A couple of weeks ago I went to Thailand to launch our new MSc programme on Engineering Business Management.  This has been consuming most of my summer, it’s shaping up to be quite an exciting development (in my view anyway) and this post gives some more details

The Engineering Business Management MSc (EBM to its friends) has been designed to complement the existing programme Innovation and Technology Management (ITM). Both are inter faculty, cross disciplinary courses in Engineering Management, showcasing our ongoing collaborative research and teaching between the Faculty of Engineering and the School of Management.

ITM allows students to focus on Engineering Management careers around design creativity, idea generation and the innovation process. Historically, students have tended to work in : industrial research; new product introduction; innovation hubs & incubators; start-up companies or government agencies.

EBM is more focused on areas such as project management, business analysis, design leadership, product development and supply chain management. It is not necessary to have engineering training, but students are expected to be be interested in exploring the implications of new technology, and incorporate the learnings into engineering management.

If you are interested in either course, do visit the web pages and get in touch. We can help you choose the version that’s best for your career aspirations.

So – why did we launch in Thailand? Well, of course we do expect a broad range of nationalities (ITM this year has ~15 different nationalities in a cohort of ~50). But the Thai market does appear to value this type of program (and we have good numbers on ITM this year). We already recruit good numbers of students from Thailand, though mainly in other management subjects, so this is a good chance to broaden our offering in the market. Thanks to Hands-On who organised the trip as well as our ITM alumni Opel, Pang, Ted and Best who were able to join us.

On a personal note, I was delighted to launch in Thailand. Not only do Thai students bring valuable experience and insights to the programme, but I also love the country. Of course, last time I visited Thailand was some time ago – in fact just after my PhD in 1995. Lots have changed; my memories of Bangkok include tuk-tuks everywhere, few cars, no skyscrapers, no malls,  no air conditioning but friendly and welcoming people. I am glad to say the last bit is still true, but almost everything else has changed enormously.

I  did spend a day taking a passenger boat on the Chao Phraya river, visiting temples (Wat Pho, pictured) and the Khao San road (which doesn’t seem to have changed a bit!).

I hope it won’t be too long before I return, hopefully meeting more prospective EBM/ITM students and alumni. We have more trips and marketing activity planned, timed to coincide to the peak activity in each geography. ITM has been described as ‘the world in a classroom’, we are aiming for the same dynamic in EBM. I look forward to welcoming our first batch of EBM students in 2018.