Bath Business School, part of Bath Spa University, has been shortlisted for the first time in the Business School of the Year category of the Times Higher Education Awards 2018 – regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of the HE sector.
Bath Business School students take a range of specialist courses in business and management at the university’s Newton Park campus, covering topics from accounting to fashion, marketing to festivals and events.
It transformed its curriculum in 2016 and a range of new courses and options were launched to all students. More than 330 elected to study modules that did not exist when they started their course, such as Entrepreneurship, and Festivals and Events.
Dean of the Bath Business School, Prof Georgina Andrews, pictured, said the nomination was the culmination of two years of developing a distinctive curriculum.
“Unlike other Business Schools, we don’t run separate undergraduate courses for functions like marketing and HR,” she said. “Instead, we offer a BA (Hons) course in Business and Management, with nine themed pathways.
“Our students complete interdisciplinary projects, open modules and joint honours programmes alongside other students on creative industry courses; this means not only are our business students particularly talented creative thinkers, they also have a deep understanding of the creative industries – a sector of the economy growing twice as fast as the UK economy as a whole.”
The school successfully secured six new professional recognition opportunities in 2016/17 from the Chartered Institute of Management Accounting/SAGE, Thomson Reuters, Prince2 Project Management, the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Institute of Hospitality, and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants – all resulting in career-enhancing professional accreditations for its students.
Bath Business School students also complete authentic, real-life assessments that prepare them for the world of work and commerce.
In the last year:
- 90 students ran 18 live festivals and events, working with actors, musicians, poets and artists.
- 101 students pitched business ideas to panels of industry professionals.
- 66 students organised a business enterprise fair to raise money for charity.
- 90 students worked on HR management consultancy projects set by businesses.
Prof Andrews added: “These real-life experiences have helped drive our post-study employment figures to record highs. Our graduates have been above benchmark for highly skilled employment or further study for the last two years. The results that we received in 2016 were 25% higher than the previous year, and our latest results were even higher.
“It’s been an exciting period of development, and I couldn’t be more delighted that the hard work of staff, and especially our students, is being recognised nationally.”
The winning business school will be announced at a ceremony in London on November 29.
Bath Spa University offers a wide range of courses across the arts, sciences, education, social science and business to 7,000 students.
