The tagline “Made in Lincoln” has been metaphorically following me around since I used it during the selection process for this role. It’s not that it has any particular meaning for me yet as a relative newbie both to the city and to the University, but it would be interesting to see if, together, we can think about what such an expression may come to mean for the Business School. I mention it now, because tomorrow we have the first of what I hope will be many discussions, formal and informal, on our new College’s contribution to the University’s 5 year plan. We’ve been challenged by the VC to be ambitious, as you might expect: How so? well, we have a target to double the number of students in 5 years. We will be well on the way to AACSB accreditation by then. And we have to think about what will be unique about our graduates, our products and services, and our contribution to society. That brings me back to the “Made in Lincoln” idea. What would you say will be the distinctive characteristics, our “USP”, by 2021? We’ll let you know what our initial thoughts are after our discussions today, but I intend that everyone will have the opportunity to contribute to that question, either face to face, or here, online. Let me know what you think.
Finally, congratulations again to Sabine on her Feedback award at the SU last week. Kudos to the school on having four nominations, all of whom deserved to win from what I’ve heard. Sabine’s award was for her practice of giving students continuous formative feedback throughout her classes to help them improve from week to week. I’ve asked her to think about how we can all learn from her work, for the benefit of our students.