Manchester Business School (MBS) – Background
MBS is acknowledged as one of the top ten businesses and management schools in Europe and one of the top 50 in the world. In the recent Financial Times rankings MBS was ranked 22nd business school in the world (Monday 30 January 2006). The survey places the School third in the UK and seventh in Europe in this annual ranking of full-time MBA programmes.
The original MBS was founded in 1965 following government recommendations to set up two specialist providers of senior business and management education (the other institution was London Business School) (1) It quickly earned a national and international reputation as a leading business school with a flagship MBA programme, quality academic research activities and the provision of a range of specialist services to the external business community. These included management training, executive education and consultancy. In the1990’s MBS collaborated with UMIST’s Manchester School of Management and the School of Accounting and Finance of the University of Manchester. Together with these prestigious partners, MBS formed the Manchester Federal School of Business and Management working together on a range of activities and joint programmes. The new Manchester Business School formed as a result of the merger of these three components and the Institute of Innovation Research (IoIR), following the merger of the former Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST. Building on the heritage of our partners, MBS provides world-class business and management education to undergraduates, postgraduates, highly experienced business managers and people wishing to pursue academic careers. It competes on a global scale for the best students and staff and continues to generate groundbreaking research that is recognised by peers and practitioners across the globe.
Manchester Business School is the UK’s largest campus-based business and management school and is one of only twenty business schools worldwide to receive accreditation from the three main accreditation bodies. It provides a comprehensive range of undergraduate, postgraduate and custom-made executive programmes, for organisations from both the private and public sectors. MBS prides itself on its international reputation and brand, the premium nature of its various academic and academic related products. It operates, in many ways in a different market place to other departments of the University and its competitor and benchmark profile is also distinct and one which is very much global in nature. Its sees its Unique Selling Point (USP) as a Business School (BS) which aspires to being excellent in everything it does, a major challenge given its size and range of activities (which many of its peer BS’s do not or cannot achieve), but one which will help it to achieve and maintain its dual goals of academic excellence and relevancy to the business community. This philosophy is encapsulated in its new strapline Original Thinking: Applied
MBS has around 2,000 students on campus and over 200 teaching staff, making Manchester the largest campus-based business school in the UK. It also supports more than 3,500 students worldwide through distance-learning and external programmes, and benefits from excellent links with both business and the public sector. UPDATE THIS SECTION
The University of Manchester (UoM) – Background
Manchester Business School is fortunate in having two specialist Business and Management libraries on site: the Precinct Library, pre-dominantly for undergraduates and the Eddie Davies Library (EDL) for postgraduate students and other MBS customer groups such as Executive Education clients and MBS Alumni. Both libraries operate together under one managerial entity providing high quality library services for all the customer groups of MBS and support all teaching, research and commercial activities. The MBS Library Service is part of the John Rylands University Library, which has the reputation of being one of the best and most comprehensive university libraries in the UK.
John Rylands University LibraryMore detail here on jrul
Being located close to its users and customers enables the MBS Library Service to be at the core of the MBS experience and maximize the benefits such relationships bring.
The MBS Library Service enjoys a national and international reputation in business school library provision serving dually and uniquely the needs of academic researchers, high profile MBA and master’s students, undergraduate students and the commercial information requirements of MBS customers. It plays an active role in organisations such as the European Business School Librarians Group (EBLSG), where it benchmarks itself against other leading European business school libraries and the British Business School Librarians Group.
MBS Library Service – Key Customer Profile
The MBS Library Service both supports MBS in its role as full service global Business School and the wider business and management requirements of the University of Manchester. Its customer profile includes the following groups;
· Academic and research staff
· MBA students based on campus
· Specialist masters students (PGT)
· MBS Undergraduate students and BMAP students from across the University
· Doctoral students
· Global and Distance Learning MBA and DBA students from MBS Worldwide
· Executive course delegates and students
· MBS alumni
· Commercial clients of MBS
· MBS departments and staff
· Staff and postgraduate students of the University of Manchester
· Academic (non-University) business research community
Insert table here
MBS Library Service – Summary of key services
A summary of key services provided to these customer groups is provided below;
· Support for reading lists and Blackboard presence
· Direct involvement with research projects and initiatives
· Specialist tuition and assistance on the full suite of specialist financial business datasets, which are often highly complex and require ongoing support
· Bespoke training for new academic staff with ongoing support for their research and teaching plus specific support for faculty going on sabbatical
· Qualified staffing on EDL and PL research enquiry desks 9.00-19.00 (Mondays to Fridays) 10.00-17.00 (Saturdays)
· Provision of specialist advice on resource selection and provision
· Provision of tailored course and study pack for modules on the MBA programme
· Specialist presentations and teaching sessions on a wide range of MBS programmes
· Provision of exclusive high quality study spaces, with each study space supported by electronic power supply, network points and wireless access.
· General inductions to the library service at start of all MBS programmes
· Assistance with dissemination of MBS research output
· Provision of specialist library Open Training Programmes to develop research skills and enhance student use of library resources
· Bespoke one-to-one and group sessions on various modules which require particular expert support with facility to book one-to-one session with business librarian
· Business briefing research service for senior MBS staff
· Provision and support of the Alumni Research Portal for MBS alumni
· Support for other University staff (non-MBS) projects
· Collaborative work on joint projects with the Centre for Engagement and other external facing departments in MBS, offering companies a fully integrated premium service
Accreditation and Rankings
One of the major ways a Business Schools markets itself is through the promotion of its value proposition and in order to position itself in a very competitive market place it has to address the issues of accreditation and rankings. Accreditation for a Business School is usually through one of more of the three leading bodies, which are
AACSB International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business - focuses on overall quality and continuous improvement. Just seven UK schools have achieved accreditation. Its headquarters are in St. Louis, Missouri.
