STUDENTWelcome to this first edition of RDBS Student, the newsletter for people studying in our Business School. I hope you find something of interest in it.

Ideally I would like to get a team of students together to produce the next edition themselves. If any of you would like to par-ticipate – good thing to have on your CV! – drop me an email.

I am also interested in comments you have about the School and questions you would like to raise. In this issue, for instance, we look at some student queries about swiping in, campus security and computer availability. Let me know about any ques-tions which come up in the course of your studies.

Len Shackleton, Dean, Royal Docks Business School. shackll@uel.ac.uk

RDBS students must swipe their cards when they come in to campus. We are often asked why.

Universities must keep attendance records for two reasons. For one, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) asks us to return accu-rate numbers of students in order to justify the public funding which supports our University – your fees don’t cover all the cost! Every university has some drop-out after enrolment and there has to be a check on this. Sending inaccurate figures to HEFCE can create serious trouble if they try to claw back the funding later – as one of our neighbouring universi-ties has recently discovered to its cost.

A second reason to monitor attendance is the Bor-der Agency Tier 4 system for overseas students. In the past, some unscrupulous colleges have taken in “students” who were not really studying but just came to the UK to work. So we have to show that our students are turning up regularly here. Carole Flanagan, RDBS Registrar, says

“This semester we widened the availability of swipe card readers across the campus, so you can swipe

AN END TO SWIPING IN?

1. What does the SWOT stand for in SWOT analysis?2. Who has just been appointed Chief Executive of Marks and Spencer?3. In what year was the Wall Street Crash?4. In November, the G20 Finance Ministers met to discuss financial reform and economic recovery. Where did they meet?5. What name is given to the overall rate of return available on a debt instrument??6. What are Porter’s five forces?7. How do you define a recession?8. What are the four terms used in a Boston matrix to describe products by their market share and market maturity?9. What are the “4 Ps” in the marketing mix?10. Are average wages currently higher in the public sector or the private sector?

BUSINESS COMPETITION

and register attendance in all buildings. This is working well, but a potential pitfall is not inform-ing the office about absence due to sickness. If informed, we can put it onto a student’s record, in order to avoid possible withdrawal from a module or programme for non-attendance - which is want we all want to avoid”.

The system isn’t perfect - some students may abuse it by getting other people to swipe in for them. And staff have complained that it doesn’t allow us to see who is attending particular classes. We are therefore investigating the possibility of a new system which will have card readers in every classroom, but which will not require swiping as new chips in the card can be read automatically on entering the room for a seminar.

This would mean we can have on-line class regis-ters which will be less bother for staff and students than conventional class registers, which we are still using in some cases. If current discussions are suc-cessful we may be able to introduce this in the next academic year.

Student Newsletter December 2009 First Edition

Here’s your chance to win a £50 Amazon voucher

Test your business knowledge with this ten-question quiz. Or cheat and use Google- but at least you might learn something! Send your answers to Len Shackleton at shackll@uel.ac.uk. The first correct entry wins the prize: fail-ing that, the best entry received by December 11th. Students only - no RDBS staff showing off, please.

Rasuole Rutkauskaite is a RDBS Events Management student. Here she rais-es a couple of issues which concern her, and we give a response:

Is the Docklands campus safe enough?

Do students at Docklands really feel at home – save and secure? One student claimed she met a gang on her way to the library, which did not let her in un-less she would buy some cannabis from them. She claims that the people were not students of the UEL, but often ‘guests’ on the campus. In addition, the underground bar is another place which often is often avoided by students after their belongings have been stolen while at the bar. Activities like this do not add to the huge effort UEL puts into trying to attain a better reputation and image in order to attract future students.

Yvonne Alexander, who is in charge of campus security, replies:

Unfortunately, like most other similar institutions, we suffer from a small minor-ity of young people who refuse to behave acceptably. We have strong partner-ship working ties with the local constabulary and will continue to raise the bar of expectations to eliminate such behaviour and increase the feel-good factor amongst the local communities we serve.

We’ve taken a lot of initiatives recently. They include: a Crime Prevention Awareness Road show in October, participation in the Wise UP event, pro-viding valuable safety & security information; improved security and tighter control in SU bars.

