Principle 3 - Method
The University of Strathclyde will create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership.
A review of Strathclyde Business School’s programmes is carried out annually to ensure we are teaching best practice in terms of business ethics, CSR and responsible management/ leadership. This is reflected in the content of both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, with a particular emphasis on increasing the experiential elements. Many of our programmes have reflection built into them, allowing our students to think critically about the business world and responsible leadership.
Socially responsible teaching at all levels and programmes encourages critical thinking:
- At undergraduate level the main vehicle for engaging our students in ethics, responsibility and sustainability is through our Management Development Programme (MDP). The theme of MDP 1, the foundation year, is Social, Ethical and Environmental Governance (SEEG). The first semester examines the issues of SEEG presented from different viewpoints, with the second semester organised functionally around what organisations do. The thematic focus is on the most significant current issues organisations face; with conceptual learning objectives including: understanding globalisation, internationalisation, and localisation; corporate social responsibility: organisational ethics and third sector. Applied learning objectives include: emotional and social intelligence, team working skills, taking responsibility, and verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
- In addition to the MDP third year class (school pupil mentoring, charity support, foodbanks, high migrant intake primary school, Wildhearts Micro-Tyco scheme, Enterprise Solutions to regenerate the east-end of Glasgow), other examples are students undertaking work with the Junior Chamber of Commerce (JCC) as a part of the Hospitality and Tourism Industry Project to scope and plan the JCC 75th anniversary dinner. The VIPs (vertically integrated projects) include a range of social projects from sanitation projects in Malawi to business enterprise and business students have been central to building Strathclyde’s Enterprise Community which aims to develop and run an integrated system which enables
entrepreneurial students and alumni to flourish. - Launched in 2018, the BA (Hons) in Business Management degree is a bespoke four-year Graduate Apprenticeship programme which aims to develop apprentices’ knowledge, skills, competencies and professional behaviours. The degree is designed in partnership with employers in different industry sectors and to meet the criteria for Chartered Management Institute (CMI). Graduate Apprenticeships are for those based in Scotland. These opportunities are funded by Skills Development Scotland and supported by the European Social Fund.
- The University of Strathclyde MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) Understanding Modern Business & Organisations is provided by Strathclyde Business School. This free online course is for graduates to learn how knowledge, technology, ethics and globalisation affect businesses today. The course gives insights, looking at four themes:
1. Knowledge: what does our shift towards a knowledge economy, away from manual labour, mean for both business and society?
2. Technology: how do organisations develop and/or use technology, and protect their intellectual property?
3. Ethics: does the rise of corporate social responsibility and environmental issues mean that businesses are more morally and socially responsible today?
4. Globalisation: how do organisations perform on the world stage and balance the global with the local? - At postgraduate level the personal development process is specifically tailored to each programme and reflects the course content and wider subject specific issues. A student’s personal development in ethics, responsibility and sustainability is managed through the learning and assessment methods. For example key approaches for this integration from course into personal development include the use of reflective essays and learning diaries, both of which ask students to reflect on the taught content and how this will impact their personal development and their actions related to these issues within the workplace.
- Also at postgraduate level the annual Strathclyde VIP research conference students pitch for research funding for projects targeted at the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, students on the PG VIP programme between the Business School and Engineering Faculties are involved in a range of social projects from sanitation projects in Malawi to business enterprise. Many doctoral researchers are also engaging with local communities at an international level.
- Business ethics and corporate social responsibility are key learning outcomes for the overall programme offering at SBS and are integrated into the personal development process through programme structure and assessment methods designed for student reflection. An example of this approach is the ‘Becoming an Effective Business Analyst’ class in the suite of postgraduate taught modules in Management Science.These classes provide students with experiential learning as they work on a number of projects for clients throughout the year. To support this class, workshops and reflective discussion sessions are held where students and staff (acting as facilitators) discuss all aspects of the work. Students are able to reflect on issues such as business ethics with respect to the work they are carrying out as well as bringing out generic learning from the discussion sessions held and the learning diaries that they also complete. The corporate partners involved in the programme also highlight ethical and CSR issues.
- For the MBA programme the compulsory Learning Manager course includes learning outcomes on comparative corporate governance.
- As part of the course assignment, the fourth year class ‘Sustainability Accounting: Theory and Practice’ chose one SDG and developed a poster on the ways to achieve the goals. Students were asked to present their findings to Strathclyde Business School staff and faculty members.
- With growing demand for graduates who have the capabilities required for understanding and delivering on green agendas, whether in energy, transport, planning, business or data analysis, the MSc Global Sustainable Cities degree produces graduates with skillsets that are greatly in demand by employers. This MSc is an innovative programme that equips high calibre graduates and professionals with the skills to make a real and relevant difference for sustainability in an increasingly city-centric world, and enables them to develop skills as leaders of transformative change in cities.
External support for the introduction of the programme has been expressed by Scottish Power, Siemens, ARUP and AECOM. - In the second year of the undergraduate entrepreneurship programme, students spend a semester working on the development of a social purpose business as part of the New Venture Planning class led by Dr Russell Matthews. Student teams compete in a pitching event and the winning entrant goes on to participate in a global social value- focused business pitching competition (Values and Ventures competition, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth). Previous Strathclyde representatives have won various prizes at this competition, and the programme has acted as a launchpad for a number of successful social impact-oriented business ventures, including Revive Eco, who have developed a circular economy business model designed to extract valuable outputs from waste coffee grounds.
In 2019 the SBS team gained an honourable mention for their socially conscious business idea of a toothbrush which uses motion stability technology that enables people with Parkinson’s to brush their teeth. - Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship students across all intakes have been provided with digital textbooks, an initiative which ties in with the University of Strathclyde’s strategic aims as a leading international technological university.
- Dr Russell Mathews (Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship) teaches a second year undergraduate class on collaborative consumption and other sustainable business models. The class focuses on non-economic reciprocity networks that can increase levels of social capital in disadvantaged areas. More specifically, much of the content focuses on the collaborative economy and circular economy business models.
