Graphed. #Winning. #HootStats http://ow.ly/4aD73

 

Us with the Made in Brunel Sign

Wow… I can’t believe it I have finally submitted my dissertation, although have to confess I only just made the deadline!  It was such a relief when I finished, I have to admit writing my dissertation has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  This summer has felt like a very long three months of researching, writing and interviewing people for my project…and at times I really doubted I would ever complete my dissertation.  But I was really lucky to have lots of support from my friends and family and very lucky to have Professor Balmer (who taught the corporate identity programme) as my supervisor….I felt so proud and pleased when I finally saw my work printed and bound…it actually looked quite professional if I do say so myself…now just keeping my fingers crossed that I have passed!

 

Posing for one last photo

I can’t believe this year has now come to an end…The business school put on a farewell party for us after we submitted our dissertation.  It was so nice to see everyone again…as we had all been so busy studying.  But it was also really sad to say our final farewells…Some of my friends have now returned home to their various countries while others have decided to stay and try and find work in the UK.

But I think they have all had a wonderful time both studying at Brunel and enjoying the sights of UK and Europe.  It’s been great looking at all their photos on Facebook, as they have (in between studying) been sightseeing around London, enjoying all the summer festivals including the Notting Hill Carnival and visiting some of the many theme parks in the UK including Thorpe Park and Alton Towers…

I also made the most of the English summer (we did have some good sunny days this year!) when I took short breaks from writing my dissertation, including spending a week-end in lovely Kent which is renowned as ‘the garden of England’.  In which I discovered we actually have some beautiful vineyards in this country…and that we produce champagne in England…although of course we can’t call it that!!

But this past week I have just enjoyed relaxing and recovering from writing…before returning back to work.  It has been great catching up with friends and family…it felt a bit like I was in hibernation while I was studying!  I have loved being back in London again.   I’ve been to one of  my  favourite markets, Spitalfields where they also had the London Craft Exhibition, seen one of latest plays, which was a production of one of my favourite books ‘Birdsong’ and last Friday I went to Trafalgar Square where they had the amazing Malaysian Food Fair.

Now I look forward to returning back to work at Brunel International and putting into practice all the branding knowledge I have learnt from studying MSc Corporate Brand Management.  I also really look forward to meeting lots more new students on my international marketing trips.

I would also like to say though for all the new students that have recently enrolled at Brunel I wish you the best of luck with your studies…I hope you all enjoy studying at Brunel as much as I did…and don’t worry sometimes it will be tough but you will feel so proud of yourself at the end…

I now just hope that I pass and look forward to 2011 and my graduation ceremony and seeing all my friends from my course again…and in the meantime I wish them all the best of luck in finding great careers….

I’ve been quite busy since I last wrote.   I moved house this weekend, which turned out to be the hottest of the year; don’t believe anyone who tells you we get bad weather in the UK, it’s actually been warmer here than most of the rest of Europe!  I had some great news this week; we got our exam results back…and amazingly the hard work has been worth it and I have passed.   I confess I would have liked to have got slightly higher grades but am so relieved that I have passed.  And at least my results were better than the England football team…most disappointing that we are out the World Cup…hope we do better at Wimbledon!   It’s such a relief though; I now have two-thirds of my masters and just have to complete my dreaded dissertation!

I have also been to India on a work trip for the international office.  I did actually want to combine it with a holiday to Goa but unfortunately it was the monsoon season…so not a good time to be lying on the beach!  But it was nice to be back in India, if a little hot and sticky.  I visited Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Jaipur.  It was my first visit to Jaipur or the “pink city” as it was nicknamed in 1876, after it was painted pink by the Maharaja Man Singh II in honour of Prince of Wale’s visit.  It was nice to meet more students wanting to come to Brunel and of course I had a little free time to enjoy the sunshine in Delhi and for shopping…I was able to buy some new things for my new flat - any excuse for shopping!!

On my trip to India (Delhi) I was very lucky to chat to one our alumni students, Shivani Bhalla who completed her masters in MSC Corporate Brand Management last year.  So it was a great opportunity to ask her how she enjoyed studying at Brunel, what she thought of the course and most importantly how the course has helped her career.  I thought you might like to hear her answers;

Brunel & Me-

“One of the best years of my life was at Brunel University.   It has given me memories that I will treasure forever!   It’s a fantabulous university with amazing people, diverse culture, excellent student facilities, and remarkable professors: veterans in their fields & I made some amazing friends for life!  I would like to extend my warm thank you to Brunel and my fellow students for making my journey at Brunel just Superb!”

