Dear all,
For the fourth year in a row, I have been writing this newsletter from Johannesburg on the eve of a starter workshop for a new intake here. Only South Africa’s still awful Internet provision has prevented me sending it out before arrivig back in the UK this morning. The subject line says March, but it’s not an April Fool’s joke.
Travelling to South Africa, I left behind a more wintry Henley campus itching to burst into Spring, and wondered whether by the time I get back things would have been transformed by sprays of fresh green shoots and leaves on the trees, and carpets of yellow daffodils across the lawns. But return to South Africa affords the chance to see what has changed here. Not surprisingly given that it is just 72 days until the start of the World Cup, the city is showing many signs of soccer fever. There is still work to do. The new rail link from the airport has yet to open and many of the city’s planned improvements to the road network will not be complete in time, but there is also a real air of excitement and optimism. The casual visitor may never know whether what they see is simply window-dressing, but five visits here have convinced me that this place has such potential (and the rest of the world has so much to learn from Africa) that I am glad that Henley has emerged as the only internationally recognised MBA in South Africa. The first workshop for the new intake, SA05, which numbered over 90 people, went really well and they are an engergetic and bright bunch.
Now, thanks to all of you who picked up the gauntlet of last month’s challenge to do something with your Learning Journals. There was extra activity, and healthily some of that was reflection on whether or not reflection is important. (It is, by the way). As part of taking my mission to turn you all into thinkers, I have created a new poll on my blog with a question on writing and sharing learning journals. You can find that here https://henleydlmba.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/a-poll-on-learning-journals/
Henley on Linkedin
As I predicted in February’s newsletter, we have now passed the 5,000 member mark on Linkedin. Online there are still discussions rumbling on the topics of reputation, ranking and mergers, and there’s also speculation about what sort of person the next Dean of the Business School should be (can’t think you’ll all be shy on that subject). In addition, quite a few of you are using this forum to gather data in surveys for your Dissertations or Management Challenges.
As a reminder, if you want to sign up for this group, please make sure that your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and that you have indicated when you plan to graduate from Henley Business School.
Henley at the ratings
A short while ago the EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit) issued a follow up to 2008’s rankings of Distance Learning MBA programmes. This time, instead of a ranking, they had a system of ratings (from “poor” to “excellent”) on a number of criteria relevant to studying at a distance. Henley did less well when compared with some of the American, or American-influenced MBAs, roughly on a par with Warwick, and a little better than the other UK programmes. However, we did not achieve “excellent” in any category. Since the ratings are the result of input from current students, perhaps we need to take the result philosophically (and stoically). My guess is that is not coincidental that the UK respondents did not rank their programmes in the most glowing terms, and the ratings should be seen in this context. Nevertheless, it would be helpful to know what we can do to improve. I placed a longer response on my blog, for those who would like to explore the link.
Who’s New
A new addition to the staff at Henley is Sarah Powell, who joins us from London Business School as Development Executive. She will be inviting our alumni and friends to support Henley and to play an active role in helping the business school achieve its potential. Sarah will also be overseeing the Pioneers – an important group of alumni who have made a significant philanthropic commitment to the School. If you would like to find out more, she would be happy to hear from you. You can email her on (email removed).
Sign Up to RISIS
I have been reminded by Sally Pellow, from the RISIS team, that many of you have yet to activate your University of Reading username and email account. This is the one you need to sign in to upload your assignments and receive your marks, and the one that gives you access to the UoR e-library, lets you download University-licensed software packages, as well as (if you’re on campus in the UK) wi-fi access. About a third of you have activated this, but the rest of you need to do this by July 31st as the old (e:Vision) logins may expire after that (two years post merger).
Activation of the username triggers the creation of a “student email account” on RISISweb. You need to visit this account once and then set a forwarding rule to your preferred email account. Since the University will use that account to contact you, it is worth making the effort to set this up. The RISIS team will, between now and July, be contacting people with information, reminders and assistance to get these activities done, but it would also make sense for you to explore what benefits doing this brings. There are quite a number of impressive resources and offers which open up, all in addition to the environment you use on HenleyConnect.
While I’m on the technical topics, please note that we will have some essential and long-overdue server work being conducted at Henley on Saturday the 3rd of April and this will affect your access to HenleyConnect and our Learning Resource Centre, but not to RISIS.
Research Corner
No member has asked me to advertise their survey this month, though expect one or two in April. Just a reminder that if you have a questionnaire or research that would benefit from respondents from among current MBAs, drop me a line with some basic details and a link, and I’ll put it on. For those of you who are Henley-based and working your way toward the end of Part Three on Programme 4, don’t forget that Richard and Mike are gearing up for their face-to-face event on May 16th, just after graduation. The Home Straight will be in its own home straight soon, in part in tribute to the great work of the tutors, and in part a simple reflection that registration times are running out. For anyone coming toward the end of your studies but behind on time, please make sure you manage any requests for more time pro-actively. You can always reach the re-registration team via email at (email removed).
I’m grateful to James Boham-Pitt for a link to a site called meettheboss.tv, which is similar to 50 lessons and (somewhat) to TED.com. Check it out. I heard that many of you enjoyed the Jamie Oliver clip in last month’s newsletter, so my tip for this month on TED is Keith Barry talking (in 2004) about Brain Magic http://www.ted.com/talks/keith_barry_does_brain_magic.html
That’s it, a slightly more condensed email than usual, but I want to get it out this evening and enjoy some of the warm evening air in Jo’burg (I can add, now that I’m back, that it was indeed very nice – much more pleasant that the +3 degrees celsius of my return to London).
Chris
