presence at graduation ceremonies in 2012, showing a ton of initiative and writing the kind of student friendly copy that has resulted in a significant increase in the interest expressed in Careers and Recruitment Services.” Speaking about his experience, Angelo said, “When I first joined the team I was amazed by the array and quality of advice and services the University provides to help students and graduates into employment. I have learned a great deal from the Careers team who have been supportive beyond belief.” Aside from studying and working for the Careers and Recruitment Services, Angelo was the Student Union’s Entertainments Officer, Faculty Rep and also worked in the Mezz Bar at the Student Union. Currently he puts on parties and trips for students as a V+ Coordinator for the Student Village where V+ is the Village’s events and entertainment - the social package for residents as well as non-residents.
Bryan Roe Prize for the best overall first class honours Hanh Ngoc Dinh is the first Vietnamese student to win a prize in the Business School. She obtained the best overall first class honours this year thereby winning the Bryan Roe Prize. Ella, as we know her, is an extremely capable and hard working student who consistently tries her best, both academically
and in student support. She is a VP of the Vietnamese Society and also a student representative for the FTU contingent of students. When asked about the difference between Vietnamese and English undergraduate education, Ella contrasted the two by reflecting that in general in the UK, assignments are less
precisely specified, but with a greater demand for analysis and critical thinking and also that the feedback is much better and more detailed. Ella has achieved her great success whilst working parttime at Jimmy’s World Grill & Bar, and now is studying for her Masters in Finance in London.
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FROM THE CLASSROOM
School of Law launches new postgraduate courses In the current economic climate, law firms, government agencies and other employers are recruiting critical thinkers who can deal confidently with legal problems on a global scale. The new LLMs (www.beds.ac.uk/lawcourses) have been designed to meet these demands. Students can now choose to deepen their knowledge in European Law, International Business and Corporate Law, and International
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Commercial Dispute Resolution, as well as selecting from a wide range of other postgraduate degrees. Richard Lang, one of the new LLM course leaders, said: “This is a premium suite of practicebased LLM courses: premium owing to the internationallyrecognised expertise of our staff, and practice-based
AUTUMN EDITION | November 2013
owing to the unique common core unit on Advanced Legal Research Methods, blending academic legal research with practical legal research. Students thus leave with a double skill-set, making them immensely employable and giving them great prospects for their lives postUniversity.�
nts Stude ith a w leave kill-set, es doubl ing them ble mak employa sely g them n e m im ivin or and g rospects f p tgreat r lives pos thei versity. Uni
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FROM THE CLASSROOM
Guy Parrott wins the Inspirational Teaching Award The gala dinner and Student Experience Awards, held at the Putteridge Bury campus in June, celebrated and recognised student achievements and successes together with the contributions of key lecturers. Guy Parrott, Senior Lecturer in Marketing Communications and Course Leader for Undergraduate Marketing Programmes, received the annual Inspirational Teaching Award. Guy said, “I was pleased to be nominated and delighted to have won the award for inspirational teaching. The award is based on nominations from students and moderated by the Students’ Union. I would like to thank all those students who nominated me and will continue to do my best to remain inspirational.” Vice Chancellor Bill Rammell told guests, “By prioritising the student experience – it re-emphasises our mission to transform lives. And by transforming our students’ lives, we enable them to transform the lives of their families, of their communities, of their countries.”
Added value for marketing, advertising and public relations students The Department of Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality is providing even more opportunities for its students! All students on BA (Hons) Advertising and Marketing Communications, BA (Hons) Marketing, and BA (Hons) Public Relations will be able to take the Introductory Certificate in Marketing qualification awarded by the renowned Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). This will be awarded during the first year of these courses. Following the successful completion of their degree, students on these courses will also be exempt from two CIM Professional Certificate in Marketing units, namely Marketing Essentials, and Marketing Information and Research. In addition, they will also be exempt from two Professional Diploma in Marketing units, namely Delivering Customer Value through Marketing, and Project Management in Marketing. CIM is a professional association for marketers founded in 1911 and currently supports over 35,000 members worldwide.