Corporate Brand Management

“Wow, the moment I heard the name, I knew this is the course I want to do & no stopping from there. Brands always excited me and studying about them/for them was my dream.  The course curriculum was so interesting and provides a different perspective to traditional marketing.   My assignments were challenging but extremely fulfilling, I really felt I learnt something concrete.  The projects on BA and London Transport museum visit were a terrific learning experience.  I would like to thank each and every professor who taught CBM 08-09, including Prof John Balmer, TC Melewar and Manto Gotsi.”

My Job

“I am now working for the Times of India which is a brand under the Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd.  It’s the largest selling English daily newspaper in the world.   The course MSc Corporate Brand Management certainly helped me position myself as a ‘Brand’ for interviewers after I graduated and returned to India.   Prior to joining Times of India, I was working with a small branding consultancy and I learnt the value of my course was there in the Indian market, not only for the money I was earning, but the kind of work portfolio I was getting!   That’s extremely satisfying as a fresher “

“I am now really looking forward to return to London in July, one of my favourite cities in the world.  I can’t believe it I will be attending my graduation ceremony, I’m so excited to be coming back to Brunel.”

If you would like to ask Shivani Bhalla any questions about studying at Brunel and life in the UK, you can always join the Official Brunel UniversityFacebook Page and our Brunel International Facebook page, in which Shivani is an active member.

Next time:  Enjoying the British summer and my final weeks of study…

'Nothing so much fun as messing around in boats'

After a good rest to recover from weeks of revision and little sleep,  I have been spending the last few weeks enjoying the wonderful sunshine and showing my classmates some of my favourite places to visit in London.  These have included the wonderful week-end markets in Portobello Road (where Notting Hill, with Julie Roberts and Hugh Grant was filmed) and Spitalfields, made infamous by Jack the Ripper, (‘From Hell’ starring the wonderful Johnny Depp is one of the many films made on this infamous Victorian). You can visit the pub he was supposed to have frequented, The Ten Bells.   As well as visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum and wondering along the Thames in Richmond and taking a picnic in the park.  London is wonderful in the summer, there is always so much to see and do and I look forward to many more days out during July and August with my classmates.

Of course we still have our dissertation to complete over the summer and next week I will be attending the dissertation workshop week run by the graduate school, to help us plan our work and what to do if we run into difficulties with our project.  I really think I need this help, as it has been a long time since I wrote my last undergraduate dissertation!

Next time:  Research…research…research…Dissertation strikes

Hello again. Just checked my last blog and can’t believe my last update was back in March. It has certainly been a busy few months, hence the lack of blog activity. Our last lectures finished at the end of March and it was sad that they had ended. I really enjoyed Ethics and Corporate identity, and have learned so much over the past two terms. The end of the course also meant it was time for exams!

During the Easter vacation I usually spend my break on holiday overseas, but this year it was time to dive into the books and revise for my exams. Of course I did take a few days rest to enjoy the Easter week-end. Easter is a religious festival, celebrated by Christians that often includes stories for children about spring with rabbits and eggs. The Easter bunny has since become a symbol like Father Christmas bringing colourfully painted eggs to children’s houses on Easter Sunday. Nowadays Easter has become quite a commercialised spring holiday, with families buying each other chocolate shaped eggs and eating traditional hot cross buns! For children there are often Easter egg hunts, which this year my mum organised for my niece. It was very cute seeing her run around the garden with her colourful little basket trying to find all the chocolate eggs. I of course also indulged in some chocolate Easter eggs …I needed the sugar for my revision…well that’s my excuse!

I can’t say I particularly enjoyed the month or so I spent revising for my exams, it was hard work and difficult at times to stay focussed and motivated. We did organise some revision study groups with our classmates, which helped and provided some much needed company, as it can get a bit lonely studying by yourself all the time. I only had three exams but it was still a lot of ground we had to cover. Before we broke up for Easter we did have a number of revision classes, which were very helpful and provided us with the key areas that the exam questions would be based on. This was really useful in giving us direction for our study. For the module on Strategic Management we were also given a case study prior to the exam to study and provide a SWOT and PESTLE analysis.

I have to say I was very glad that I didn’t go away on holiday for Easter, as for those students who did decide to go home or visit places in Europe, not all of them made it back for their exams, due to flight disruptions caused by the volcanic ash. It certainly was an interesting and exciting period leading up to the exams with both the volcano activity and here in the UK we had a general election. For the first time ever the three main parties, Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats held live TV debates on their various policies, it was very interesting to see how they dealt with questions put to them by the audience. However as much interest as these debates caused we ended up with no clear majority and for the first since 1945, we now have a coalition party in power comprising of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. It has reminded me a lot of our lectures on Corporate Identity and company mergers, as both these parties have very different ideals so it has been difficult for the public to know how to identify with this coalition, but I think interesting times are ahead for the UK.

