Expat education: distance learning ideal for broadening your horizons

The first cohort of students on the MSc in Major Programme Management course, who have just completed their studies, numbered 33, the second 53 – an increase of more than 50 cent. About half the students are from the UK. The others come from far and wide. North America, South Africa, Australia...

Mainly they come from the private sector, but ￡1 billion-plus programmes are certainly not a private sector monopoly. One Said student worked for the International Atomic Energy Authority. Others have come from high-spending London boroughs.

With a median age of around forty, the students all have first degrees, or the equivalent, and about a third already have MBAs. But they need the additional management know-how that Said can give them.

The two-year course is designed to enable them to continue their careers uninterrupted, while devoting about ten hours a week to developing the intellectual and financial skills needed to manage. The course consists of eight taught courses, each one requiring an intensive four-day programme in Oxford, and a 10,000-word dissertation – perhaps, though not necessarily, focussing on issues specific to their own workplaces.

"Every student is different, with different major spending programmes for which they need to prepare," says Chapman. "But they are not doing their studies in isolation. Each student has a tutor at an Oxford college as a mentor. They also form contacts will fellow students that span the globe – from Sydney to Santiago, in the case of two of our students. And we learn from them. We have recently had to tweak our course as a result of input from a student who was working on a major development programme in Afghanistan."

If the Said programme specifically targets big spenders, there are management courses geared to just about every manager in every sector of the economy, with new courses becoming available every year and more and more universities and business schools recognising that this is a market they should try to tap.

For Jo Downing, a clinical coding manager at King's Hospital in London, a MA in Management Studies from Kingston University in Surrey was just the fillip she needed in her NHS career. She already had a degree in business studies and modern languages, but despite more than ten years of hands-on experience of hospital management, realised that a masters degree offered the likeliest route to future promotion. Since qualifying earlier this year, she has already applied for a position two grades above her current job.

"There is a big drive within the NHS to improve efficiency and effectiveness," says Downing. "King's Hospital recognised that I would be more valuable to them if I was better qualified, so I received a modicum of financial help with the funding for the course. I also got study leave when appropriate."

The Kingston course took three years to complete and consisted of a postgraduate diploma followed by a dissertation. Attendance at the university was necessary about once a month, which was not a problem for Downing, who lived in the vicinity. But many of her fellow students came from much further afield. Some worked in the private sector, while others worked for local government, the NHS or other public bodies.

"It was quite a while since my days as a full-time university student, and it took a while to pick up the habits of study again," says Downing. "But Kingston was good at helping us structure our studies and get the most out of individual assignments. Its many online resources also made it easy to study at home at the weekends."

If at one level she was going back to school, she was also acquiring management skills that stood her in good stead in her day job. "I wasn’t interested in purely theoretical learning," says Downing. "I deliberately sought out assignments that would have a practical application in a hospital environment – and my employers appreciated that."

One such assignment helped her develop management tools for quantifying the workloads of different hospital workers – a perennial challenge within the notoriously complex administrative structure of the NHS. Another led to some improved procedures in relation to stem-cell transplants.

Outstanding managers are like gold-dust, whether they are overseeing the expenditure of billions of pounds of money or simply making hospitals run more efficiently, to the benefit of patients. If they need to spend bit of time away from the office studying the art of management, it is generally a sound investment.

Case study: Chiara Dottorini McCormack, 37, a programme manager at ST Micro-Electronics, Bristol, has just completed an MSc in Major Programme Management with the Said Business School in Oxford.

"I took my first degree at the University of Milan, moved to England and have been working for my present company, ST Micro-Electronics in Bristol, for just over ten years. I am both a team leader and a major programme manager, in charge of developing a software programme costing millions of pounds.

“The main reason I wanted to take a masters degree was to acquire new skills and competences that would both help me deliver the current programme successfully and further my long-term career. I discussed options with various business schools and universities and, after careful consideration, ruled out the MBA option. Too much of the content of MBA programmes dealt with broad-brush strategic issues that were not relevant to my career. I wanted something more targeted, concentrating on the practicalities of financing a major programme rather than on the kind of financial issues that dominate the banking world.

“The Said Business School’s MSc in Major Programme Management was perfectly tailored to my needs. I had to meet the costs of the course myself, as my company does not fund such courses for its employers as a matter a policy, but it has been money well spent. It has been hard work at times – I was told I would need to devote about ten hours a week to the course, but seem to have spent closer to fifteen – but the content was first-class, both challenging and focussed.

