The business simulation week

Authors: Ridolfo, H. and Shiel, C.

Publisher: Business, Management and Accountancy Subject Centre, Higher Education Academy

Abstract:

At Bournemouth University we run a Business Simulation Week (BSW) at the end of the first year of the BA (Hons) Business Studies programme. Business simulations were introduced at Bournemouth as a vehicle for integrating learning across disciplines and as a focus for fostering a vocational ethos and cohesive course culture. Since 1993, the Coopers & Lybrand Prize, awarded for innovation in teaching and learning in business and management education, has provided both evidence of the BSW’s success and an acknowledgement of the value of simulated business activity. However, internal restructuring, resource pressures and other changes in higher education have created an environment where innovation is not easily sustained, particularly where it lies outside the assessed curriculum. The BSW has evolved successfully through the team’s strong commitment and willingness to meet the challenges of diminishing resources and by aligning the activity with new policy imperatives, such as partnership and community, to the benefit of students and other agendas in the university. We adhered to the original vision for the BSW, which was to integrate students’ skills and knowledge and to give them an opportunity to operate as professionals in a simulated work context. We enhanced the activity through successful co-operation with Barclays Bank and the Students’ Union and refined the focus of the task to embrace broader social issues and community engagement. Here, we provide details and present students’ outputs. We evaluate the approach and suggest how the BSW may develop, with more explicit links to students’ progress files and citizenship issues.

http://www.business.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/reflect/stories/ridolfo.pdf

Source: Manual

Preferred by: Chris Shiel