Hull takes a role on world stage

The dean, Professor Mike Jackson, comments: “To become genuinely world class, we have to develop some specialist areas of expertise. Our mission is to be very relevant and effective for this region but also internationally excellent. We see these goals as complementing each other.”

He cites three main disciplines in which the school aims to build on its reputation while adding to a local knowledge pool to help to regenerate Hull and the Humber region. They are: logistics and supply-chain management; public sector delivery and entrepreneurship. Born in Hull, Jackson is aware that the area depends on public investment and that its comparative economic deprivation brings other problems.

“We’re heavily involved in encouraging enterprise,” he says. “The area is renowned for being non-entrepreneurial and we’re desperately trying to do something about that. We have modules in enterprise on the MBA and at all levels of the undergraduate degree.

“We have just appointed a regional enterprise champion and the logistics institute will have incubator units where small businesses can start.”

The Hull MBA is delivered in three separate ways to graduates with at least three years’ managerial experience. It can be studied at the business school, full-time for a year or part-time for two years. It is also taught overseas by faculty staff based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Oman and Bahrain.

It was also the first to include a “systems thinking” module. Jackson is a world expert in this art of taking a holistic approach to organisations and their environments.

“We give fantastic accommodation to postgraduates,” he says. “They have computer laboratories, some especially equipped for group work, and very nice lecture theatres. Everything is centred on a café where they chat and meet staff and business people.”

Susan Miller, the MBA academic director, discloses that accreditation for the Hull degree is currently being sought from the Association of MBAs (AMBA). “I feel that Hull is going forward in a positive and significant way,” she says.

“The MBA is built around students’ needs. It’s also built on a collaborative model. We make sure students have good work experience that can be shared. It’s not simply about us delivering learning.”

CASE STUDY: A SHORT WALK TO A BRIGHT BUSINESS FUTURE

CHINWE AGHADIUNO suspected that if she studied for an MBA in London, she would be constantly distracted. She would have to travel miles every day between her accommodation and business school, relatives from Nigeria would fly over to stay and, in short, she would not be able to concentrate.

So she opted for the calm and convenience of the Hull University Business School (HUBS) which attracted her with its choice of general management subjects.

As a full-time Hull MBA student, Aghadiuno, 32, enjoys a short walk between her on-campus apartment and the newly opened, refurbished HUBS building.

“I wanted a quiet place where I could just focus on my studies for a year and this is a brilliant environment,” she says. “It’s very convenient for anyone who wants to study hard.”

Educated in Devon until the age of 11, she attended secondary school in Nigeria where she went on to take a BSc in Business Administration. She then spent five years as a management trainee at a Lagos bank and as a merchandising specialist for a telecoms company.

“The Hull MBA enables me to put my experiences into practice and to understand them in business terms. I also like the fact that the lecturers have an open-door policy and there is so much information available.”

Sponsored by her father, an estate agent in Lagos, she aims to return to Nigeria to work in its oil industry.

“We have lots of community disputes regarding the oil industry. A job like that is about the environment, managing people, negotiating, finance, budgets — all encompassed by my programme.”

LYNDA MURDIN