“As well as studying from home, I had to come to Oxford every two or three months for an intensive four-day session of classes and seminars with fellow students on the course. They were an interesting lot, ranging in age from thirty to fifty, and it was useful to swap experiences with other major programme managers, even ones working in different fields to me. Informal get-togethers in the evening were often as productive as the classes themselves.

“The final element of the course was a dissertation on a subject of our choice. I chose a general topic, major programme success, rather than something specific to my company, but the course as a whole has certainly benefited me in my day-to-day work, notably in re-engineering the software of the company.

“As for the future, I am certainly far more marketable, now that I have got a masters degree under my belt, and the feedback from recruiters has been very positive. But there have been other benefits, too. The course has opened my mind to more strategic ways of looking at old problems. It has given me far greater self-confidence in dealing with people in senior management positions. Last but not least, in putting me in touch with other high-level professionals in other fields, it has significantly broadened my horizons."

Case study: Henk Nagel, 38, Director of Professional Services, Northern Region, for the software company CommVault, is doing an Msc in Management with Ashridge Business School

"I took my first degree in information technology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and am now based in the same city, working for CommVault, a multinational software company. I used to be director of customer services, which was when I acquired my interest in management as a vital tool for a company striving to improve its overall performance.

"In view of my executive responsibilities, it seemed a good idea to acquire a masters degree of some kind, so I weighed my options carefully.

“The problem with a traditional MBA, as I established through discussions with a colleague, is that its content was likely to be overly academic. I wanted a course with a more practical application to my working environment, where a lot of day-to-day problems have a high technical content.

“I had done a short internship with Ashridge Business School in 2009 and been impressed with the standard of their teaching and with their practical approach to management problems. In 2010, with the support of my employers, who agreed to pay half my fees, I enrolled in Ashridge’s new virtual Masters in Management. There was supposed to be a few days’ face-to-face teaching in the first part of the programme, but Ashridge waived this in view of the time I had already spent at the business school. I appreciated their flexibility.

“I have now completed the first element of the masters degree, a three-term postgraduate certificate. There were three separate modules, each taking three months and involving two distinct assignments. It was a significant time commitment – around 15 to 20 hours a week, studying at home in the evenings and at weekends – and with a wife and two young children, I had to manage my time very carefully. Luckily, that is a skill I have always had. Without it, I think I would have struggled.

“Mainly, I was working on my own. There was some scope for interacting with fellow course members through learning groups and on social media sites, but the Ashridge course focuses on individual rather than group assignments, and that suited me fine. I work in quite a specialist field, with challenges specific to it.

“Even though I have only completed the first part of the course, I have already been able to reap the benefits at work. The services side of a company like ours tends to be seen more as a cost rather than as a potential source of profit. I hope that, by analysing our operations in a different way, I have been to improve our bottom-line performance.

“As I move on to the two remaining parts of the course, the three-term diploma and the special project, I want to broaden my horizons into general management and achieve a greater comfort level when dealing with issues of strategy and finance."

Degrees go the distance

“They do not just want extra letters after their names,” says Prof Kydd. “They are highly qualified professionals. But they are attracted by a course that will bring them into contact with an international peer group.”

Most students on the university’s international programme are from overseas, but about 6,000 are based in the UK. With a steep rise in university fees due in 2012, that number seems sure to rise.

“The funding of higher education in the UK is undergoing a radical overhaul,” says Prof Kydd, “Although we cannot be sure which recommendations in the Browne report will be implemented, it is already clear that we will be moving away from a system of block grants from government to a more market-based model, in which students can exercise purchasing power.”

Currently, a student in Lincoln who wanted to study part-time at London University through the international programme would not qualify for a student loan. But that is set to change next year.

While attention has focused on higher fees, the opening up and liberalisation of the market in higher education also represents an opportunity for universities to offer a wider range of options – and for savvy students to take advantage.

At London University, ￡12million has been invested in student services. The university is also rationalising the courses, and facilitating mix-and-match courses such as English and theology.

Other universities with a track record in distance learning are thinking along similar lines. They have realised that, if they are going to reach out to students beyond the campus, they have got to do it in a professional, imaginative way.

At Derby University, five new online courses are being introduced this autumn.

“We first got into distance learning 10 years ago,” says Julie Stone, head of the university’s online learning unit. “Everyone thought that it had a golden future. But perhaps because it was branded and marketed in the wrong way, and people were suspicious of products advertised on the net, it never really took off. Since 2008, the tide has turned again.”

Derby has about 1,500 online students paying between ￡8,000 and ￡9,500 for BA and BSc courses such as psychology, IT, accounting and finance and, one of its new courses, international hospitality management. Students come from all over the world, have all kinds of different backgrounds and long-term ambitions.

