Joshua Jones
Team Director, Salford University Race Team

Ever wondered what goes into building and financing a formula one car?

A team of mechanical engineering and business students have been finding out!

For the first time ever the University of Salford is competing in Formula Student. It is the world’s largest student competition, involving 100 teams from across the world tasked with designing, building and racing a formula style single seat race car. This is a multi-disciplinary project and requires a team from across a number of subject areas including business where sponsorship and marketing activities are required to raise the funding for the car’s development.

Salford University Racing Team is a fantastic opportunity to work on a real world class project. Currently we are in our first year and we are looking to develop a critical mass of enthusiasts to keep the momentum going for many years to come.

Do you like fast cars and want to get closer to understanding how the racing business works?

Read more…..

Le Hung, The Salford MBA student

Lê Tuấn Hùng came to Salford Business School from Vietnam to study for The Salford MBA. He had originally studied at the University of Transport and Communications in Hanoi, Vietnam, majoring in Construction Economics and after graduating, worked for a shipping company as a sales executive.

“My main job was to search for potential clients and convince them to use my company’s services, while dealing with and keeping existing clients the company had assigned. In this time, I achieved many new and well-known clients for my company. After that, I moved on to work for a Japanese freight forwarder as a sales manager.”

At this stage, Hùng realized that, if he wanted to progress his career, he would have to return to study to update his skills and to fill the gaps in his business knowledge.

“I realised that the practical experience and knowledge I had gained were not enough for the personal development of my career. At this time I also decided to study in a developed country to acquire this knowledge in the best way.”

Read more…..

Dr Jiten Makan

What does an MBA teach you? I have not done an MBA personally but I know it’s something that could have helped me and my business. The route I took was largely haphazard (although on paper it looks ‘logical’ and ‘well thought out’).

So, I did a BSc in Business Information Systems (2000-2003), after that I didn’t get a job because I didn’t look particularly hard for one. I also thought that jobs would come to me because of my shiny new degree. Anyway, after being ‘unsuccessful’ on the career front I decided to come back and do an MSc in Managing Information Technology (2003-2004). Once that was completed I still didn’t get a job as I didn’t really look for one (can you see a pattern emerging?), and I still thought it would just come to me.

I drifted along, spent a year or so selling stuff on eBay, and alongside doing that I ended up looking into Subway Franchises. Fast-forward to the end of 2005, I’d opened my first store at the age of 23 (I was the youngest franchisee in the UK at that point)… I didn’t really have any idea of what was going on or any kind of ‘masterplan’, I just kind of thought, “it doesn’t seem to be that difficult…I’ll just figure it out”.

Read more…..

Namitha Muthukrishnan

An integral part of the MBA experience is an overseas visit, in which I had the opportunity to spend an intensive week in the United Arab Emirates. This experience enabled me to meet like-minded leaders and be immerse  in another business culture. This year’s visit  included a Global Leaders Industry Visit to the Intercontinental Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

The intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) is a global hotel company traded on the New York as well as the London Stock exchange. Present on over 100 countries worldwide with one of the largest room inventories of over 177,000 room in 4900 hotels, there is no surprise when IHG has been named on FORTUNE Magazine’s 2014 World’s Most Admired Companies list. The question when the Salford MBA students entered the hotel was, what makes them ‘amazing?’

In conversation with Ivor Prestwood, the General Manager of The Intercontinental Abu Dhabi, the Salford Business School MBA students were given an insight into the exciting and challenging world of hospitality.

Read more…..

#WhyMBA

Why should I undertake an MBA? This question is often asked on twitter #WhyMBA as people contemplate the decision to complete a Master of Business Administration (MBA). To help respond to this question, we carried out research on the current MBA students at Salford Business School to determine what was important to them.

One of the greatest advantages of completing an MBA is the enhanced employability, 88% of Salford Business School graduates find a job or go onto higher study within 6 months of graduating according to the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey. MBA graduates typically earn higher salaries then other graduates and enjoy an average salary of £96,661 according to the AMBA Careers and Salary Report 2014.

Read more…..

What does MBA stand for?

Officially, MBA is an acronym for Master of Business Administration, but it stands for so much more.

Really, what does MBA stand for?

We believe that MBA stands for having the capability to release your inner superhero and go above and beyond to not only reach your goals, but exceed them.

As an MBA student at Salford University, you have the opportunity to harness your skills and explore your talents to achieve extraordinary feats.

Essentially, you are given the power to discover, unleash and develop your unique super-abilities.

Read more…..

Brian Matthews provides his expert opinion on how important it is to get a work placement

Graduating with a good degree is, of course, the main priority for all students when they first walk through the doors of their Business School. Yet, graduating with work experience in the bag is even more important as recently mentioned by Steve Lowy on this blog, and students should maybe refocus their aims slightly to ensure they achieve exactly this.

We all know that interviews are all about experience, these days a degree is just a prerequisite.

So, this post is about getting you a job, about making sure you feel as ready as possible for that first interview, and about helping you to wash away those pre-interview nerves.

Our most important tip is to remember that an interview is just an opportunity to tell someone how awesome you are…

Read more…..

Dr. Yvonne Moogan, Salford MBA Director

As global mobility rises there is an increase in the diversity of the learners creating challenges for both the learner and for the educator. International students are often seen as problematic, but, is it really their fault?

In the interests of equality and given internationalisation of the curriculum with the influx of international students to the UK, we have a duty to ascertain whether or not a traditional MBA course design is biased to the home student (UK) and prejudiced against the international student.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a responsibility to ensure that all students accepted onto their courses have an equal opportunity to succeed and more needs to be known about the variables affecting international student performance and integration within the class room. Culture shock can be massive for all new students but particularly international students who are away from home for the first time in a foreign country where English is not their first language and they are not used to the UK HE learning environment and the culture of their new country.

Read more…..

Mark Rix, Chief Executive Catchpole Communications

Having gained an MBA from The University Of Salford it was naturally exciting for me to be invited to join the University’s United Arab Emirates (UAE) Advisory Board.

The Middle East expansion of the University is a very positive development which presents outstanding opportunities for students from the region to further their education within a world-class institution.

The wider possibilities for public and private sector collaboration with the University are considerable and this is of equal interest.  The long term effects of the University’s investment in this region lies in the positive contribution to the development of a knowledgeable and competitive economy.

Read more…..

Dr. Yvonne Moogan, Salford MBA Director

I used to lock the doors if my Master of Business Administration (MBA) students were more than 10 minutes late for a lecture and not let them in until the break.

Not that I am confrontational, although students that I have worked with during a wide-ranging career that has spanned both the Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) sectors always know where they stand with me – probably because I am a blunt spoken Northerner.

Born and bred in Bolton – North West England- and being the first member of my family to go on to attend university full-time, I am always there for my students – unusually often giving them my personal mobile number: 07815 491 522.

Originally an accountant, I gave this up after a couple of years for a career “with a buzz”. That happened to be education and now many years later that buzz still remains!

The reason for the potential student lockouts was because at that time I was working for a for-profit private education provider, who being American owned their own set of rules and standards for the courses they ran to ensure their students got the “biggest bang for their bucks”.

Read more…..