AMBA - the Association of MBAs - is market-driven and international in focus. Ours was the first distance learning MBA to be accredited for the maximum five years.
EQUIS - the European Quality Improvement System - is the accreditation arm of the European Foundation for Management Education (efmd). It emphasizes internationalism and real world relevance.
Accreditation from one or more of these bodies is a labour intensive and time consuming activity for a business school, but is deemed essential to both ensure quality levels are high across all service and programmes and as a key diffentiator in a competitive marketplace. It is an ongoing progress with accrediation needing to be retained on a regular basis (usually between 3-year) As MBS is one of only seven UK business schools accredited from all there major bodies it usually means that an accreditation process has usually been recently completed or is pending! As one of the key services to be examined library service must try and ensure service and quality levels are maintained a developed in tandem with developments in the wider sector.
Love them of loath them, rankings for business schools are an unavoidable aspect of life with their tentacles reaching far and wide. Rankings for Business Schools have been in existence for a number of years with major business publication such as the Financial Times, The Economist, Business Week and Forbes magazine all conducting ranking tables across many of the key programme and activity areas. The rankings are pored over by current, prospective and former students, in addition to staff at the various business schools, employers and potential clients. As with all rankings various claims are made by the providers and there is often great debate into how the rankings are compiled. One of the drivers for both maintaining and improving a ranking position is in the quality of services and facilities offered and hence library services must always be prepared to undertake a continuous improvement cycle and benchmark itself against comparative services
Benchmarking
Most Business School libraries look to benchmark themselves against similar libraries, not least because in such areas as electronic database service provision they are judged by both current and prospective students and faculty members against similar provision in other leading business schools. Students make a considered choice when deciding which business school to study at and provision of facilities and services at competing schools is a factor in this decision. Add into the mix the fact that much our the postgraduate intake compares library provision with their undergraduate experience and many visit other business schools on a exchange programme, during the course of the programme then the ability to match and indeed exceed service provision at other libraries becomes acute.
There is an also a great deal to learn from colleagues from within our sector and benchmarking provides u with opportunities to do this. On a tangible level a number of national and international bodies exist to primarily serve this purpose. In the UK the Business Librarians Association (BLA)(insert ref link here) is a particularly effective voice in representing the sector in dealings with suppliers and as a forum to share experience on electronic resources for example. In Europe the European Business Schools Librarians Group (EBSLG) offers an opportunity for library services in the leading European Business School sector to network, share experience and work on joint projects and also enjoys close working with its US and Asia-Pacific Business School library community.
In addition to providing opportunities to keep service provision levels high, benchmarking also provides us with opportunities to shape the sector as a whole with ultimate benefits for all customers.
but also work co-operatively on a number of levels, especially in relation to representations of the sector in relations with suppliers
Customer Profile
The customer profile table on the following page summarise the different customer groups that make up the service at MBS, some of which are typical groups found at most academic institutions e.g. undergraduate students and some of which are to be found in smaller stand-alone Business Schools e.g. Executive Education delegates. From this table there are a few that have more unique features or are more atypical and here I have attempted shed more insight into the issues faced ins providing them with a high quality service;
FT MBA Students
FT MBA students usually have a much bigger impact and resonance that the size of the student co-hurt would suggest. Although at some business schools the MBA class can be one of the dominant programme groups at the larger global business schools its percentage of the overall student numbers can be relatively small. However its impact and influence is still large at all leading business schools. This is for a variety of reasons of which is that the MBA is seen very much as a reputation driver because of the special nature of the MBA qualification and the impact it has on various rankings. Ally this with the very large fees on most MBA programmes and you have a course which it is pretty much unique not just because of the very high course fees, but also the level of support both afforded to and expected from the MBA cohorts. In library terms at MBS this equates to the provision of course material, specialist advice sessions on key modules such as the Intentional Business Project, tailored assistance with career searches and provision of high specification study facilities. The MBA programme is usually at the forefront of developments in innovative library practice such as our current feasibility study into provision of e-book readers to them.
Executive Education Delegates
These delegates are executives and managers who come to undertake a short-course or programme at MBS, lasting from one day to 18 months. They often have no knowledge of an academic library set-up, have little time to do research and require access to non-traditional materials. As often senior executives they also are used to their teams doing work for them and nowadays expect all material to be easily accessible 24/7. Their needs require bespoke solutions and a different mindset from library staff in meeting their information needs.
MBS Alumni
All universities have thousands of alumni and many university library services provide membership and borrowing rights to their graduates. Major Business Schools also offer a range of value-added services to alumni, of which invariably library provision is a growing feature. Business Schools cultivate their relationships with alumni for various reasons, mainly to provide current students with a ready made community to tap in the global business world, providing them with possible jobs, internship opportunities, networking and of course a real example of how their time at MBS will benefit them. Also present is the potential fundraising element that alumni can be utilised for. As part of a very specialised service offering is then opportunities for alumni to continue in some way their access to library resources. There are a raft of licensing issues to be confronted, but from our perspective unique solutions are required, with certain suppliers keen to work with us on this. Our solution was the development of a dedicated Alumni Research Portal.