As for the exams I really hope I have passed. I worked so hard, in fact maybe a little too hard if that is possible! By the time I got to the exams I was so exhausted and nervous I made the mistake of misreading a number of questions…so fingers crossed I won’t be doing re-sits in September. The exam papers actually weren’t too bad. I think it was just my nerves that were the problem, after having not taken any exams for over ten years…hmm now showing my age! There were workshops held at Brunel during the exam period to help with exam stress and exam preparation, but for me having a nice cold beer after each of the three hour exams was the best form of stress relief!

I really enjoyed One World Week this year. This is a wonderful annual celebration in which the university organises so many fun activities to celebrate the campus’ diversity. From samba classes to a dance show presented by the Brunel dance club, to classes in calligraphy and flag making, an international food fair, photo exhibitions, and celebrations for Chinese New Year, there were just so many activities to choose from. This year it was combined with raising awareness for Fair trade fortnight and environmental issues and raising funds for the Haiti appeal, which made it even more special. I wasn’t able to attend all the events but I did go with some of my classmates to the Arabian night, where we attempted to do some belly dancing to Arabian music (my Turkish friend of course was very good!) and got to try to some wonderful middle-eastern food which was very tasty…

 

During One World week all the various departments in the university decorate their offices in celebration of the event. This is supposed to be a fun activity but as all the departments are judged on their office displays this it now taken very seriously…and the International office had a lot to live up to this year as we won last year. I have to say we excelled again this year with the international movie theme…which just looked amazing and quite rightly we were awarded joint winners with the business school, who I think cheated slightly holding a penalty shoot out!! You can see all the photos on Flickr

The whole group

This week our class also organised having dinner with Professor Balmer, who teaches on the Corporate Identity module. I can’t believe the second term is almost over so it was really nice that we all got together and had a fun night out. It was very interesting talking with Professor Balmer who told us all about his background, in which he started his academic life studying classical music and quite by accident has become one of the key writers in corporate identity…I guess you just never know where your life may take you. It was also really nice to discuss what we are all going to do after the course finishes and I had some invites to visit my class-mates in their different countries, which would be wonderful.

Next time…preparing for exams (eek!)

Well much as I am enjoying studying at Brunel, I have missed my job just a little bit, especially as the weather is getting colder.  Therefore I was very happy when I was asked by the International Office to do a work trip to Sri Lanka and India, where I knew it would be nice and warm! 

I really like Sri Lanka and have been there four times now, although next time I go I want to go for a holiday and really travel around, especially now that more of the country is opening up after the many years of war.   On this trip I was lucky to meet the British High Commission and a number of government officials including the education minister, and it was very interesting to hear how the country is changing now the war is over.  Of course I also enjoyed some free time for shopping and eating and we were also taken to a beautiful temple in the heart of Colombo which I had never been to before.  I was quite surprised as there was also a very large elephant there, which is a bit different to many temples I have been to before.

In India I visited both Pune and Mumbai, which are both very interesting and beautiful cities in the southern part of India.  During this part of the trip I attended a number of fairs and met lots of students eager to come and study in the UK.  It was really nice as I could pass on my experience of being a student and of course tell them what a great course MSc Corporate Brand Management is for those who were interested in the course.  I only had a little bit of time to explore Mumbai and again would love to return for a holiday and really get to know the city.

On my travels I also bumped into Bendy Brunel who was on his adventures around the world…to see his picture please visit http://www.brunel.ac.uk/international/bendybru Don’t forget if you see him in your country to email your picture to the international office.nel

Next time:  One World Week…

Studying is going well and I have now adjusted to my new timetable.  I do miss the classes on branding and marketing (as these were only 15 credit modules) but am enjoying my new elective on Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility.  I really like the lecture’s style of teaching; she always has very relevant articles for us to look at, like the recent take-over of Cadbury’s.  I think CSR and ethics are very relevant in today’s corporations and I am planning to focus my dissertation on this subject area.

We still have classes on corporate identity with Professor Balmer, although this term the focus is on us leading the class discussion.  We have all been broken into small groups of five and each week one group is given an article to read, which we have to produce a short power point presentation on to present to the rest of the class.  The group I worked with actually had two articles to read which were about corporate image and reputation, we worked really well as a group and I was really pleased with the presentation we did.  Working on these articles allows us to gain a deeper knowledge of the subject area we studied last term and helps us to prepare for our exam in May.

This term we also have received all our grades for our assignments (from last term) and I have to say I was so pleased with my results.  For my first two assignments I got C grades, but for my following two I got a B and an A, which I was so happy about as it shows over the last 12 weeks how much I improved.  I was  really pleased I got a B in the group presentation on Tesco’s as I worked so hard on that project; I would have been really disappointed if I had done badly.  All my classmates have done really well to, so we are very pleased that we passed the first term and all the hard work was worth it…..

