Update June 2015

It’s  been three busy months since my last post with many events and a number of overseas trips. Arguably the 50th anniversary has been a primary factor. Anniversary events of not include the RGU Student Business Ball , a staff quiz night and a fantastic evening at the Cherries Awards where not only did we present a special Cherry to an alumnus of the MSc Human Resource Management, but Anne Stevenson also won the Cherry Award for Outstanding Achievement 2015.

there are a number of forthcoming events planned in the second half of 2015 including an Alumni Day in August, a conference on business education in November, a bake off competition, and culminating in  a staff dinner in December. More details to follow.

The Facukty has also introduced monthly Town Hall sessions for staff which have been an excellent opportunity to discuss strategy and priorities, update on plans and discuss important topics such as research and course development. Attendance has been really impressive and the sessions have been very interactive. Thanks to all for participating.

This year’s fashion organised by our Fashion Management students, chose the theme of the Golden Show, in celebration of the 50th anniversary and it was a spectacular evening with a beautiful set, wonderful entertainment and great organisation throughout. The show waist over £4700 for Down’s Syndrome Scotland. We also had a very impressive array of industry speakers delivering to the MBA Leadership Week, with our toop speaker Lord Digby Jones sponsored by BP. The inaugural Energy Management Dinner was very kindly sponsored by Balmoral Offshore and our thanks to them for doing so.

Other events in which I’ve been involved personally include participating in panels at both the Edinburgh Internatiinal Science Festivale and Oil and Gas UK’s Oil and Gas conference – in both cases on the future for the industry in the UK. I’ve also attended an academic conference – the European Conference on Fesearch Methods. This is always a great opportunity to meet with others interested in social sciences research methods and on this occasion our paper was on a comparison of approaches to demonstrating impact, in the the UK and Australia. I was also very pleased to be asked to join the judging panel for the Aberdeen Journals’ inaugural oil and gas awards which was established in 2015 to celebrate 50 years of the UKCS. M

i also attended the AACSB Conference on accreditation in Tampa Florida and I’m delighted to note that we now have our accreditation visit scheduled for November 2016. There will be lots of work involved in preparing for the visit. A final trip was to the Zurich Graduation ceremony for our Benedict School students and as ever this was a fantastic occasion and a great opportunity to meet up with our programme managers there.

On the Ferry

Aberdeen Business School Course Leader Away Day

June newsletter

Local Business support organisations – AGCC, FSB, ENET and SCDI recently organised a second annual business week (North East Business Week) to encourage growth in smaller businesses in Aberdeen city and shire and RGU hosted a number of sessions. I attended various events during the week and committed ABS to further collaboration to encourage interaction between students, academics and small business, including growth in placement opportunities and projects.

 

I’ve recently returned from the annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston and had a very productive and busy week. In addition to the exhibition and conference, the visit provided the opportunity to meet with a range of people including alumni of the Faculty and Houston based business leaders with connections to Aberdeen. I also visited the University of Houston and Mayor Parker’s office at City Hall to find out more about the kind of support we might receive for future recruitment activity. Various events focused on the building of better Aberdeen Houston links, through long established associations such as the Grampian Houston Association and the Greater Houston Partnership, and I presented at a seminar comparing experiences in both regions where I spoke about education and training for the oil and gas sector in Scotland mapping out the educational landscape of provision and heard about how our programmes compare with those delivered in colleges and universities in the US. Finally I took the opportunity to visit two students in Houston on placement. As a result of the visit overall, there is I believe a real opportunity for us to launch a recruitment campaign in the Houston area, building on our reputation for delivery in the oil and gas industry. Of course, as ever at OTC, there is a huge Aberdeen presence and it’s often an excellent opportunity to meet with delegates from Home!

 

We are all working our way now towards assessment boards and although teaching has finished there is still a lively buzz about the Faculty with end of session events: MBA Leadership Week, the Fashion Show, a student organised International Conference on Entrepreneurship and Leadership and a conference for academic staff from Nigerian universities, supported by the Nigerian Entrepreneurship Commission on Entrepreneurship Education.