Meet the Joint Directors of Student Recruitment

Interview transcript

Interviewer: Congratulations on the appointment of your new role which you will be working solely on from July 2023.

How has it been acting as Deputy Directors of the MBA and transitioning into your new role?

Jo Clark (JC): We're good at doing two things at once because we've had two programmes at once. During COVID we delayed the start for the MBA programme, so we were managing two programmes at the same time. So now we're still managing two things at the same time, it's just two different things.

Rebecca Casey (RC): During the pandemic, because everything had shut down, the start of the MBA programme was delayed from September until January. It meant the cohort arriving in January 2021 should have started in September.  and therefore students starting in September 2021 were here at the same time as the January 2021 cohort.

We had two cohorts to manage, and not only that, but we also had to quickly shift the whole programme online for the January cohort. For the September cohort starting, we had to bring everything back to present in person but continue with the online delivery for the January cohort.

We do have a lot of experience of managing multiple projects and complex problems.

We both are still very much leading the MBA programme until the summer, when the new programme director will start their role in preparation for the new students starting in September. Jo and I have both been involved in recruitment of the MBA programme, which is quite a specialist approach to recruitment. It's highly personalised and we actively seek to enrol students who want to contribute to the collective as well as the individual learning experience.

JC: We were already aware of the central processes, dealing with university level colleagues in Admissions and we understood how that linked into our school processes working with colleagues in Newcastle University Business School (NUBS), Student Recruitment. We knew colleagues centrally and in NUBS, so we didn't come into the role without any background - that's helpful.

We're already working with colleagues quite closely on recruitment. I think we've both said this, that one of the attractions of the role, in fact, was some of the great colleagues with whom we will be working. I'm really enjoying working with the Student Recruitment team.

Particularly on the MBA route, students we know have nothing but good things to say about their recruitment experience from initial enquiry with central admissions through to arrival at the Business School.

It's not without challenge, having two different roles, I think; keeping the MBA going, and particularly for both of us, because Rebecca is also a module leader in an elective which is happening now and , I lead an MBA module just about to start

Rebecca is selected to compete in touch rugby Nationals and I competed in yacht racing including the BT Global Challenge global yacht race so we’re used to tough challenges.

What is the role of the Director of Student Recruitment?

JC: It is looking at the School recruitment strategy, which supports the university’ strategic aims and targets as well. So, we focus on attracting a diverse group of ablestudents from the UK and globally. We look at the strategy around our global profile and, within that, the diversity, including achieving a balance between UK home students and international students at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

 It is keeping the NUBS strategy going in line with the university requirements, but at the same time - and this is where we come in particularly operationally - making sure that any decisions that made in that sort of big picture strategy sense are “operationalizable” at the school level. We need colleagues’ engagement in the process and their confidence that we can deliver on the strategy, It is meeting that top-down ambition with a bottom up reality check which I understand from my previous life in financial planning.

RC: Jo and I are both involved in teaching as well. We understand what it means to deliver a meaningful student experience where students feel they're meeting all of their learning outcomes, but also, they’re enjoying the university experience. Because we are close to the coalface, we understand the duties of colleagues’ beyond teaching such as research and administrative duties. We understand the constraints, what is possible and what is deliverable in terms of size and shape of student cohort.

JC: We're not just looking at numbers, we're looking at also ensuring that the student experience is a good one, which needs to come from a good staff experience. With a good balance of both staff and student experience, then the situation will have the outcomes we want, which is great student progress in a university where people are happy to be teaching.

That attracts our research colleagues as well, wanting to be part of a research-intensive University, and I think that's the perspective Rebecca brings, particularly as a research-oriented colleague. I'm a teaching focused colleague, but as a research-oriented colleague, Rebecca understands that research pressure as well, I think as a partnership, that's a good piece to bring to the picture because we can see two sides and more.

You’ve each forged a strong connection with our MBA alumni community. How important is the School’s connection to this community?

RC: I mean, it's so important. We’re both NUBS alumni.

JC: I've been an undergraduate student here, and a postgraduate student. I'm alumni, but I'm also now working here, and I have done for a number of years. I think there is that sense of it being a community, and I think that's one thing that's really strong in my mind is the NUBS community. It's not simply an education, then you go off somewhere else. We want people to feel part of a lifelong community, where they want to give back and can come back. I've come back in different guises two or three times through my career and through my professional and academic life, which I think is a model we might talk about.

In terms of delivering on the MBA programme, Newcastle University alumni are essential to that process of giving back and helping current students feel closer to the business world and closer to what their personal journey might end up being.

RC: Our alumni are our ambassadors for the Business School as well. Certainly on the MBA programme, we do rely on word of mouth and referrals. If our students have a good experience and they join our alumni community, they will spread the good news. And one of the best ways, actually, of recruiting students is through word-of-mouth referral.

JC: I think there are other things about alumni as well. It’s the School’s connection to our wider alumni community that is important too. Certainly on some of the MBA modules where we’re looking to engage with business, what we very often find is that former Newcastle University students, so alumni beyond NUBS, in the wider university alumni network are delighted to come back.

I have worked with former Newcastle University students, for example, from Geography, who regularly come in and deliver on the MBA Business in Action module, because they now have relevant roles in sustainability, or other alumni from engineering and construction degrees, who then come back in and deliver into the MBA programme.