Next time….a little break in the sun…

This is my finish snowman, or to be more PC, Snowperson

Well after the lovely Christmas vacation it was back to the studies….or so I thought! Britain has had the coldest winter in over twenty years; it’s been quite some time since I have seen so much snow. The whole country pretty much came to a standstill, with many people/children unable to get to work/school as most local councils were not able to get enough grit and salt down on the roads to make it safe for commuters. Thus the first few lectures got cancelled at Brunel. I have to say I wasn’t too disappointed and made the most of it by taking lots of pretty photographs of the snow and building a snowman, which was actually really quite hard work…but I think it looked quite cute when it was finished.

I also took the time to visit the British museum, which I have to confess I have never been to before. I love museums and have visited the Natural History, Science and V&A museum but for some reason have never got round to going to the British museum, which is just amazing it’s so vast you could easily spend a week there to see everything. The main reason I decided to go to the British museum was to see the Aztec exhibition which was really interesting. The Aztecs founded what was to become Mexico (after the Spanish invaded) in 1325 and the exhibition focuses on the last Aztec ruler Moctezuma who died in very suspicious circumstances in 1520 after the Spanish conquest; I really enjoyed learning some history.

Most of the classes started again last week and it was really nice to meet up again with all my classmates and find out what they did for the Christmas holidays. Many of the international students stayed in the UK for the holidays, and they enjoyed cooking a Christmas dinner together at Brunel and then spent the New Year travelling around the UK to places such as Bath and Manchester. Others went home and enjoyed seeing their family and friends, although I think many of them got quite a shock when they returned to the UK and the cold! One of my Turkish friends also very kindly bought me some Turkish Delight which I love.

The British Museum has the largest collection of Mummies in the world.

A Sarcofagus, and some others. I’m not sure what the plural is, it’s either sarchophagi or sarcofagofagofagus

I love the glass ceiling in the museum (but that’s the only glass ceiling i like)

Next time…back to the studies…

The Christmas break was wonderful.  I was so happy when I submitted my last assignment on the 17^th December – I’m not sure how good it was but the relief of finally finishing it was great.  Of course it then meant I had a mad few days trying to get all my Christmas shopping done and post all my gifts.   I think this year I definitely missed all the postal deadlines for both the UK and for overseas. Still I think it’s always nice to get gifts after Christmas!

I also had to get all my food shopping done as this year I decided to help cook Christmas dinner.  We didn’t have the traditional turkey but lamb instead, however we still had all the trimmings with roast vegetables and lots of gravy!  Of course the table wouldn’t be complete without Christmas crackers, which you pull with someone else (as they let off a small firecracker) and they contain a colourful paper crown, joke (usually terrible!) and a small gift. It’s a very British tradition and I still love them as much as I did as a child.  It’s very funny with everyone sat around the table with a paper crown on their head that is usually far too big and keeps slipping over your head….well it makes for funny photos!

In the UK the day after Christmas is also a national holiday, Boxing Day.  I’m still not sure why it’s called Boxing Day, I once read it was when wealthy people had servants and this was the day when servants were given a holiday.  Nowadays many people rise early on Boxing Day to queue outside department stores for the start of the sales.  For many others though it’s still a time to spend with family, which I always enjoy doing.  I spent Boxing Day at my parents’ house with my sister and her family, and I enjoyed opening up all my gifts and seeing everyone else enjoy the gifts i bought them.  I also enjoyed my mum’s wonderful food including turkey and pigs in blanket (sausage wrapped in bacon); thankfully I avoided the dreaded brussel sprouts this year!  We really enjoy eating lots of nice food, drinking and playing board games, we are all slightly competitive so all the games are taken very seriously….although I never win!

I always try and get away for the New Year and this year I spent four days in Copenhagen in Denmark.  It was my first visit one of the Scandinavian countries and I had a lovely time.  It was a bit cold and quite expensive as

I think they are the most highly taxed country in the world.  Copenhagen is really beautiful, especially where we stayed by the harbour with all the colourful painted houses.  It’s a really easy city to walk around and combines both traditional buildings with amazing modern architecture.  I really enjoyed visiting the royal palaces, the art and design museum and taking a boat trip about the city.  Of course studying about brands I had to visit to the Carlsberg museum, one of Denmark’s most famous international brands and had to sample one of their beers in the museum bar.  We tried their Christmas Beer!

We spent a lovely New Year’s Eve having a nice dinner by the harbour and having a few drinks at a cool little bar with a live singer and watching all the fireworks go off at midnight…It was a really nice relaxing break before getting back to the studies…

Next time….term is disrupted by the snow