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News category
The ‘Communique of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education’ provides a list for the topic of ‘Learning for future: higher education priorities for the decade to come’.
Among other topics
‘employability’,
‘student-centred learning and teaching mission of higher education’
‘education, research and innovation’
‘international openness’
‘mobility’
are mentioned.
For further information also see this useful link: http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/conference/documents/leuven_louvain-la-neuve_communiqu%C3%A9_april_2009.pdf
There it is mentioned:
“In 2020, at least 20% of those graduating in the European Higher Education Area should have had a study or training period abroad. More...
... ” (Leuven 2009 p 4)
The ECBM is proud to announce that all students on the MBA programme already have the international component included within their studies: 32 DMS students will continue with their studies towards the international MBA this year and will take part in lessons in London and all over Germany.
What sounds like a spot in the picturesque countryside is really the home stadium of FC Fulham in the heart of West London. Originally a hunting lodge, a replica of the ‘Craven Cottage’ still stands prominently between two terraces.
Overlooking the Thames, the board room certainly proved an inspiring setting for both the morning workshop (heated discussions about course material) and the afternoon session about Quality Assurance – plus the team-building activity of the day: who is able to construct the highest tower made of spaghetti?
Interestingly enough, the winning team was a male one. We won’t comment further on that. More...
...
As a special treat, the granddaughter of a former FC Fulham player gave a tour of the stadium, which is a listed building and has therefore kept much of its Victorian charm – a most pleasant visit as long as you’re not a Chelsea or Hamburger SV supporter these days.
All in all, the lively exchange of information was certainly worth leaving the office desks behind for a to further enhance the team spirit.
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Dear readers, students and colleagues,
We in the IT department would like to inform you about a minor problem we have experienced with this blog facility.
As you may know, under each blog entry there is a button that says “Add comment”. It works quite well, except it doesn’t show the field for your e-mail address as being required information, which is regrettable as we are not able to publish comments without an existing e-mail address.
So, if you would like to leave us a comment, please ensure you enter your e-mail address.
Although it is not necessary to give us your real e-mail address, we highly recommend you to do so, in case there are any problems or questions regarding your comment.
Of course your personal information will be handled confidentially, and not sold or shared with third parties. More...
...
Rest assured we are working to deliver a solution to this problem, and in the meantime apologise for any inconvenience caused.
The European College of Business and Management has had some improvements to its facilities this Easter, with room and stairs redecorated and new health and safety equipment installed.
We continue to upgrade the building in order to make it a pleasant place to work and study. Soon we will be having our Annual General Meeting (10 May) and are also preparing for inspection in the Autumn – it will be a busy Spring and Summer.
Best wishes to all our students past an present.
Richard Bills has just been to Munich to meet students and discuss future plans with partners. The college is building its links up for next year in both Munich and Berlin, so there will be more to report soon we hope.
Timetabling is in the draft stage and we hope to have the published versions ready for April. We are already preparing for another very good academic year in 2010-11, but there are still places available on both our DMS/MBA and CMS/Bachelor programmes for this spring.
Contact Anna Schak (aschak(at)eurocollege.org.uk) or Juliana Schnell (jschnell(at)eurocollege.org.uk) at the College for further details.
The Learning Pyramid illustrates how much of the teaching content is retained by the students on average for each of the different teaching methodologies. Although the percentages should not be regarded as exact, I very much like this model as it ranks the different teaching strategies. Based on my personal experience, both as a student and as a lecturer, I regard this as a realistic hierarchy.
The old style traditional way of the teacher just lecturing and the students just listening results in the students remembering just 5% of what has been taught on average. If you believe in that, then it is a lot of work and effort for the teacher to fill his or her whole lecture with input and it is not even beneficial for the students who on average retain only very little from what has been said. Additionally students might come out of the lecture saying that it was really boring. More...
... It is therefore a lose – lose situation. In my previous studies, before coming to ECBM, I experienced this learning style and it really is very inefficient. Some of my course mates preferred not to come to the lecture and read it up at home.
Supporting the lecture with reading materials and audio visuals brings the average retention rate up, but 20% is still not satisfactory.
You can see that the further down you go in the pyramid, the more the student’s get involved and the less is done by the teacher. If the teacher applies theory to practice (demonstration), 30% are retained on average. If the students do it themselves (practice by doing), the learning impact is more than doubled.
If the teacher manages to involve the students in a group discussion, the learning impact is five times as much as if he or she is just lecturing with no interaction.
And the most efficient of all teaching methodologies is have students explain to each others. Here the success rate is a 90%.
