By Week 5, the pressure was building up and the first assignments started piling up! Have a look at what the timetable for Week 5 was like:

Do you see the yellow boxes on Friday o7 November? Well this is when we were introduced to our first WAC – Written Assessment of a Case! WACs are a bit of a tradition at Cranfield SoM… They are also quite stressful and surprisingly hard! If someone tells you that you have a bit over 24 hours to write 1500 words on a given topic that doesn’t sound too hard, does it? Believe me, WACs are the longest 1500 word you’ll ever write. It is a great learning experience though! And then it’s off to a kitchen party somewhere on Campus…

During Weeks 6 & 7 the pressure was on, since there were two assignments due and yet another WAC – this time an accounting one! We submitted our Marketing and SDS reports, only to then start working on the Accounting WAC! It has certainly been a tough couple of weeks!

Tomorrow (Monday 24 November) we’ll be starting Week 8 by delivering a 15 minute presentation (followed by questions, of course!) on the Strategic Marketing Success of the Toyota Prius – part of our Marketing assignment.

Wish me luck!

So O-Week came and went!

And then the real work started! We were introduced to the six subjects we would devote ourselves to for the next few months! They were:

• ACC – Accounting
• OBPPD – Oganisational Behaviour and Personal and Professional Development
• EOS – Economics of Organisations & Strategy
• SDS – Strategic Decision Science
• MKT – Marketing
• OSC – Operation & the Supply Chain
• LANG – Languages

Accounting was a bit scary to start with, since I had never done any accounting related work before. However, the accounting Professor is really dedicated to the subject and there are online features to the book and course which are really helpful!

OBPPD (or OB for short) is a really interesting and rewarding subject – you learn more about yourself and your learning team members than you would think possible. I’m an ENFJ, by the way. I’m also an Activist and a CO / RI for my Belbin types. Google this stuff if you want to find out what it all means!

EOS - Economics – has been really challenging, but also quite rewarding once you realise you understand one of the crazy graphs Sean Rickard throws at you. It is certainly a different way to explain the world (new to me, anyway). The Neo-Classical paradigm…

SDS is statistics applied to business and there are some overlaps with EOS, which is fortunate for someone who hasn’t done a lot of stats before… We’ll see how we go with all these regression models!

Marketing has been really interesting and somewhat familiar to me. Lots of information and theory behind it all though…

OSC in its current form is a new (updated?) subject at Cranfield SoM – it deals with the operation of businesses and the supply chain. We have a number of different lecturers for this one, and they all bring their own flavour and experience to the subject! The Donut Model, the Fried Egg and the Four Blobs are some of the models we’ve learned so far…

If you don’t speak a foreing language you must start learning one from term 1. Spanish and French are the most popular ones – but I got dispensation from doing a language since I’m fluent in Portuguese. Muito Obrigado, Brasil!

Thanks!

It all started on the Sunday night- we had an informal drinks party at the School of Management and it was a great chance to mingle and meet all my fellow students and their partners and children. There were literally students from every corner of the earth and I started to realize just what an exciting experience this year was going to be. We also met our orienteers who were MBA students who had just completed their course. (Last year’s Australian Alumni Scholarship winner, Sarah Nicholson was one of them!) They were the best source of advice and knowledge you could ever want – and that wasn’t their only talent, as we would soon find out!

During Orientation week the entire class of 120 was split into 3 streams and then divided into learning teams with 6 people. These would be the people who you worked with each day for the first and possibly second term.

As orientation week rolled out I was surprised at just how much activity and information we were exposed to. Our week was fully scheduled with sports activities, intoduction lectures and ofcourse plenty of social activities. My partner Davina was also kept busy all week going to plenty of partners activities.

The culmination of Orientation week was Cabaret Night when each stream presented a cabaret performance for everyone else. Some people revealed their inner musicians and scriptwriters while others revealed their inner cross dresser! It was really something!

I arrived in London about 1 week before Orientation week and as my partner was not yet in the country I decided to try and get as many things set up for us as I could before she arrived. I was staying with a friend in London so I went about purchasing phones for us, buying a cheap second hand car (pretty handy when you live at Cranfield – middle of nowhere), got car insurance and tax, I opened a bank account and tried to do all those annoying little things. Etc, etc..

When Davina finally landed at Heathrow we made some final purchases in London (bedding, linen, towels that kind of thing) and packed up our new (old) car and drove up to Cranfiled. Her flight was also half-sponsored by Virgin Atlantic – we both flew Premium Economy (former business class seats!) which was pretty nice! Thanks Virgin Atlantic!

It was a gorgeous sunny day and it was great to see all the beautiful country side on the drive into the university. We arrived on Campus on the Saturday before Orientation week was to begin and we moved into our accommodation straight away. At first glimpse we thought our flat at Fedden House was rather small and sparse but we have since made it our own after a few trips to Marks & Spencer and Ikea!! We later found out how lucky we were that we have a proper shower head – apparently that’s a luxury and most of the flats come with just a bath! (it pays to get your housing forms in early and be nice to the housing officer!!)

My partner and I then had to undertake the Visa application process. Because we are not married it made the whole thing a little more difficult but had we not been given dodgy advice the whole process would probably have been a whole lot smoother. I received my Visa 6 weeks before I planned to leave Australia to fly to England, however my partner’s visa was initially refused as she had not applied for the correct type of visa.

Most Australians will need a visa to live and study in the UK. For more info check out: http://ukinaustralia.fco.gov.uk/en/

She then had to reapply for a different type of visa (she had to apply for the working holiday visa). There were a few tense moments when I though that I may be moving to England alone but in the end it was all ok. I had to fly without her as her visa had been granted but still not returned to her with her passport in time for our flight. She had to push her flight back a few days and she ended up receiving her Passport back with the visa with less than 48 hours to spare before her flight!

That’s what I call cutting it close!