Abstract:

Personalisation of education is high on the political agenda within the UK, having entered the educational policy debate at the turn of the millennium through the inception of the Children’s Plan (DfES, 2004). The principles of this early vision being to give, “every single child the chance to be the best they can be, whatever their talent or background” (Miliband, 2004). However, to date, there remains a lack of insight into how personalisation is interpreted and practiced within a higher education setting (Becket and Brookes, 2012), resulting in a definitional fuzziness (Hartley, 2008) and multiple manifestations of the application of personalisation.

Existing knowledge of how higher education in business is personalised is particularly sparse. Notably the role of initiatives such as alumni mentoring and special events can play in the personalisation of business students’ education. Within Nottingham Business School, personalisation covers a broad remit from the use of diagnostics in understanding learning styles and many employability events to help our students explore and reach their full potential.

This research draws upon current practice within the Personalisation project of Nottingham Business School to develop an effective model of what Personalisation of undergraduate international business curriculum might look like “on the ground” from an academic and student perspective. The research also assesses the effectiveness of several specific initiatives, such as, the alumni mentor scheme and bespoke special events have upon building the aspirations of students in helping them to reach their potential.

Keywords:

Personalisation, Business.