Hello, my name is Nick Potter. I'm the Director of the MSC International
Business and MSC Management programmes, both of which are based in Singapore.
The business school has a long history going back 25 years. The MBA was started around
about 1994. More recently, we've added a large suite of undergraduate programmes
and most recently, in 2014 the MSC International Business Programme was
launched and then followed in 2017, by the MSC Management programmes. This is a
brief overview of the two programmes: The biggest difference is your background
and specifically your first degree. The MSC International Business Programme is
for those with virtually any background. So, the first degree could be in anything
as diverse as theology or physics. Whereas, the MSC Management programme is
for people who have some kind of first degree around economics marketing - some
business related topic. The delivery of the programme is on a modular basis, so
there is a week's teaching all done by Birmingham faculty. They will fly out
generally on a Friday, teach you from Monday through till Friday and then
they'll fly back and deal with the assessments. It's a full-time programme.
Admissions start, or rather induction starts in October and you will be
completed in terms of dissertation by the end of August. Who are we looking for?
We're looking for a good degree, 2:1 or better and some demonstration of
English proficiency that can be IELTS, Pearson, TOEFL, O-level, or indeed if your
degree was actually taught in English. If there is any doubt, I frequently
interview applicants using Skype. Looking at the two programmes, the
International Business programme is introducing you to the concepts involved
with international business. All of the major business functions are covered
from operations and procurement, through to marketing, human resources strategic
management - but we also add topics like cross-cultural management, international
business negotiations. So, by the time you graduate, you will have a very good set
of concepts within your mind. You will understand how organisations work, you'll
understand how international business is actually conducted. I'll just show you a
testimonial - the first one is for the International Business programme from Nick:
as you can see since he graduated, he's done quite well; he's now a main board
Director with a bank back in his home country, Myanmar. And then I can talk a
little bit more about the MSC management programme, slightly more complex in that it
has four different pathways, so a total of 15 modules. There are six core modules
covering things like; organisational behavior, strategic management, the
environment of business - so all of the students will take that core. After that,
it depends which pathway you sign up to. If you chose the strategy pathway, you
would do three more strategy modules; international business strategy, advanced
strategy and strategic leadership. If you do entrepreneurship and innovation,
you would have two entrepreneurship modules and one solely aimed at
innovation management and if you do the organisational leadership and change
pathway, you will look at organisational reliability and resilience, you'll look
at risk, you'll also do the strategic leadership module, that doubles up. In
addition, we have a procurement module which is not part
of any pathway, but can be selected - so if for example, you've done six core modules
and you've selected three through a particular pathway: you still have a
choice of three from six. And as you can see from Linda's account in the
testimonial: she also felt it was a very worthwhile experience and she's gone on
to secure employment. So, the structure of each module is six hours teaching per
day, Monday till Friday, with a short break in the middle. You
then have a study week, during which time you will either complete an assignment -
often there will be a group assessment as well, or you will revise for an exam,
which is then taken normally the following Friday. The dissertation period
is from June through until the end of August and that completes your 180
credits, so it's 12 taught 10 credit modules and a 60 credit dissertation.
That's the academic side of things. However, I'm well aware of the reasons
why people do, particularly postgraduate degrees: you are looking for a job or a
better job than the one you've had and I'm fully well aware of that and since
beginning in 2014, I've built up the careers programme, because although I'm
aware that SIM our partner has a career department and we ourselves have career
activities in Birmingham, you are actually in Singapore and as the majority of my
students are international - it's a little bit more complex finding work,
particularly if you want to work in Singapore. I have a very experienced
event organiser - she's been in Human Resources for nearly 30 years, held some
very senior positions. I actually taught her in 1995 on the MBA
and we've been working together to develop a series of events from EMA
genetic profiling, we do a global talent management case study, she will show you
how to improve your profile. As a matter of fact, one of my ex-students now works
for LinkedIn and she will come in and tell you the secrets of how to use
LinkedIn as intelligently as possible. So, there is a wide range of help, including
one-to-one mentoring from Joanna in the period following the taught part of the
module I suggest. She has a lot of contacts and so you are free to go to her: tell her
your area of interest and the chances are very good that she
knows someone in the human resources department at that organisation. Beyond
that, we also have a series of workshops aimed at improving critical writing,
reflective writing. There is a cross-cultural communications workshop.
So, all of the skills that you will need, firstly to complete your degree, which is
my main priority, but secondly when you're in work, you'll find that these
skills do come in handy as well. There is an application form which is sent to
SIM. If you would like to email me on the address on the screen. I will send it
to you along with the brochure. That application and all of your documents
will then come straight to me. I will make the decision and make you an offer.
Only unconditional offers - there are no conditionals and as soon as you've
accepted that offer, your documentation will go to admissions for the letter to
be issued. So, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any inquiries and
I look forward to welcoming you to Singapore.