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Before curriculum design, we need to be clear on the objectives of the department and the programme. This would be a vision/mission at our department level (RDSBL already has - are we following the same?). We can then build the POs based on these and it could then trickle down to curriculum and module design. All our modules together should be achieving the programme objectives. I think collaboration is the key - module leaders should ensure there are no overlapping and gaps.

As Alina mentioned, collaboration should be there at the module level as well. Right now the focus is more on standardising content. Module leaders create content and faculty delivers with hardly any space for changes. If this is the approach, all faculty members teaching a module should be involved in creating the content. Another approach is to have a detailed syllabus for each module and give autonomy to the faculty. I am not sure whether we can do that.

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4. What are the latest trends and innovations in the sector?  (MBA, T&L or industry)

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4. What are the latest trends and innovations in the sector?  (MBA, T&L or industry)

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1. Who are our students? what are they like? Why do they come on our MBA? (why don't they?)

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1. Who are our students? what are they like? Why do they come on our MBA? (why don't they?)

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2. What currently works well on the MBA? (and we should keep)

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2. What currently works well on the MBA? (and we should keep)

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3. What currently doesn't work well? (and should change)

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3. What currently doesn't work well? (and should change)

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AI focused

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experiential learning

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Is the course aligned with the current employability quotient?

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Is the course aligned with the current employability quotient?

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Don't get me wrong as India is a big place but sometimes students say they looked forward to meeting and studying with a much more diverse cohort of MBAs to gain a better understanding of divesity in business management. Still, it hasn't stopped them from coming.

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I have been asked about an MBA in AI as Cardiff (and I think Cumbria) are jumping on the bandwagon to offer one. Personally I think it is premature to be teaching grounded practice in managing this when the field is still developing so rapidly. Better to have an MSc for technical management of it as a specialism first. Could perhaps fit within a broader topic of data and data centre menagement?

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Corporate social responsibility and sustainability 

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Corporate social responsibility and sustainability 

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MBA graduates should be acknowledgeable about environmental impact, sustainable business models and social initiatives, that could lead to competitive advantages and positive societal impacts

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Does the lack of accreditation affect our recruitment efforts (quantity applying or quality or students attracted to the programme) or positioning in the market?

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I have had asked students, why did you choose UEL, 95% answer i get is referred and/or economical convenient.

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Agree with Giles. We are attracting students from India for whom 'studying' or 'upskilling' is not the primary motive. I am not sure whether this is a strategic decision but it will be good to see some diversity (and focus).

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There is a huge demand for a flexible, less rigorous, accommodative and economical MBA program. Our current program offers these students with the flexibility to juggle work and studies.

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I am just 2-term old at UEL - pardon me if I am way off the mark! But somewhere we are scaling ourselves down to meet the student's level rather than maintaining a higher standard and bringing the students up to it. This scaling down shows in the discipline, attendance, curriculum, plagiarism, quality of submissions etc.

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It will be nice to have a program which integrates the tenets of the Principles of Responsible Management Education in every module. Building responsible leaders is a theme in AACSB as well.

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...what does this mean for the curriculum design?

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My Students

UEL MBA

This term I teach approx. 150 students The large majority are from India, but we also have 1 student from Butan, 2 from Morrocco, 2 from Nepal, 1 from Pakistan and one from Iran.

Unlike other terms this term most of the students have got previous experience and about 10% come from family businesses.

Why ? Most of the students say that they want to go back to India and they would have better perspectives after the MBA. About 10% declare that they would want to stay in the UK.

RH- UEL MBA

I also teach a group of students(8) from RH(Germany) , out of which international students ( original from Turkey, Morrocco and Cameroon). They are experienced with more than 5 years professional experience.

All these students chose to do an MBA as they aim at leadership roles and they wanted to have a more global experience.

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Facilities

Moodle - is currently the one stop shop for the students and lectures

Equipment in the class - all classrooms are equipped with appropriate

Excellent cooperation with HUBRO Education ( the provider of the game for Business Simulation). We could use them for a sustainability (ESG) based simulation as well.

People

Staff expertise - the large majority of the team have had both academic and business exposure

The management team is approachable, open to feedback.

