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STUDYING BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

BETWEEN

KEELE UNIVERSITY AND THE IAE LILLE

By Camille BEAUNIER

Studying business management in Keeleuniversity had never been one of mylong-term projects. Though, I am glad tohave done it, and I would not doanything differently !

A bit more about myself…

Up to last year, I was a classic French Lawstudent. I got my Law degree, as well as aMaster in Business Law, from LilleUniversity (France). I held severalpositions in the bank sector andinternships with lawyers. Although mycareer prospect is to become a FrenchLawyer, I fancied studying or workingabroad. More precisely, I was attractedby the United-Kingdom, as much as Ieven considered to start my Law studiesfrom scratch in England !

I could have benefited from an Erasmusprogramme abroad, but my homeuniversity had no partnership with aBritish university, and by the time Istarted looking for such an opportunity,the Erasmus deadline was passed.

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INTRODUCTION

How did I get there?

CONTENT

Introduction – p. 2

Keele university – p. 4

Business management – p. 5

Associative life – p. 7

Living in Stoke-on-Trent-p.10

Conclusion – p. 11

Acknowledgment – p. 12

Eventually, my dilemma was between:➢ Carrying on my Law studies in France, and so postponing my

international experience; or➢ Taking a break in my French studies, and trying on the British

way of life.

This is the moment where the IAE presented a third option to me. Theinstitute, and most importantly Mrs GROUX, offered to enter into apartnership agreement through Erasmus with Keele university (Stoke-on-Trent, England). For me, it would imply studying in the UK for a yeardespite the deadline as long as I agreed to study Business managementrather than Law.

As I was focused in Business law, I had already thought about studyingmanagement in the future. Indeed, this is logical and it could strengthenmy credentials. All of this abroad ? It was the perfect plan !

Hence, I decided to take a Master 2 - International executives (MBA) in theIAE, but with lessons taught in Keele University.

I was going to live in England, study business management in aninternational context, learn more about the British legal system…Therefore, I was going to broaden my professional skills while gettingmy international experience!

And so did I! I could not have asked for more. Keele is really a greatuni, well located to travel around the UK, with an excellent academicteam and numerous associative opportunities…

Let’s detail all of this!

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How did I get there? (2)

Keele is one of the universities located nearStoke-on-Trent (England, Staffordshire) since1949…

With AMAZING FACILITIES:➢ Student accommodations➢ 24/7 library + IT services➢ The Students’ Unions, over 200 clubs and

societies➢ Chaplains and faith advisers➢ Post office, bookshop, pharmacy, a health

centre, banks, restaurants, coffee shops,farmers’ market, nursery, sport centre…

A WIDE RANGE OF MODULES: Accounting,Marketing, Management, Science, Philosophy,Criminology, Education, History, Literature,Music, Arts, Geography…

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KEELE UNIVERSITYWhere did I study?

INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENTS :✓ The largest campus university in the UK✓ Ranked 1st for Student Satisfaction since 2014✓ Rewarded Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017✓ Ranked in the Global Top 200 for ‘international outlook’ in 2017 and 2018

Keele campus

Keele Hall

Keele Library

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STUDYING BUSINESS MANAGEMENTWhat did I study?

Management:

❖ Project management❖ Business strategy❖ Quality management❖ Organisational behaviour❖ Multinational business perspectives

Law:

❖ Business Law❖ Contract Law

At first, it was not easy to combine my attraction for legal modules and the IAE’s

management framework. They agreed to let me take the Business Law module

as fitting into their programme, as well as the Contract Law one, being what I

wanted to know the most about the English legal system. Apart from that, I

studied Business management.

Hard to elect amongst the wide array available in Keele, the modules I took

have enabled me to gain insight into the challenge to run an organisation.