Beginning on November 19th, we are holding fortnightly Police Surgeries in a mobile unit on-site. UEL has been allocated its own police liaison officer, and we’ve agreed a protocol for intelligence sharing to target persistent offenders and trespassers. And by the end of the month we will be displaying essential security information in all rooms within residential services and other key ar-eas.

Our university takes safety & security very seriously. We are committed to im-proving the student experience and will address any concerns or issues you raise.

It is hard to find a properly working computer in the library

Despite the fact that our library is huge (in terms of space and equipment) it is still hard to find a computer which works properly - especially when the dead-lines are squeezing everyone. The worst thing about it is that (if) the system allows you to log on, it is highly likely that the Internet Explorer you are using will crash at any minute. The biggest disadvantage is that you have to log

in to every single portal that you were browsing, one more time. It would do no harm if this could be avoided as most of the computers already have the Mozilla Firefox program installed (students know how to deal with such prob-lems). However, the most unpleasant situation is when the portals like Athens.ac.uk disappear from the screen and all procedures to reach the information you were reading have to be repeated. In addition the reach of Athens.co.uk is highly questionable when the the Firefox browser is used. Therefore, the un-finished coursework is not the only trouble you might face on submission day when the computer is the thing you need the most!

Tony Wright, Director of IT Services, says:

We are currently aware of two significant technical issues with computers on the Trading Floor (Library):

1). Power supplies are being overloaded by devices plugged into the desk sockets designed for laptops and mobile telephones. This fuses the power supply of adjacent computers and is rectified as soon as possible after it is reported. We are working with our Facilities colleagues to provide a permanent solution. In the meantime you can help by ensuing only low portable devices are used in these sockets.2). We have had a serious problem with viruses over the past few months: we have changed our anti-virus software and are in the process of implementing this system and cleaning existing viruses. We have teams working weekends when fewer students are inconvenienced, to resolve these issues. We expect all 3500 computers within the University to have been updated and cleaned by mid-December.

We have also noticed an increase in vandalism with cables to mice and key-boards being cut. These are replaced as soon as we become aware. As an example over 50 mice had to be replaced on one Monday morning.

Modzilla Firefox was integrated into our UEL Desktop last year - this is the preferred browser for use with Athens. We have been in touch with the Athens helpdesk and they provided the following advice:

RASUOLE’S WORRIES

Marketing students from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (EPHEC) in Brussels recently visited Docklands to take part in a joint market-ing project with our own marketing students studying with Tunji Gbadamosi. The EPHEC students were particularly interested UEL’s Petchey Centre for Entrepreneurship. They also talked with Rob Moss, Director of Knowledge

BELGIANS VISIT RDBS

“If you try and go to athens.ac.uk you will get the follow-ing error message: Server not found. You must include to www. So www.athens.ac.uk is the correct web address. This website and the MyAthens service have been reliable & available and we have not had any other reports of is-sues. Also on another note, we develop all of our services around Firefox as this is our preferred browser “.

We have carried out tests and have been unable to replicate the problem Ra-soule identifies .Please provide further details to the Service Desk if this con-tinues to be an issue and we will investigate further.

Dock and with Bob Lentell, Associate Dean (External) for Royal Docks Busi-ness School.

Bob said “The visit was a big success, and we are already looking to have another joint project with EPHEC. Our intention is to have many more oppor-tunities like this for our own students to meet and study with students study-ing in Europe, also to have the chance to visit EPHEC and other Schools in Europe”.

Royal Docks Business School awards dozens of prizes each year for aca-demic achievement. Some are paid for by School funds, but increasingly we have awards sponsored by our many business partners. They range in value from £100 to £1000. Some recent winners received their awards at the School’s Graduation Ceremony at the Barbican.

Natalie Chung received the Sir Ed-ward Howard Memorial Prize from the Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. Nat-alie, who aims to work in public rela-tions or as a recruitment headhunter, said: “It has been a great learning ex-perience in the Business School. The warm friendly atmosphere has made studying much more enjoyable.”

Jandeesh Johal was awarded the Christine Payne Prize for Best Man-agement Research Project. Jandeesh is an HR Administrator for the Com-monwealth Secretariat. She said: “It was definitely a challenge allowing me to develop a fresh perspective on my workplace and I enjoyed making new friends from such varied back-grounds.”

Nimesha Tehani Kaluarachchi won the Dean of School’s Prize for Ac-counting and Finance. Nimesha is

exceeded my wildest dreams”, she said at the Award Ceremony “It was very practical – not just sitting in the classroom!”

