Last week I looked at the most popular posts of 2013 on our Management Thinking blog, covering the Top 5. Here we look at the remaining top ten – are there any surprises here?
6. How do I create the perfect question for my Masters dissertation?
Courtesy of elephantjournal.com
Dr Robert Lomas has written bestselling books on dissertations and not surprisingly several of his blogs appear in our most popular list (another of his blogs was also in our top five, covered last week)!
Robert highlights three important points to consider for your dissertation question and I know every academic will agree with these. Students should ask themselves
- Who cares about your dissertation?
- Can you explain the answer to your question?
- Is your question really a question – or a statement?
7. Can business schools adapt to the challenges of declining MBA numbers?
Now this was my own blog, which I wrote in early 2013 when the FT published an article showing that MBA numbers globally had declined dramatically. Our business school was no exception. One of the great things about this blog was the comments we got from our alumni, demonstrating how passionately they feel about Bradford University School of Management.
We had every type of comment – several effusive in praise of their MBA experience here, some pretty challenging and some offering practical help in what we do.
The comments reminded me of an article that one of our own alumni wrote in the FT. Mrs Moneypenny, who did her PhD here, said “Graduates should support their business school because doing so will help it maintain its high rankings in the league tables and thus make us, its graduates, look good.”
The blog itself looked at the ‘perfect storm’ facing the UK’s MBA market – the recession, the change in visa regulations and increased competition globally.
But in answer to the question – can business schools adapt to the challenges? In our case, yes. We have had a bumper year for numbers on our Executive MBA in the UK, we are seeing a significant growth in full time MBA applications, drawn from around the world, and and we continue to see growth in online MBAs with our new MBA in the circular economy creating a lot of interest.
It is still a difficult market, but the FT reported last September that the global decline in MBA numbers seems to have halted and we are certainly focused on how we grow our numbers again.
8. Introducing social media to accountancy firms to attract and retain clients and employees
Our business school was very proud of this blog, based on the 2012 West Yorkshire Society of Chartered Accountants (WYSCA ICAEW) prize-winning essay by Mahmoona Begum – she was then our second year BSc Accounting and Finance student.
Mahmoona’s essay was considered the best out of submissions from 5 universities including York, Leeds, Bradford, Leeds Met and Huddersfield. She focused on how a fictitious firm of accountants could use social media to promote and engage with their clients and potential new business.
The professions have been cautious in adopting social media so the popularity of this blog is no doubt down to the many professionals who are starting to research what they might do in social media and how.
9. Is it worth doing an MBA any more?
At Bradford University School of Management we are in the middle of celebrating our 50th anniversary. As one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious business schools, in this blog I reflected on what value an MBA has and whether it is still has career currency.
The blog looked at the views of headhunters, alumni from our own business school and others and academics and employers. What were our conclusions?!
(And if you are an alumnus wanting to join in our celebrations and events, more information here and please do get in touch)
10. 5 steps to successful career planning for MBA students
In the last of our top ten 2013 blogs, Lorraine Lucas shared her insights on how to plan a post-MBA career. An MBA herself, part of Lorraine’s role is to coach MBAs to help them find and win the best jobs.
Her tips included to think about your career before starting an MBA – analysing skills, networks and career gaps and use the process of the qualification to fill these. She covers everything from finding a mentor to using social media and being social to expand networks.
That completes the round up of our top blogs. Do leave a comment below to say what you would like to see blogs on in 2014 – from academics, businesses, students or others. We’d love to hear your thoughts.