Project Lead: Debbie Janson, Mechanical Engineering

The project aims to take a group of students (MSc EBM and ITM) to visit Mini in Oxford for a factory tour during the academic year. We would like to “bring to life” their taught content on the programmes and give them a real-life view of how a factory and manufacturing organisation operates. This will contribute to units MN52111 – Managing Engineering and Technology Organisations, MN52120 – Supply Chain and Operations Management, and, ME52049 – Developing and Manufacturing Products and Services. Whilst we can bring to life the teaching in these units, the cross-unit inclusion of the application will increase the cohesiveness of the programme and help the students develop a broader, big-picture view

Students have been increasingly requesting that we conduct factory visits via Student Rep meetings, and within SSLCs. Our PGT employability team have worked tirelessly to use existing contacts to arrange visits, however, understandably, most organisations aren’t willing to allow 70+ students to visit. By attending a commercially organised tour, we not only guarantee the dates and the event, but it is something that is likely to be repeatable in years to come. Students on the MSc EBM and ITM programmes are >95% international and most wish to secure a position in the UK upon graduation. Many will not have experienced any UK organisations (if at all) and they are very excited at the prospect of doing so. We also believe that cross-pollination across the units is good practice, and whilst we already have a very integrated programme (working well across FED and SoM), the addition of the external visit would serve to strengthen this. All of the above serves to enhance the marketability of the programmes. Whilst already successfully recruiting, additions such as industrial visits will add huge value to applicants, and further set us apart from competing institutions.

Project outcomes due Autumn 2025.