Business with Economics @ Salford

Before we begin, here's a video I'd like you to see that details the road from Castle Irwell to the Maxwell building:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esKlsmAii6A Please click the Like button if you enjoyed the video 😀

So as you might or might not know, I am a currently doing the first year of my degree in Business with Economics at Salford University.
It’s quite a silly story of how I got to choose this degree: I only made up my mind 2 months before arriving here when I had this epiphany (^^) that Economics is amazing The killer point of this course is that you can take an optional year off and go on a placement ( that is, you go to work for a company for a year, in a field relevant to your studies).
My course is actually a branch of a bigger course, called Business and Management Studies, and in the first year, all of us have the same modules:

• Accounting
• People Management
• Management Development Programme
• Quantitative and Statistical Methods
• Organisations, Markets and Economy
• Optional module from: Law, Foreign Language, Emerging Technologies

all these adding up to 8 assignments and 11 exams for the whole year.

Accounting

I just came back home about 2 hours ago from the Student/Staff Committee (A twice-a-year meeting where Student Representatives (me) give feedback on the course and the staff) where I had some really positive feedback to share about the Accounting module/tutor. Even though we are not Finance students, it is considered detrimental that we know the basics of accounting if we are to go head-first into the business world. I wouldn’t call what we’re doing basic as it covers a lot of ground on both financial accounting and managerial accounting, but it is less content than what Finance students are doing indeed.
The structure of the content delivery is very efficient in my opinion. There is a weekly lecture (where theory gets presented) followed by a weekly tutorial (smaller groups) where, as our lecturer says, we do the doing (we apply the theory to real-life examples and financial statements). The helpful bit though is that we get about 2 weeks of revision before every exam which really helps in reminding you all the material that has been covered. Overall, the module gets a 8/10 from me

People Management

This is a bit different. I’m more of a numbers type of person. I’m not very much into theory and People Management is mostly about theory. I am relatively unhappy with the way the lectures are going as, from my point of view, they are dull and simply not engaging. I believe that that is the nature of the content that is delivered, as the same problem applied to 2 lecturers.
On the other hand, the tutorials are amazing, and my tutor deserves full marks on everything she does She is not only a great academic, but she is really approachable and friendly also. I asked her for help a presentation assignment (on which I got 90%, the highest mark ever given ) and also on my essay, which is due on the 18th of March, with high prospects of it being an over 70% paper.
This module gets a 7/10 only because the tutorials add so much to the experience…

Management Development Programme

This has to be the most down-to-earth and useful module ever. It basically teaches you how to learn, how to reflect on what you learned, how to be a good manager, how to be a good leader, how to write a CV, how to organize your time, how to work in a group, how to build Excel spread sheets, how to set up a business etc.
The biggest assignment in this module is a presentation at the end of the year, where you basically pitch a business idea to investors. It is great fun to have to set up and manage a group of 6 to 8 students, brainstorm, come up with a great business idea, then go through all the steps that make that idea work and finally deliver a presentation about it.
Really happy with the module, 9/10.

Quantitative and Statistical Methods

Numbers, numbers and some more numbers. As much as I like the numbers part of this module (it’s all about statistics and mathematics), nothing beats the lecturer, which in his own personal way, is hilarious. He is the only lecturer that manages to keep all the ~400 students in the theatre quiet and engaged. Silly jokes and the random fun fact (no lecture goes by without learning something interesting about Prince Philipp, or the latest football match, or a Chinese war thousands of years ago…) manage to spice up the very serious material that is covered.
9/10 for picking on Romanian calculators…

Organisations, Markets and Economy

The first semester was dull and boring as I knew most of the material that was being covered. That is exactly why I scored high marks in the January exam… With the second semester though, everything changed. Better lecturer, new and more interesting material, better engagement both in lectures and tutorials. Exam revision is also at it’s peak with this module
8/10 because the first semester was dull.

Optional Module

The optional module is there to help (but not necessarily enforce) you specialize in your final years. For example if you do Law, you can then move on to do Business with Law, or if you do Emerging Technologies, a natural progression would be to go with Business with IT. Finally, language option leads to International business.
If you don’t chose an optional module, you are automatically assigned to Law, which is exactly what happened to me. I thought that Law was the best course of action for a future Economist. Remember though how I told you I’m more into numbers ? Yeah… I left halfway through the first lecture (the discussion was about ethics and morale) with a firm belief that that was definitely not for me. So I thought I’d spice things up a bit and went for a foreign language, Japanese. I always wanted to know Japanese so it was a perfect match. We’re only a handful of people (around 15) and the lectures are really friendly, engaging and above all FUN. There’s also the random incentive (a japanese cookie for whoever can translate some specific word) that keeps me going ^^ 9/10 for the cookies!

The overall score that the module gets from me is 83.3%, which is GREAT! There’s obviously modules that were not exactly for me, but leaving those aside, some of them blew my mind away!
I highly encourage you to comment on this post if you want some more details about the course and/or the modules. I’m here to help

If you want to find out more about what it's like at Salford, why not watch some of our student videos on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/InternationalSalford.