Stone says that 95 per cent of students find Derby through Google. “They are typically in their 30s and 40s, studying part-time while holding down full-time jobs. About a third are from the UK, the rest from overseas. But their numbers are growing. A lot of UK universities either don’t offer online courses or, if they do, treat them as an afterthought. We put our online programme on the front page of our website. We see it as integral to our future.”

To anyone lucky enough to have gone to university when there were generous student grants, the idea of sitting at a computer in Belgium, emailing people in Hong Kong about a psychology course in Liverpool, will be unfamiliar. But it would be foolish to see the explosion in online study as a desperate remedy for desperate times.

Just as “location, location, location” is a mantra in the world of property, “flexibility. flexibility, flexibility” deserves to be a mantra in the world of higher education.

CASE STUDY ONE

Name: Jasmine Van Hoelandt

Age: 25

Education: BSc in economics and management via the University of London international programme

“I am from Sweden originally, got A-levels, left school, took a gap year, moved to London, got married — then decided to take up distance learning while I was in the middle of Afghanistan!

“My husband is a venture capitalist and it looked as if he was going to spend several years in Afghanistan, so if I wanted to further my education, and pursue a professional career, distance learning seemed the best option.

“I was inspired by an Afghan woman friend who was determined to get professional qualifications and enrolled in the University of London international programme via its office in Islamabad.

“I enrolled to read a BSc in economics and management with the University of London, starting in September 2007, but my husband had to return to London, so I ended up doing a distance-learning course while living just a few miles from the university, in Pimlico.

“It was a strange situation, but having had the chance to compare my experiences with my fellow students on the BSc course - whom I finally got to meet at the graduation ceremony - I think I did well. Whereas the students on campus finished the course heavily in debt, having had to take out big student loans, I only had to find the fees – about ￡4,000.

“Instead of having my whole week organised for me, with classes and lectures and seminars, I got on with my studies at my own pace. Study materials would arrive in the post and, because I am pretty self-disciplined, I was able to work my way through the modules in a systematic way and complete the three-year course on time.

“I liked not being spoon-fed, and acquired the habits of independent study. But I was also pleased when, in the second year, the course material started to be delivered online, and there was the chance to interact with tutors and fellow students through forums.

“My peer group turned out to be an international mix, from all over the world. I would type in a question at 3pm in London and get an email back at 3am from someone living in Melbourne or Hong Kong.

“I had considered studying with the Open University, but the University of London, with the London School of Economics the contact point for my course, seemed more academically rigorous. I also liked the fact that alumni included Nelson Mandela!

“I am staying with the University of London for a two-year masters degree in management from the London School of Economics. Eventually, I hope to end up a management consultant.”

CASE STUDY TWO

Name: Dario Salvi

Age: 35

Resident: Italy

Education: Online BSc in psychology from the University of Derby

“I conduct an orchestra and work mainly in the evenings, which has given me plenty of time to pursue another of my passions – psychology. A distance-learning course seemed to be the best way to combine work with study.

“I originally studied at Parma University, but now live in a hill town near Lake Garda. I have visited Britain many times, and speak good English, so an online course with a British university was one obvious option. When I spotted that Derby University offered a BSc in psychology, I enrolled straight away. The cost of the course was around ￡3,000 a year. It was a modular degree, so I could have taken up to seven years to complete it, but I completed the course in three years, just as if I had studied on campus. It took self-discipline, and parts of the course were quite tough.

“Psychology is not a soft academic option, there are a lot of statistics involved. But an online course is not solitary. I was in touch almost daily with tutors and fellow students and got a sense of belonging to a community.

“One of the highlights was the compulsory residential week in the second year. I was able to put faces to names. They all had interesting stories to tell. We would gossip about our private lives, like students the world over, not just talk about the course. Some of them came thousands of miles - from Singapore and the Philippines. The most unexpected students were a couple of brothers from St Lucia. One of them got married last year and asked me to his wedding, but I wasn’t able to make it.

“I graduated last year, and it has proved a stepping-stone to higher things. I have just been accepted to read an MSc in music therapy at Cambridge University.

“Music therapy - using music as a tool to help people with autism etc - is a fascinating field. It combines my two great passions, and I am so enthusiastic about the prospect of studying at Cambridge that I am planning to move there.

“I have already conducted orchestras at Cambridge, so, with professional engagements to complement my studies and offset the costs, I could hardly be better placed. I am at an exciting stage of my life.”

This piece was originally published in the Telegraph Weekly World Edition

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