Manuel Klein received the Chartered Management Institute prize with a BA in Business Studies. Manuel said: “Studying at UEL is a truly multi-cul-tural experience and I made many amazing friends.”

David Pethen also won a Chartered Management Institute prize, in this case with an MBA in Public Services. David said: “Using what I have learned at work broadened my outlook gener-ally and I made many good friends.”

Project Management is a new and very successful area for RDBS at post-graduate level, and Juliana Nwosu won the Sigma UK prize for best graduating student on the School’s MSc. Juliana is a Practice Manager for the NHS, she said: “It has been a wonderful experience, especially car-rying out my project dissertation.”

Vaidotas Drukteinis won the Dean of School’s prize for Economics for his BA Economics. Vaidotas, who now works as an Accounts Assistant said:

S T U D E N T S W I N P R I Z E S

Web Chinduta is a 2nd Year Account-ing and Finance student

I was having a tough week, so i de-cided to take a stroll.... I watched sev-eral aircraft take off and land from the runway at City Airport . Little boats passed by and I could see Canary Wharf in the distance. Yes - I did say Canary Wharf! I have an unhealthy obsession about working there one day, by the way. I have to, I will!

W E B ’ S T H O U G H T S

Postgraduate students are benefit-ing from new facilities sponsored by Molex, the global electronic connec-tor producer.

The Molex postgraduate suite, opened in October, is located in Knowledge Dock. It has two beautifully renovated classrooms, a set of four break-out rooms, social space and specialist Bloomberg and Datastream termi-nals. MBA Director Adrian Haberberg

NEW POSTGRADUATE SUITE Student satisfaction is our key con-cern at RDBS and gathering feedback from students is very important. Here Associate Dean Peter Fenwick looks at some recent evidence.

Two major student satisfaction sur-veys have recently been published, the National Student Survey (NSS), completed by third year undergradu-ates only, and UEL’s own Student Sur-vey (UELSS) that includes all students. There are some very positive findings in the NSS for Royal Docks Business School, particularly from Accounting & Finance students, whose overall satisfaction with the programme, at 88%, significantly exceeds the aver-age score across all subjects of 82% for UK universities. Their lecturers are obviously doing a good job. Overall, you are also satisfied with learning re-sources, including IT.

Other data, however, are less conge-nial. While Economics students post an overall score 74%, above UEL’s average of 72%, this is a fall from 89% two years ago. For Business students the current figure is 63% (from 80%), with equivalent numbers for Marketing and HRM. A closer look reveals that you are unhappy with the speed with which work is marked and the quality of the feedback received. Fewer than half are satisfied with the accessibil-ity of staff or advice on study choices, with similar levels recorded for com-municating course changes or organ-isation and management generally.

The UELSS results are certainly more positive, with high scores for post-

STUDENT FEEDBACK

now a Project Officer with the Bark-ing & Dagenham Council. She said: “I am extremely happy and proud of my achievements at UEL. I really enjoyed my time there.”

Nicole Redman won the Molex prize for best MBA student. Molex have, of course, recently part-sponsored the Postgraduate Suite in Knowledge Dock. Nicole works as Head of the Student Money, Advice and Rights Team (SMART) at UEL. “My MBA more than met my expectations – it

“UEL was a fantastic place to study, I met lots of very interesting people and got the knowledge that will influ-ence my life forever.”

RDBS Dean Len Shackleton said “My congratulations to all our prize win-ners - including those who couldn’t make it to the graduation ceremony. It is important that all our students see how their efforts can be rewarded”.

graduate programmes, such as Risk and Project Management, and confir-mation that accounting students are a contented lot. However, the data for undergraduate courses bear out much of the NSS analysis, including for feedback and academic support.

Naturally, we are concerned about what you are telling us, and meetings are currently underway with all core module leaders to respond to the findings. We will inform you of the de-cisions taken. You should have been able to give ‘early bird’ feedback on your modules this semester, and it is vital that you complete module evalu-ation forms at its end. Programme reps should also actively liaise with staff about key issues. Rather than wait for year-end surveys, we’re com-mitted to dealing with the concerns you raise, as soon and as effectively as we can.