Looking back, my choices were well coordinated. I got different but

complementary points of view:

➢ The organisation’s initiator one, from the very beginning of any

business: how to choose the right legal structure (BUSINESS LAW)

➢ Top executives’ perspective: how to make the right strategic

decisions (BUSINESS STRATEGY)

➢ Project managers’ perspective: how to manage a project and turn it

into a success (PROJECT MANAGEMENT)

➢ Quality managers’ perspective: how to improve the efficiency and

quality both of products and services to please customers (QUALITY

MANAGEMENT)

➢ Law department’s point of view: how to draft contracts or terms and

conditions to limit if not exclude liability (CONTRACT LAW)

➢ General managers’ one: how to ensure effectiveness of employees in

their everyday tasks (ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR)

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Studying Business management (2) Most noticeable

particularities

in Keele

As compared with my previous years

of studying Law in France, I was surprised by some teaching methods in Keele.

In all my modules, lecturers and tutorial leaders have practical and real-life examples. These were not only mentioned, but deepened so

That students learn theories and principles from another perspective. In some modules, I had case studies to illustrate lessons or the whole module. Some modules’

assessments are even based on real-life organisations, implying students must know their lessons so well that they are able to apply them on a day-to-day basis. I personally chose

to look into Lindt’s business strategy, Westinghouse’s nuclear project and Electricity Northwest’s customer services and quality issues.

Likewise, modules are usually broken down into themes, so that one week is about one theme. Each week, students have one lecture and one tutorial. Whilst lectures are all

about understanding the subject and getting theoretical knowledge, tutorials are focused on sharing experiences or ideas between students on that special theme.

With the hindsight, I reckon to have learnt as much from lectures as from tutorials and other students.

As we do not think the same way, we have got a lotto learn from each other!

Moreover, studying in Keele is easy. All students have access to their personal

KLE (Keele learning environment) on the internet. It is where you can find all information you

need about your courses, your timetable, student services, the library, and so on. Most

lecturers share lecture captures, notes or summaries, academic texts or even news related to

their modules. Hence, lectures and tutorials have usually an electronic format, slides including

main points written down or complex systems translated into diagrams. It is really

convenient for international students or non-native English speakers, as it is for

any students to keep a track on the lesson taught and better understand it! This method

helped me considerably throughout the year and should really be imported

in France!

Last but not least, academic teams are really open-minded and helpful with

students: you can feel their aim is to make you succeed in your studies and your

professional life! You can have personal appointments with module leaders to speak about

their module, the way it is assessed and what they actually expect from students. These

meetings were really enlightening and helpful for me…

Another of Keele’s practices that should be implemented in France!

ASSOCIATIVE LIFE WITHIN KEELEHow can you get involved?

In Keele, as in mostBritish universities, theassociative life is key tothe student life.

In Keele, as in most British universities, theassociative life is key to the student life.

What is the most recognisable is the impact of thestudents’ union. It aims ‘to give students the bestpossible experience as a student’, helping them tofeel welcome and part of the Keele community(website: keelesu.com). Members are studentselected by students to represent them and defendtheir interests in the university.

During my time in Keele, I witnessed their

involvement and actions to improve the campus’facilities, the students’ way of studying and wayof life on campus. For instance, they helped a lotfor parking issues and repercussion of thelecturers’ strike action during the second semester.

They are all welcoming and helpful for personalqueries and do their best to make our time in Keele

enjoyable: they also supervise club and societiesor even organise parties!

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The associative life (2)Clubs

and

Societies

Keele has more than 200 official clubs and societies for its students. They areabout diverse themes, including Music, Literature, Religion or Belief, Danceand Performance, Academic and careers, Political, Campaigns and Welfare,as well as Sports. For instance, there is an Acapella group as in the famousmovie Pitch Perfect, another one about Animanga, another aboutBollywood Dance, a Conspiracy Society as well as a Disney Appreciation one,and so on and so forth.

This huge diversity of choice, added to the British people’s community spiritfacilitates and implies that every student adheres to one or several clubsand societies! During my first weeks in Keele, I looked into the list, went tothe clubs and societies fair organised on campus, and found the perfect

match for me : the Equestrian group.

Indeed, I have been an horse-rider since I am 5 years old and I could not seemyself not riding for a whole year ! I was so surprised but pleased to know Icould study in Keele while getting into an Equestrian club that I had no doubtabout joining it.