Content

Practice- based - All our modules include practical and business like aspects. All the subjects are essential and add value to managers.

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1.There should be an overview of all modules and a detailed conversation about the sequence in which we teach things.

For example, in Business Simulation I teach finance ( just one lecture) and it is hard as a large part of the students do not have previous business knowledge and do not understand the basics.

Solution - a discussion ( focus groups) with all module leaders to discuss the sequence in which we teach things

2. Writing and research skills are missing

The large majority of students have not been exposed to the British way of assessing their work. There should be a stronger focus on writing and research skills before they start. Moreover, we could reconsider the way of assessing all together.

Assessment is difficult for staff members as well. We mark hundreds of papers in a few days, in different subjects.

Solution : 4 sessions of Learnng & Research Skills at the beginning of the term.

3. Large Volumes

The seminars are our only way to provide tailored content and interact with our students, this term it was challenging with seminars of up to 40 people. I will have to mark more than 160 papers ( including dissertation ) this term.

4. Meetings

A happy, positive culture is great, but there should be space to address the issues we face in a constructive way and a list of actions at the end of meetings.

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this needs to work for our partners and be capable of delivery in online formats.

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1. Sustainability (ESG reporting) has become a major theme and there are many legal aspects that will need to be applied and addressed.

2. AI - how to ethically use it in different aspects of business

3. EDI ( Equity, Diversity and Inclusion)

4. Multi-disciplinary teams working together

5. Metaverse

6. Blue Economy ( sustainable use of oceans)

In my Master Programme, I also studied basics of Law and I think we could cooperate with Law to design a module of basic business law so that our students are ready to understand and comply with complex legislation related to the above ( AI, GDPR, EDI etc).

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Flexible Delivery

Considering flexible methods of delivering MBA, such as hybrid, online.

This will make our MBA attractive for other segments such as working professionals and students seeking more flexible learning options. This can also help us diversify our target audience.

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The Ethics form and the cooperation with REDS - was a real challenge when applying and implementing grants.

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We have a diverse mix of students.
Geographic location: In the huge bunch from the Indian sub-continent, we have students from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. We also have students from the US, China, UK, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, Morocco and a growing mix of students from the African sub-continent ( Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, and others I may have missed). Our largest market currently is India. There is scope for diversification.

Demographics: We have a mix of young students straight from their UG, along with mature students. The students (even mature students) could be experienced or inexperienced:
Inexperienced: Looking to upskill to enter the job market after a career break (mostly women), young students directly from UG.
Experienced: entrepreneurs, switching careers or just upskilling but continuing in the same industry.

Disability: We seem to have (young and mature) students with invisible disabilities as well. In some cases, this makes it challenging both for the student and the department to seek/provide adequate support. Students with visible disability are in a better position to receive support and/or consideration from the student community as well.

Preethi

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Don't try and solve problems in our current structure, the design process will address problems in a new curriculum

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Don't try and solve problems in our current structure, the design process will address problems in a new curriculum

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We have diversified students from around the world especially from the emerging economies. We have different level of their adaption and learning pedagogies. Over all our students are hard working and committed learners. All we as a faculty has to prepare them well for the future employability challenges in the upcoming corporate world with true essentials skills. Khurram Riaz Lecturer MBA UEL

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This is a solution, what is the problem it is trying to address?

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This is a solution, what is the problem it is trying to address?

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currently we have a similar profile of our students. by offering a flexible delivery structure we can reach out to more diverse audience. the problem addressed would be current lack of diverse audience.

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At present MBA specialisations in the world are Business Analytics, Information Technology, Finance, Marketing, and Economics, AI in Business resilience, AI and CSR, AI and sustainability.

Though UEL is already focusing on Digital Marketing, Sustainability, Strategy, Business Analytics, Fintech, Project Mgmt, These specialisations are really market oriented all we need to add the more practical approach in learning with the support of UEL Business centre so our students will have an opportunity to learn the real world actual scenario based cases while doing their degrees.

KHURRAM RIAZ Lecturer UEL

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Where do/should the PBCs fit into our curriculum?

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Where do/should the PBCs fit into our curriculum?

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Right now, in the MBA, the PBC are not part of the curriculum.