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ALUMNI STORIES
Rising to the top - in less than a year Karina Kanayeva, an MSc Marketing and Business Management graduate, has clearly demonstrated that hard work pays off, since in less than a year she has been promoted from Senior Manager to Head of Claims Handling Unit at Eurasian Bank JSC - www.eubank.kz After completing her Masters studies Karina first got a job as an Administrative Assistant here in the Business School. In February 2012 she went back to Kazakhstan and shortly after, on the recommendation of her previous colleagues, started working in Eurasian Bank JSC. “After having spent four-and-a-half years in the UK it was really strange to be back home. At first I did not want to go out at all and worked long hours.” Karina said she really enjoys receiving the gratitude of both senior management and customers when her team improves various processes based on the information taken from the customers’ complaints. “The hardest part of my job is to make our customers happy and retain them to continue using our services. They register complaints and requests on a daily basis and the most important thing for me is to solve their issues in any case. I try to follow one “golden rule” – the customer is the king, the customer
is always right! We always try to improve our products and services. Managing my team is also a creative job since everyone has a different personality.” e At th ity She said that while s every day in her job is niver e an U interesting, the most m I beca m player memorable thing has tea ed my been the development e v i t c a elop skills of the national plan for v e d and nication the Bank’s branches y u all over Kazakhstan. omm ough man hat c “I was more than thr ations t happy when I got the nt ld prese ed me bui first results and could be absolutely sure that help fidence. the plan was working!” con Karina also reflected on her studies at Bedfordshire: “Breaking the language barriers and adapting to a different culture was the most challenging thing. At the University I became an active team player and developed my communication skills through many presentations that helped me build confidence. In addition to with the University that, I’ve become more creative, of Bedfordshire’s learned to work under pressure and Business School to manage my time effectively.” alumni on LinkedIn! Karina’s advice to current students is: “Never give up as www.beds.ac.uk/linkedin-bedsbiz-alumni there are a lot of things you can do or reach, there are no limits.”
CONNECT
TELL US ABOUT YOUR STORIES OF SUCCESS This magazine depends on the excellent stories of success our staff and students generate. Deadline for inclusion of these in the next edition is 31 January 2014.
Please email your stories and images to bbsdirect@beds.ac.uk 12
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IN PARTNERSHIP
University of Bedfordshire extends partnership links in South-East Asia Students in Malaysia are to be given the opportunity to study for a University of Bedfordshire degree following an agreement signed with Berjaya College. The agreement will enable Berjaya students to study from a choice of five undergraduate courses, including Business, Accounting and Marketing, from early 2014 onwards. The Kuala Lumpur-based students will study in their home country with an option of undertaking part of
their degree at the University of Bedfordshire’s Luton campus. The collaboration is the latest addition to the University’s growing portfolio of successful trans-national education with partner higher education institutions across the world. Bedfordshire has already established a number of partnerships in SouthEast Asia, including Life College, also in Malaysia, and the Foreign Trade University in Vietnam.
Students from Oman and Vietnam join in July graduation celebrations Eight graduating students from the University’s partner institution, Majan University College, have been presented with Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) awards. Graduating Majan student Lailia Al-Harthy said: “I feel great. I have learnt and achieved so much during my time at Bedfordshire.” Fellow graduate, Ayad Al Ani, who originally comes from Iraq said: “I am no longer the same person who applied to study for the Bedfordshire MBA. The academic staff at both Majan and Bedfordshire have supported me really well, accommodating my needs very well and helping me develop so many new skills to achieve my MBA.” The University of Bedfordshire has been in partnership with
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Majan University College, based in Muscat, Oman, since 2004 and has to date awarded nearly 450 Bedfordshire Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees to Majan students. The University also welcomed some 38 graduating business studies students and senior representatives from the
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Foreign Trade University (FTU) in Hanoi, Vietnam. FTU, which has been a partner college of the University of Bedfordshire since 2006, enables business students to undertake the first three-years of study at their home University, with an option to undertake their final year of studies at Bedfordshire.
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IN PARTNERSHIP
Our staff visits Majan College A team of nine academic staff and three management and support staff visited our partner, the aforementioned Majan College (University College), in Muscat, Oman in September to deliver the first Business School weekend of the semester. In addition to welcoming back three continuing cohorts we also welcomed one new cohort of students onto the programme, making the 19th cohort since the programme began. Such visits provide an opportunity for Business School staff teaching on the MBA Programme to work
closely with local (Oman based) teaching staff at Majan College. This new cohort represents the largest number of students to date in terms of applications to the Oman MBA Programme, with over 140 approved applications. We are looking forward to welcoming a further, 20th Cohort to the programme in February 2014 – which will also mark the 10th anniversary of the Oman MBA Programme.