You can see that for that to happen the teacher has to take a step back and rather than taking on the main role as a lecturer, becomes the facilitator who enhances students to get involved and if possible take over the lecture. When preparing a lesson the teacher should therefore not answer the question, what he or she are going to do in this lesson, but what the students are going to do. This philosophy is also referred to as student centred learning. It is a very satisfying experience for students and lecturers.
In a typical lesson at ECBM this is what happens. At ECBM we try to foster group discussion, group work, short presentations during the lesson and the application of theory to practice.
There is a lot of interaction between students and teachers. Feedback from students is predominantly positive and for the teacher these methodologies facilitate to see that teaching has taken place. A real win-win situation!
What type of skills do you need to have a chance in today’s competitive working environment? If you just graduated from university you might find it difficult to find a job because of your lack of practical working experience, while if instead of having gone to university you started working straight away you lack the relevant academic qualifications for certain higher level jobs or careers.
In my opinion, a healthy balance of practical skills and academic skills is the golden formula for success.
ECBM students who are following one of our Business and Management Programmes are often working full time while attending our courses on weekends or sometimes on weekdays. More...
... Of course studies are not only happening in the classroom, a lot of preparation is required before the lessons starts, assignments need to be handed in on a regular basis, oral presentations and exams need to be prepared and so on. All this while working full time can be extremely busy at times. It is possible to tackle such a programme, as you can see from the great number of ECBM’s successful students. However, it requires discipline, organisation, time management, flexibility, adaptability, independence and many other soft skills.
These are exactly the skills I would want my employees to have. It depends on the job and on the employer of course, but in general as an ECBM graduate, you have a high market value!
While our programme is very practically orientated, you still achieve an academic qualification, such as for example the Bachelor qualification. Often you are required to refer to your organisations when writing assignments or you are given a case study to work with. So where is the academic part?
The academic requirements are linked to research and to business and economic theory which need to be applied to practical case studies. Furthermore you are encouraged (and on the Bachelor and MBA programme required) to reflect on your learning. For the Business Planning module for example, it is not sufficient to provide a practical business plan without making reference to relevant theory and appropriate research and reflection.
So if it is about preparing students for the real world why is the academic part so important?
Academic skills are all about you becoming more effective researchers, learners and practitioners. Encouraging a questioning attitude, developing an analytical and theoretical understanding and equipping you with research skills will enable you to cope in a rapidly changing business environment.
Through the practice of applying business-specific theoretical concepts of research, analysis, decision-making and evaluation to multifaceted business case studies, you learn to use relevant communication, planning, control and management techniques
Furthermore, ECBM prepares graduates for both a career in Business and Management or related areas and future research studies.
ECBM is organising a number of presentations with its partner institutions in Germany in the coming weeks. We are making presentations to prospective Bachelor and MBA students in Munich, Heilbronn and Stuttgart in the near future.
Soon we will see the launch of our latest DMS and CMS courses. There is still availability on the Diploma in Management Studies (which is the first year of the MBA programme) and the Certificate of Management Studies which leads to a Bachelor in under eighteen months (for successful candidates with the right qualifications and level of English language).
The DMS starts on February 19, so get in touch with us quickly if you want to be part if it. Contact Anna Schak or Juliana Schnell on aschak(at)eurocollege.org.uk or jschnell(at)eurocollege.org.uk for further information.
The Institute of Linguist exams are now completed at ECBM, many thanks to Jean-Louis Nancy our Operations Manager, Patrick Menze and all the staff who made this possible. It was another successful exam series at ECBM.
The next week sees the start of many new short courses at ECBM, including the first intake of Siemens students for this Semester from Germany. We have been working hard with our partners across Germany to create partnerships and build new opportunities for the future, and we soon start our new DMS intake at the IHK in Stuttgart.
We will also soon be holding the exam board for our Bachelor programme for those students who finished in January.
A busy week past, but better weather, and many challenges to come in the next few weeks.
The winter examinations and assessment board for the Kaufmann/frau International was held at the European College of Business and Management on Wednesday 22 January and 32 candidates were put forward for consideration. The Board was chaired by Dr Ulrich Hoppe, Chairman of the ECBM and Director-General of the German-British Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and we congratulate all the students who have completed the award. The successful candidates will be notified in due course. For more information on the Kaufmann/frau International please go to our web-site or contact Anna Schak aschak(at)eurocollege.org.uk.
It is coming up to exam time at the European College of Business and Management, both at our partner centre in Stuttgart and here in London. Once again, we wish all the students the best of luck.
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