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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 )

  
  

  
  

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!

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.

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

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

(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

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.

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)

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.

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.