The leader of FTU’s academic delegation, Dr Ho Ngoc Thuy, Dean of Faculty of International Education said: “We were delighted to accept the University’s invitation to attend graduation and share in FTU’s students’ success here in Luton. It has been a wonderful experience and a really exciting day for everyone.”
“We look forward to registering the next cohort of 45 students from FTU studying business at Bedfordshire from this September. In addition 35 FTU business students will study their final year in Vietnam and receive the University of Bedfordshire degree. In total, we look forward to 80 FTU students graduating at the University of Bedfordshire next year.”
Liew Kok Hian
Kaplan Singapore students make their mark
Two Business School students at Kaplan, Singapore have received awards for their hard work and commitment. Liew Kok Hian, who has completed the BA (Hons) Business Management programme, has achieved the best performance in Special Studies. “Kaplan is well-equipped with all the facilities that can help us learn well during our journey in school; lecturers were also very experienced. They taught us how to apply the theories we learnt in class to real-life working scenarios.” Doreen See Xiao Ying, from the BA (Hons) Accounting course, did best not only in Advances in Accounting, but was also the best overall performer, being selected out of 188 students for the best overall mark. “Kaplan has equipped us with a very good team of professional lecturers and tutors. This has definitely helped in our exams. This is a very good programme that serves as a stepping stone for us to take Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examinations in the future.”
Doreen See Xiao Ying
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TALKING BUSINESS
Practice Weeks University of Bedfordshire Business School champions a practice-led approach to business education to prepare students for real-world effectiveness in the organisations they join. Giving meaning to this vision are our “practice weeks”. Practice Weeks take place outside the “classroom”, giving students the opportunity to interact with businesses and other organisations to develop “practice intelligence” and prepare for work. The Practice Weeks have two objectives: n To develop the employability of students Through practice, students gain exposure to the attributes and behaviours that employers wish to see in their graduate recruits, just as well as the skills. These include confidence, negotiation, time management, team work, planning and other competencies. n To engage with local employers Practice Weeks give us and our students the opportunity to work alongside businesses and
other organisations in a sustainable programme integrated into the core student experience with benefits for both students and employers. We are a Business School for business and the community. We are very eager to hear from employers as we shape these practice weeks going forward. In the past academic year we have engaged with 45 community and business organisations through the practice weeks. We are hoping to double that engagement in the coming years.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION about how your organisation could benefit from participation in Practice Weeks or other ways of engaging with our vision contact Tim Priestman, Projects Executive on 01582 743972 or email tim.priestman@beds.ac.uk
Work placement “on track” for accounting student A one year work placement is a fantastic differentiator for students applying for graduate roles. “A degree on its own is no longer enough to impress, employers are looking for relevant skills demonstrable at application stage through work experience,” said Maria Meehan, Acting Head of UoB Careers and Recruitment Services. In today’s challenging employment market, securing a work placement can be difficult and time consuming for second year students. With the help from the Careers Service, Farzana Kossar, a second year BA (Hons) Accounting student, has been accepted onto an excellent placement with Network Rail in Milton Keynes. Farzana said: “What I’m looking forward to over the next couple of months is gaining practical insight into how Network Rail operates to provide value to
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passengers and train operating companies in the face of a two billion pound budget cut in spending. It would be insightful to understand how budgets are applied and how Network Rail manages its assets and stakeholder relations. By gaining exposure to Management Accounting and Team Audit, I would be able to gain relative knowledge that would help me in my final year units of Financial Management, Tax Computation and Analysis and Auditing.” Network Rail is responsible for Britain’s rail infrastructure. They run, maintain and develop Britain’s rail tracks, signalling,
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bridges, tunnels, level crossings, viaducts and 17 key stations. Gaining a high profile placement is never a given for any student. As well as an excellent academic record, Farzana had already proved herself as Co-President of the University Enactus Society. Enactus is an international network of students, universities and business leaders and involves the UoB team in undertaking social and economic projects that make a real impact on the lives of local people. At the UK finals held earlier this year, Farzana won one of only three coveted national team leader awards. University Enactus Adviser Paul Harrison said: “Farzana has developed great leadership skills and real confidence over the last two years. Taking part in extra-curricular activities like Enactus provides the opportunity to gain the value added that employers seek when differentiating amongst university students.”
