Last week we welcomed the School of Marketing and Management (SMM) to take part in our ‘In Conversation With…’. The panel answered some faculty-based questions for students.

The panel consisted of:

• Dr Clare Jones - Associate Head of School - Student Experience
• Dr Crystal Zhang – Associate Dean
• Dr George Hulene - Associate Head of School - Student Experience

The event was chaired by Maryam Ali and Emily Long from CUSU, who were joined by Sabina Sabova, the Education School Rep for SMM, and Max Shenton, the Welfare and Inclusion Rep for SMM. We picked out three of the key questions from the event below…

What does the school have planned for Semester Two?

We have a School Conference planned at the end of March. There was one in Semester One, but that was more subject specific. This one is focused much more on employability. We are focusing on final year students who might not know what they want to do once they graduate. There will be a number of guest speakers (including alumni) and sessions from the Careers Advice team too.

We have also got the international field trip! There are a number of destinations being considered. We had over 120 expressions of interest. The trip will be subsidised largely too by the university – it’s likely to be the cheapest way to see some fantastic locations around the globe.

Finally, we also have the virtual tours. We have connected with Brazil and Costa Rica virtually in the last two weeks and have brought in both industry groups and academic speakers from that region to really give you a different insight. While we can't physically travel to those destinations, please come aboard. Join us and participate in those opportunities; they will enhance your CV and doesn’t stop you from attending the physical field trips to meet peers in different destinations.

Since meeting in Semester One, have any changes been implemented?

Improvements to delivery of hybrid learning have been a general trend. More people are aware of how to use the technology, which can enable people to start to use helpful features more effectively. What we can do at a very local level is remind colleagues through our school bulletins how to effectively use technology and the tools within the technology to support students. Sometimes people just simply forget to do simple things like record meetings, so we can certainly put a reminder.

I'm really pleased that you've noticed that there has been an improvement and let you know we'll carry on reinforcing that message to enable people to continue to improve. Feel free to do it the other way as well, and just prod people when they they've forgotten to do it.

What are you most excited about in Semester Two?

One thing that really excites me is seeing students back on campus. We’ve had quite a lot of teaching online during the pandemic. A month from today, we will have been in this pandemic for two years. We have implemented a tremendous amount of innovative teaching and learning content material. You know the new strategies we implemented in every school.

It’s not just about attending, but it's the engagement that’s the most important thing. If I had a chance to provide one piece of advice to all our students, it would be to engage with your studies, engage with your academics with, with all the support teams, engage with all the assessments as well, because we're seeing some interesting trends in that in that area as well.

Make sure you are aware of our ‘In Conversation With…’ events; a full schedule is available here. A full transcript and video will be made available shortly.