Alumni  are fabulous ambassadors and also provide great opportunities for us as a School to then engage with the business community, to bring the business community back into the education process, which is a key part of what, as a Business School, we need to be doing.

We have a highly supportive NUBS International Advisory Board (IAB) who act as an essential link to current business practice for the School. Some of these IAB members are also alumni,  of the Business School. As people’s careers progress, I think they re-engage with the University and with NUBS, at different times for different reasons. It’s this lifelong notion of career connections that helps us all to flourish.

What are your goals within the role for the next year?

JC: The School is very popular, so we've got to make sure we maintain a clear focus on getting the best students from around the world who want to be here. The diversity question at postgraduate level also includes attracting students from the region, including current Newcastle University undergraduate students and UK more broadly who might want to become our postgraduate students. Keeping that diversity, both in terms of nationality and all other aspects is a vital part of a global education

Looking at gender balance on certain programmes as well is important. Ensuring that everybody has an opportunity for access wherever they come from  the widening participation PARTNERS programme is an entry route for talented students who might not otherwise apply here.

RC: As part of that we'll be looking at what levers (scholarships, work placements and internships) are available to us not just in the Business School, but in the University, to help ensure that we do have balanced diversity across our programmes and that we can deliver a really successful student experience.

JC: We also want to make sure that home students, so including all our current Newcastle University undergraduate population, are sufficiently aware of the benefits of staying here for another year. For example, there are significant discounts available this year to any undergraduate students who want to stay on to do a postgraduate taught programme in NUBS this year. We want to make sure that they understand they have this opportunity.

I think that's a key part of a short-term message for this year in my mind.

RC: We both understand the kind of bigger picture and the bigger journey; that part of good recruitment is also being able to offer a good experience whilst you're here in university, but also beyond. Having that engagement with businesses in the North East is a really important part of the recruitment bid as well, because that's what's going to motivate students to want to come here if they can see the opportunities after university as well as whilst being here.

Where do you want to take the School’s portfolio?

RC: We are moving into an exciting new period for the Business School.

We have launched a new programme, a Master's programme in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability, and the first students will be recruited to that programme in September. We have also launched a new pathway on Digital Marketing, which is particularly good for the North East, because we do have a lot of digital marketing capability in the region. Hopefully that will create further opportunities to retain talent here in the North East and again increase the engagement with our business stakeholders.

JC: In terms of the School's portfolio, with the programmes offered we don't necessarily design them, but we make sure that if colleagues have ideas and think of opportunities that we can facilitate them in navigating and taking that forward and gaining support.

RC: The new programme in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability sits alongside some key developments in our research portfolio as well. We have the Centre for Rural Economy, which is headquartered here, and we have colleagues who lead that centre. We've also just heard the great news that the university has been named as the new host for the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC). That's really exciting for students coming onto that new programme, creating opportunities for collaboration.

JC: Being based at the Helix the city centre innovation district dedicated to helping us all live better lives. 

The Business School is in an ideal location to engage with organisations leading on innovation.  NUBS programmes have the opportunity to build these connections into programme development and delivery.

Making sure that the titles of existing programmes are in line with the market and that students from other countries understand what it is that we're offering is important. I think there's a little bit of tailoring to be done. We want to make it as easy as possible for our alumni community to continue contributing to what we do here in the Business School.

We will also be working with international partners in particular to understand how they are seeing the market and global trends.

How can alumni support the new direction of the portfolio?

JC: We get support from our International Advisory Board, and engagement of other alumni as speakers in modules, as we've mentioned. For me there are two important contemporary streams of contribution that I see; one is input on digital and one is sustainability related matters, but they're interconnected as well in terms of the place of digital in the sustainability agenda.

RC: It’s also about how we work with our alumni around research opportunities and impact opportunities. Creating these opportunities, but also realising value from them. For example, I'm aware of colleagues working with alumni to develop Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) applications. Just one example.

They also play an important role in developing our research capabilities - research centres and research projects, they can play a key role in that, and that's alumni directly shaping future agendas.

JC: At the moment, I'm working with a small but fast-growing business locally where two of our alumni work and they've wanted to maintain their connection with NUBS. They're alumni from a different postgraduate programme, but they now see how our MBA students can support part of their strategic development in the business. They want to work with our MBA students to take this business priority strategy area forward, and that's in the area of sustainability. The MBA students are going to do some research into that and help that business think about how it can move forward. So that, for me, is a positive case study of keeping relationships going and then connecting that back into future student opportunities. It comes in lots of different shapes, this notion of alumni engagement.

RC: There's an opportunity to make more of our alumni relations and I think we're open to ideas about that.

What do you both do to relax outside of work?

RC: I'm fortunate to live very close to Long Sands and Tynemouth, so I go surfing quite regularly, and I also play touch rugby for Percy Park Pirates and will be travelling to play in the National Championships later this month. Jiu jitsu with my son is another passion and love going to live music whenever I can.

JC: I am a key part of the Irish Dancing community and support with their charity fundraising.  My daughter competes at international level championships.  I have just returned from Montreal where her school, including all top performers in the North East England region, achieved their best performance ever at world level. I also do a little bit of swimming to keep fit and support my son with his live music, guitar performances.