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TALKING BUSINESS
Visiting the London Stock Exchange
At the beginning of June accounting, finance and business management students visited the London Stock Exchange for a day of unique experience. Business School staff and students were introduced to LSE’s trading platforms and rules of operation. They witnessed, real time, examples of how nearly £100 trillion of economic activity worldwide is controlled by the LSE and AIM listed companies, with combined market capitalisation of nearly £5 trillion. Our postgraduate students were very excited and asked thoughtful and challenging questions and displayed the learning outcome
they had picked up from the Business School. Ashley Ellis, an MSc Finance and Business Management student, felt that the trip was “enlightening” and Hongen Shen, a student on the MSc Investment and Finance course, thought the trip provided “a lot of useful policy information.” Gintare Nikolajevaite on the MSc
Accounting and Finance course, said, “The event related to my units on International Finance and Market, Corporate Finance and Corporate Governance. The speaker gave an excellent presentation with real life examples as well as an introduction to LSE’s proquote system/technology.” The trip was organised by Dr Sanawar Choudhury, Portfolio Leader for the Accounting and Finance Postgraduate Programmes in the Department of Accounting and Finance. The trip was arranged to enhance student experience and allow them to put theory into practice.
THE RESEARCH POD
Big Data in higher education - Strategic ICT for Managing Student Engagement Business and Information Systems Research Centre (BISC) members (Project Manager Prof Yanqing Duan; Dr Guangming Cao; Marcus Woolley) completed another Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) project in July. The project, entitled “Strategic ICT for Managing Student Engagement (SIMSE)”, was funded by JISC’s Transformations Programme, and aimed to transform the student engagement system (SES) by exploring and utilising JISC’s Strategic ICT Toolkit (SICT). The Toolkit has helped the University in developing more strategically directed student engagement management systems, thereby enhancing student experience and supporting strategic planning. Some of the key benefits derived
n
from the SIMSE project include: n raised awareness of the value of Big Data in student management among senior managers helping in their buy-in of new Big Data projects; n improved effectiveness in identifying students at risk at an early stage, thereby supporting more proactive approaches to
improving student retention and positively changing student engagement behaviour; improved communications, increased SES value, and improved organisational efficiency.
The project report and digital storytelling video can be viewed here www.beds.ac.uk/jisc-infonet . Looking ahead, although the SIMSE project has finished and SES is functioning and used on a daily basis, the transformational momentum continues. SES will be linked to other new ICT developments, to help better achieve institutional strategic priorities such as enhancing student experience with Big Data.
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IN THE NEWS
School Summer Forum Our School Summer Forum in July centred around fundamental questions raised by our aspiration to take global business education, research and practice in imaginative new directions. With practice starting to take root across the curriculum it was a time to reflect on the way forward with indepth discussion around the direction the Faculty could take with further innovation and the consolidation of successes to make its practice based provision distinctive. There were discussions around four questions. n The first question looked at the characteristics of a successful practice-based experience and how we could achieve this consistently. The range of characteristics identified included the ability of students to develop confidence in “applying theory to practice and to recognise patterns in practice that they could apply to theory”. The idea of “living the work experience” was emphasised together with the use of appropriate behavioural models as applied in an organisational context. A number of internal and external recommendations were received, including the breaking down of internal subject silos, aligning our assessment structures to the requirements of industry and
employability and mixing our students across subject areas and years. n The second question looked at how we could assess the practicebased student experience in a way that reflected the activities students undertook and the skills, attributes and behaviours that they acquired. Assessment should be based on what was actually done in the practice experience of our students and should therefore include employers and the input of our Professors in Practice. A common theme of discussion was the need to share good practice and to scan the approach of other institutions to inform our own developments. n The third question examined how we should prepare our students for optimum engagement with the excellent learning experience we aspired to offer. The discussion started with the curriculum, which participants considered would inspire students to engage if developed and delivered in a motivational and enjoyable way. Suggestions included greater use of experienced alumni and a closer study of models of behaviour and values as demonstrated by practitioners. Inductions of students at the start of their practitioner ‘journey’ were seen as important and should aim to develop community and belonging,
including a sense of identification with the Business School and its relation to the rest of the University, including easy and clear access to the available social and educational resources. Participants also emphasised the need for early identification where these were identified. n The fourth and final question revolved around the optimal format for learning materials to transform the learning experience for our students. In a lively debate participants agreed that activities should include tutor and practitioner directed learning, discussions, case studies and other formats supported by various tools and media formats, such as social media, text books, journal articles and various forms of IT learning technologies. Consistent, attractive and branded interactive learning materials convey a sense of relevance to contemporary business practice, and should be embedded in assessment requirements. Appropriate and interactive learning materials support the application of theory, practice and research to produce an engaged student with analytical and reflective skills, a subtle understanding of context and the ability to shape both their own futures and those of their organisations.