Peter Fenwick, Associate Dean of RDBS

Manuel Klein with Chris Seow, RDBS se-nior lecturer and Chartered Management Institute Branch Chair

Nimesha Kaluarachchi receives her prize cheque from School Registrar Carole Flanagan

That thought made me walk back to the library where my colleagues were waiting. One from Essex and the other from India. I’m from Africa and I study Accounting and Finance. Three conti-nents, one purpose. We support each other really well and I like that about UEL. Several Balance sheets later, we left and after the obligatory stop at the SU bar we hopped on the DLR and went home- I felt better.

says “These first-rate facilities are the School’s response to requests for dedicated space and better facili-ties reflecting the nature of the highly competitive postgraduate market. We’re very grateful to Molex, and its CEO Martin Slark, for their support”.

Martin Slark received his MBA from UEL and is a member of Royal Docks Business School’s Business Advisory Board.

Bob Lentell, Associate Dean (External) writes:

As part of our drive to give Royal Docks Business School students the best possible opportunity to get into that graduate job, we are staging our second Getting Down to Business Week during the inter-semester break. Last year over 120 students participated in events that took place, such as experiencing mock assessment centres, very similar to those used by graduate recruiters.

This year we shall be offering an expanded programme of activities to give you a chance to interact with business and management professionals, and to take steps to make your CV stand out from the crowd.

You will need to register to take part. Watch out for the publicity leaflets and posters, or visit: http://www.uel.ac.uk/employability

Big RDBS Launch at Canary Wharf

GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS WEEK

Day

Monday 25thTuesday 26th

Wednesday 27th

Thursday 28th

Friday 29th

Additional ses-sions: times to be announced

Session

All DayAll DayAMPM

AMPMAll DayAMPM

All Day

Event

Assessment CentreAssessment CentreMeet the tourism and events professionalsMeet the professional associations (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)Meet the bankersMeet the professional associations (Accountancy and Finance)Assessment CentreMeet the MarketersMeet the professional associations (Chartered Institute of Marketing, Char-tered Management Institute and others)Assessment CentreWork placement programmesGradintel.com Be discovered by employersYoung Entrepreneurs sessionVolunteering and mentoring session

What Level of student is this for?

Level 3 and PGLevel 3 and PGAllAll

AllAllLevel 3 and PGAll

Level 3 and PGLevels 1 and 2AllAllAll

For many years, business and man-agement teaching at UEL was locat-ed in Barking and Stratford. Follow-ing relocation to Docklands and the School’s reorganisation, it was agreed to rename UEL’s Business School to recognise its new location and its in-volvement in the wider business com-munity.

Royal Docks Business School held a major relaunch event at Canary Wharf’s spectacular East Wintergar-den on Wednesday 11 November. The event welcomed key School partners, local entrepreneurs and businesses to meet staff and students to mark the highly successful relocation and re-branding.

The School has expanded its staff, increased student numbers, devel-

oped a new management team and repositioned itself to embrace new technology and face new challenges. The Dean, Professor Len Shackleton, explained: “UEL’s business teaching has a long and distinguished history with strong local connections and links with employers. We are main-taining and building on this heritage, while recognising the hugely exciting changes taking place in our area.

“We have London City Airport imme-diately opposite us, ExCeL minutes away, the O2 and Canary Wharf a couple of miles further. UEL’s Strat-ford Campus is the base for Olympic-related work we are doing in sports management. We are developing programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level with strong emphasis on practical preparation for the new careers which are opening up all around us.”

Guest speaker, Wilfred Emmanuel Jones, often known as The Black Farmer, had some great advice for the budding entrepreneurs present, citing focus, attitude and most of all ‘the ability to live with the fear’ as key to success. Final-year Urban Dance students performed. as did singer-songwriter Rachael Travers, one of

UEL’s student musicians.

Howard Dawber, Strategic Advisor to The Canary Wharf Group (joint spon-sor) said: “We are very proud of East London and we are immensely proud of UEL and the work we do together. This is an exciting time for change and the continuing development of UEL, ExCeL, Crossrail and the Olym-pics, will continue to bring new and exciting opportunities to the area.”

Events Management students Laura Heyward, Dipika Parmar and Rhea Gunesh were on hand to put their skills into practice as they were amongst the official event staff for the evening. They said: “It’s great to work on events like this. Many courses are generally theory based but at UEL we really get to be involved in all aspects of event management.”