St Mary’s University Launch new School of Business and Society

St Mary’s University launched its innovative new School of Business and Society at an event at the Mansion House today. The School aims to educate the whole person, not just from a business and technical perspective, but to provide ethical formation that will serve the student throughout their career.

Since the financial crash in 2008, business schools have been attacked by some sceptics who argue that they have been churning out business leaders committed to nothing other than the bottom line and unable to think and act ethically and to prepare graduates for a life of service to the world.

Building on the courses St Mary’s already offers in Business, Politics, Public Policy and Communications, the School of Business and Society is working with business leaders to create an alternative model of business education.

The School of Business and Society will focus on an integrated approach to work and study; encouraging a commitment to sustainable success; the enabling the development of lifelong relationships; and an approach to ethics that will prepare students to take difficult decisions. The School also aims to be in the vanguard for business-related courses taken on a part-time basis or taken later in life if and when the market for these develops.

Speaking of the new School, St Mary’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Enterprise Rt Hon Ruth Kelly said, “St Mary’s is rethinking the model of business education. We look forward to working with the business community to help us create the open-minded, creative, ethical and thoughtful graduates who are able to become the responsible global leaders of the future”.

In particular, the St Mary’s School of Business and Society will:

• Embed ethics/character development in the curriculum;
• Ensure staff and students look outwards to the needs of wider society;
• Involve practitioners in the delivery of courses;
• Expose students to the world of work offering every student a work placement and integrating real-life business challenges into course development; with the aim of linking every student to a ‘practice mentor’ in the business community;
• Develop a new curriculum on social enterprise with strong links to the third sector.

The School will also work closely with the University’s Research Centre on the Study of Modern Slavery, which recently appointed former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Israel Sir Tom Philips as its director.

The Centre feeds into anti-slavery and human trafficking policy at the highest level and has recently become official academic adviser to the National Crime Agency.

At the launch, Ruth Kelly will be asking businesses to work with the University in co-creating courses, which meet their needs and help expose students to real world business challenges that they can work on from both a commercial and ethical perspective.

Notes to Editor

St Mary’s was founded in 1850 by the Catholic Poor Schools Committee to meet the need for teachers to provide an education for the growing number of poor Catholic children. The ethos of St Mary’s derives from the philosophy of Cardinal Newman, the architect of the modern understanding of a university. 

This is based upon inter-disciplinarily, virtues and values, with an emphasis on the formation of each individual enriched by insights from the Catholic intellectual tradition. We welcome students and staff of all faiths and none, and the powerful sense of community that characterises St Mary’s is a product of its ethos and the core values that underpin it:  inclusiveness, generosity of spirit, respect and excellence.

Degree Programmes available in St Mary’s School of Business and Society

Undergraduate

Criminology and Sociology
Sports Management
Communications and Marketing
Communications, Media and Marketing
Tourism
Tourism Management
Business Management/Intl Bus Management
Politics and International Relations

Postgraduate

International Sports Journalism
Intl Business Management
Charity Management

Launching for 2019/20 academic year

Undergraduate

Communication, Data Analytics and Marketing

Postgraduate

Marketing
Sports Management
Diplomacy
International Relations