Outstanding Reviewer Award 2013 Every year Emerald rewards the Outstanding Reviewers who contribute to the success of the journals. Dr Qile He (Horace) from the Department of Management and Business Systems has been named an Outstanding Reviewer 2013 for his significant contribution to the Journal of Strategy and Management last year. He was presented with an award in September at the British Academy
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of Management (BAM) conference in Liverpool. Dr He said, “Being a journal reviewer is always a good opportunity to know better the current research development of the area and to develop skills of research scrutiny. We don’t normally get rewarded for being journal reviewers, but an award is definitely a good recognition of the effort dedicated to the research community. I am very pleased.”
Issue 3
IN THE NEWS
Best Paper Award in Entrepreneurship Dr Muhammad Azam Roomi, Principal Lecturer in the Department of Management and Business Systems, won the Best Paper Award for Women’s Entrepreneurship from the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), at its annual conference, held in Puerto Rico this year in June. The winning article, entitled “Her Family, Household and Entrepreneurial Venture: Using a Life Course Perspective to Make Sense of the Work–Life Choices of Pakistani Women Entrepreneurs” was co-written with Sumaira Rehman, Assistant Professor at the Superior University, Pakistan. This research enhances the understanding of how various role transitions and career trajectories contribute to the entrepreneurial
endeavours of women entrepreneurs. It further explores how these women make their work–life choices (agency) within a constrained socio-cultural and familial environment over their life course. Dr Muhammad Azam Roomi also delivered an invited lecture at the “2nd Realities of Researching Under-Represented Groups in Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) Workshop” held at Nottingham Trent University during summer. The workshop’s aim was to enhance the skills of academics and doctoral students in terms of researching under-represented groups of individuals who are selfemployed, such as women, ethnic minorities, younger entrepreneurs and those with disabilities.
Study help: always on hand The University’s Academic Liaison Librarians are always on hand to assist students and academics. Some of the things they do are: n teaching how to undertake good quality research for assignments n offering advice on search techniques and strategies n advising academics on relevant resources they might want to promote to their students n teaching how to avoid plagiarism “We’ll be hoping to see students and staff, both new and old, during the forthcoming academic year. We’ll do our best to show you the resources which can help your academic study”, said Alan Bullimore, Academic Liaison Librarian. Full details and subject responsibilities are described here - lrweb.beds.ac.uk/help/ALLs .
Farewell to the Department of Language and Communication The new academic year sees us bidding farewell to the Department of Language and Communication which joined the Faculty of Education and Sport from 1 September 2013. This is in line with the synergies that
the Department has as a subject discipline with current offerings within the Faculty of Education and Sport. We did, however, welcome some Language and Communication colleagues into the Department of
Educating on social media In July Robin Croft, Reader in Marketing, was invited to talk to the Society of Indexers annual conference on social media marketing. Indexers are generally self-employed researchers who work with publishers on editing, proofreading and similar tasks. Mostly they work from home and the Society felt that they should be considering 21st century digital tools in order to promote themselves. Robin’s presentation received great interest with almost 80 delegates attending, and over 500 visitors accessing presentation notes online. www.beds.ac.uk/sribd . On another topic, some work done by Ross Brennan of Hertfordshire and Robin Croft on the use of social media by technology companies was reviewed by the influential MIT Sloan Management Review www.beds.ac.uk/sloanreview . The summarised version is available in the influential practitioner journal The European Financial Review in print and online www.beds.ac.uk/ european-financial-review . Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality Tricia Smart (Course Co-ordinator and Senior Lecturer in Intercultural Studies and International Business), Leszek Wypych (Course Co-ordinator and Lecturer in Intercultural Studies and International Business) and Vladimir Zegarac (Reader in Communication and Culture) - thus strengthening the current expertise in the Department of Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality.
AUTUMN EDITION | November 2013
19
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