Earlier this week Dr Peter Flett, Director of Postgraduate Programmes and Ms Donna McKendrick, Head Administrator of Postgraduate Programmes at the Stirling Management School, University of Stirling (UoS) visited BBS. Their visit started with a meeting with the management of the Faculty of International Management and Business (FIMB): Dr Katalin Csekő, dean of FIMB, Dr Anna Forgács, vice dean (education), Dr Gábor Andrási, head of internationalisation, and Mr David Parker, manager of the double degree programmes. The focus of the meeting was on the existing double degree collaboration: five BBS students of the MSc International Economy and Business programme are nominated to spend the spring semester at UoS, followed by a co-supervised dissertation writing period, providing them with the opportunity to get two Masters degrees without any further tuition fees. A similar group of MSc students from UoS are also expected to arrive next autumn, with the same opportunity. The participants have also discussed the deepening of the collaboration, with special focus on certain modules and disciplines, as well as the expansion of the double degree opportunity to other FIMB programmes.
The visit included two sessions delivered by Dr Flett. First he shared his experiences with AACSB-accreditation: a group of senior faculty members involved in the International Business Bachelor and Masters programme had a training session with Peter, discussing course design and assurance of learning. The lively conversation covered not just the respective AACSB standards but also digitalisation, assessment practices and involvement of employers into the various courses.
In the afternoon MSc International Economy and Business students had a guest lecture by our Dr Flett. The topic of the very interactive event was contemporary project management practices, supported by videos and personal experiences of the participants. The students also had the chance to learn more about the double degree opportunity.
The visitors also had a meeting with the three heads of internationalisation of the three Faculties of BBS, discussing collaboration ideas. There are already ongoing discussions about the expansion of the double degree opportunity to various BBS programmes, as well as about module-level collaboration, mutual mobility possibilities for students, faculty and administrative staff members, and joint academic projects.
Digitalisation and preparation for the 21st century workplace were key elements of each meeting. The colleagues from UoS had the chance to visit the Smart Shop Floor lab in Hatvan, which supports logistics education with state-of-the-art technology, and the Room of the Future at FIMB, where the students can use augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and business simulation games. The opportunities provided by this infrastructure fuelled brainstorming about possible short visits and summer schools, too.
Stay tuned for further details about how we deepen our collaboration with the University of Stirling in the near future.