I found a friendly and supportive atmosphere, horse-riding lessons being taughtfrom complete beginners to advanced riders in a local equestrian centre:Poplar’s riding farm. I got private and shared lessons in here, thanks to which Ihave improved in my favourite sport. I met many great persons, developing myteam spirit in a supportive and welcoming environment.

I highly recommend it to any newcomer in Keele !

Joining this club was the best decision I made once in Keele! Most of

my memories thinking back about my year abroad comes from this!

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The associative life (3)Clubs and Societies

For those interested, this kind of competition is UNIQUE:

• Four universities compete against each other, teams being of four

members;

• One member of each team competes against other teams on the

same horse, first in dressage and second in show jumping;

• The best rider on his/her horse wins, others have penalties.• The winning team is the one with the least amount of penalties;

• The best team of the region qualifies for REGIONALS, as well as

the two best individual riders over the four competitions.

• The winning team in regionals qualifies for NATIONALS, as well as

the three best individual riders.

• Best teams of each regions compete against each other during

nationals, but their members also compete individually with riders

qualified as individuals.

COMPETITION TIME !

I also tried and passed the team trials, so thatI got into the A squad to compete betweenuniversities through the BUCS system (Britishuniversities and colleges sport).

With the three other members of my team, we had shared lessons inPoplar’s and four competitions against three other regional universitiesaround Manchester.

Although good individual results overall, our team did not qualify for

regionals. Yet, I was surprised to know that I was the first individual toqualify for regionals and then qualified for nationals. This means I wasamongst the 45 best BUCS horse riders! My final ranking was only the 30th,but knowing that I competed against professional or sponsored riders, I amproud of myself having represented Keele university so well!

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LIVING IN STOKE-ON-TRENTWhat can you visit in the UK?

Stoke-on-Trent is next door to

everything in the UK (between

Manchester, Birmingham and

Wales). I was lucky to have my car

and could visit most of GB, its

great cities and natural parkswhich are way more numerous

than you could ever think.

London, Edinburgh, Liverpool,

Brighton, Oxford, Cambridge,

Windsor as well as the Loch Ness,

Sherwood forest, the Highlands,

Skye… are some of the names you may

have heard about and never thought about

visiting in your life. Well, it can be done from

Stoke-on-Trent while studying in Keele !

A year worth of visiting on a map:

Windsor

London

Nottingham

York

Edinburgh

Inverness

Skye

The Highlands

Lake District

Manchester

Snowdonia

Bath

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CONCLUSIONWhy should you all opt for Keele?

Looking back…

✓ I got an international experience in England

✓ I learnt fundamentals to manage a business

✓ I have improved my English speaking

✓ I travelled around and discovered the UK

✓ I have improved my horse-riding skills

✓ I have met amazing people!

To conclude, I can all but say I spent a wonderful timein Keele university and generally speaking in theUK! I have learnt a lot about managing teams, English law,

speaking English, so on and so forth.

Even though everything was not perfect, I would not do athing differently. I would choose the same modules, I

would travel as much as I did, I would be as involved in thehorse-riding club as I was, and I would not opt for anotheruni than Keele!

So if you are interested in studying management abroad, donot doubt about the Erasmus programme with the IAE and

most importantly, DO NOT DOUBT ABOUT CHOOSINGKEELE !

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I’d like to thank the IAE of Lille and Keeleuniversity for making this exchange betweenuniversities possible in such a short notice.

I would particularly like to thank Mrs JocelyneGROUX and her assistant Mrs Chloe LEFEBVREfrom the IAE of Lille, who were so helpful and open-minded about myself and my wishes, throughout theyear. It wasn’t easy to combine the Master’srequirements, my individual preferences and myassociative life within Keele, but you made itpossible!

I would also like to thank Keele university, theInternational team as well as my personal tutor

Mrs Robin BELL. You were really understandingregarding my situation and my needs, and you wereable to adapt to these in order to let me have awonderful year!

Moreover, I can only be thankful to Mrs Anne-Marie GORISSE to be so supportive on my projectfrom the very beginning, to suggest the IAE and tobe helpful with all last minute procedures.

AcknowledgementsTo those who have made this year possible…