Where could they fit ?

Perhaps we could design an Entrepreneurship and Innovation Module that is especially designed for the students who come from family businesses ( around 40% in my seminars) or have entrepreneurship ambitions

Skills Module with practical projects aimed to develop soft and technical skills ( the students currently work with SMEs providing service )

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Problems

We are not flexible enough for people with full time jobs.

Our offer is not attractive for the internal market and industry partnerships.

By offering a mix of forms of delivery, we could address these limitations!

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We could offer agile, flexible executive programmes, potentially in partnership with industry.

These would be condensed versions of the traditional MBA programme, designed to provide key insights into essential business concepts and skills over a shorter period, often ranging from a few days to a few months.

We could target professionals who seek to enhance their business knowledge and leadership skills without committing to the time and financial investment required for a full MBA.

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Hope this addresses the question raised by Stephen: Hybrid delivery: Benefits/ problem it could address

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Hope this addresses the question raised by Stephen: Hybrid delivery: Benefits/ problem it could address

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Hybrid delivery would be beneficial on the following accounts:
1)  Students who are sick or pregnant and struggle/are unable to come to campus.

2) Online exchange programme to improve diversity without the visa-hassle (and a value add)

3) Some students with disability would love to have recorded lectures, so that it can be viewed multiple times with sub-titles.

4) The ability to put on sub-titles is beneficial for international students. eNot all accents areasily  comprehensible to all students alike.

5) Working students who would like to undertake a full time course.

Preethi

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Our students can also be classified under this category:

1) Privileged background

2 Underprivileged background

3) First gen college students.

Each category has unique needs and expectations in terms of course content, support and access to resources.

Eg:- Students without laptops and students with high tech devices both attend the same sessions.

Preethi

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Why our MBA students chose us? Three factors (by Sam R.)

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Why our MBA students chose us? Three factors (by Sam R.)

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Three factors as to why our MBA students choose to study with us:

(1) competitiveness - our MBA offer is competitively priced as compared to other MBA providers in the UK

(2) location – our MBA students prefer London as the top UK location to study with opportunities the capital offers

(3) diversity – our students value the benefits of studying at a diverse and inclusive institution

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We have mixture of students inn regards to ability. The first group are those students that have come straight from undergraduate level and lack any understanding of the workplace. The second group are those students who have some work experiences (3-5) and in some case high level managerial jobs.

The third group are those that have work experience but come from field outside business, these tend to be engineering and IT. Some are here to upskill others are here just for the qualification. And we have minority of students for whom education and attending university is less important and work and money is the ultimate goal Developing pedagogy that caters for all these different groups is a challenge.

Also engagement in the class is varies depending of experiences and confidence to speak. Finally, it is evident that main students do not have the skills to analysis and evaluate, something that would be expected at postgraduate level.

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Should we consider an online MBA provision?

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Online MBA, intensive MBA, hybrid (2 -4 full days per module).

Cross-courses collaborations

How about an MBA for legal professionals?

Work-based MBA?

International visits as part of MBA programme offer (exclusive to MBA cohorts)

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Lack of focus on emerging trends/outdated curriculum

The current modules are outdated. our curriculum must be in line with the current needs and trends of the business world. Our MBA lacks in focusing on emerging trends and technologies in the business world.

If not addressed, our graduates will be lacking necessary skills and knowledge required for them to succeed and excel in the fast-changing business world and find it difficult to navigate the challenges faced.

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most students start losing attention and interest an hour into the teaching session. 2 hours lecture means less engagement as students are more likely to lose their attention and interest. so alot shared in those 2 hours is lost and students are not able to gain maximum benefit out of those 2 hour teaching slots.

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Agree - heterogeneity in the student cohort is important as we are selling the experience here. 

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Agree - heterogeneity in the student cohort is important as we are selling the experience here. 

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Two hour lectures are ok, 1 hour is too short- maybe get a 10 min break in

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The link to topical/ contemporary / business news and videos is lacking AND why do we speak so much about the assessment in seminars

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the seminar group size is very good i think

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In relation to data analytics, I did a 10 week online course on this last year run by the LSE. Very happy to share the course details if it helps