What Practice Means for Students – and for me

When I first became a manager in the Business School, I could go whole weeks without missing teaching.  Now, largely because of our Practice Weeks I find myself pining for teaching.

Being head of a department doesn't allow for teaching, partly because of the size of the management task and partly because the flexibility needed doesn't mesh with the fixed nature of a timetable.  So teaching stopped when I took on my current role last year.  What I get to do instead, however, is go to the high points for students.  I am invited to see what is going on, to give profile and to present prizes.  High points can be events such as Vietnam’s Women’s Day for the Vietnamese Society but most often they are the Business School’s Practice Weeks.

Already this term I have been at the presentations by our Early Career MBA students who had spent a week tackling tasks posed by local organisations.  As they presented to those organisations and it was a pleasure to see the impact these small projects were having on the students and on the local partners.  Part of our vision as a Faculty is to have a wider engagement with our local business and social community.  These MBA projects are one of the ways we are starting.  The process is still developing but we know we are on the right path with good, hard work from the students, positive feedback from the partners and one organisation offering an internship for a participant already.

Then last week I was at the Practice Week the latest intake of MBA students were doing really early in their course which combines intensive personal development with a Dragons Den exercise.  Students love it, staff love it and I love it.  I particularly love what the staff are finding, namely that students are more engaged and harder working in the classes after the Practice Week than they were before it.  I like it when the best Dragons Den groups describe how they were successful which is usually about team work and hard work.  Welcome to MBA world: if you complete an MBA without working with your group late into the night quite a few times, you've really missed out on the intensity of the experience and the strength of relationships forged in the heat of that effort.

And finally last Friday I was at an undergraduate Practice Week joining together first year and final year students in mentoring and research, often on tasks for local business partners.  So many good things going on with one set of students seeing how far they had come and another set seeing how far they could go. And all of them engaged together in some good, hard work which is absolutely joining together the conventionally academic with the world of business practice.

Practice Weeks are the first embodiment of our Practice-Based vision as a Faculty.  We enable students to step outside “normal” classes and experience something which raises their sights, supports their ambition and gives them sharper insights into the business world.  We have a lot more to do to fully express this vision and in the meantime Practice Weeks are providing immediate opportunities to students, enabling us to build relationships with local partners and to experiment in a low risk way a week at a time.

Building the future of the University of Bedfordshire Business School is an enormous and consuming adventure but Practice Weeks remind me that teaching is also an exciting adventure.  One day, when I have contributed as much as I can to building the Business School we want, I will return to class but in the meantime I have to reconcile myself to enjoying Practice Weeks so much that I pine to be doing them myself.

About the Author: Elizabeth Parkin 

Elizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.