Teaching OR to Business School students

Tuesday 30th March
University of Southampton
10.00am – 4.30am

Schools of Business and Management are flourishing with more and more
students taking up degree programme at all level. In particular there is a
growing market for conversion courses such as MSc’s in Business or
Management and post experience courses such as MBAs. In general, a strong
mathematical background is not a pre-requisite for admission to these
programmes. Perceptions of the content frequently focus on well-understood
functional areas such as Marketing, Human Resources, Accounting, Strategy
and Operations. Operational Research is an unfamiliar concept and often
considered as too hard and too mathematical. There is clearly an important
role OR can play in contributing to a well-rounded Business Management
degree programme. However, it appears that these courses are rarely core,
frequently unpopular and in some cases dropped from the syllabus.

SYNOPSIS
The workshop aims to:
 Explore the reasons why OR is not attractive to Business School students
 Learn about others experiences of teaching OR to Business School students
 Identify some general approaches to making OR more accessible to Business
School students.

CONTRIBUTORS
JULIA BENNELL is a lecturer in Management Science at School of Management,
University of Southampton. She holds a BSc in Mathematics and Management
Science and a PhD. in Operational Research. She is currently director of
Southampton’s largest MBA programme and was previously director of their
BSc. in Management Science. Her teaching portfolio includes the experienced
manager MBA, full time MBA, various MSc’s and undergraduate programmes. Her
research interests include combinatorial optimisation problems such as
cutting and packing and scheduling.

STEWART ROBINSON is a Senior Lecturer in Operational Research at Warwick
Business School in the UK.  He holds a BSc and PhD in Management Science
from Lancaster University. His research focuses on the practice of
simulation model development and use. He is author/co-author of three books
on simulation.   Key areas of interest are conceptual modelling, model
validation, output analysis and simulation and artificial intelligence.
Until recently, Stewart was academic director for Warwick's Executive MBA
and he is regularly involved in delivering OR courses to MBA students.

SALLY BRAILSFORD received a BSc in Mathematics from the University of
London, an MSc and a PhD in Operational Research from the University of
Southampton. She is currently a Senior Lecturer , in the School of
Management at Southampton, and Programme Director of the MSc in Management
Sciences. Her research interests include simulation modelling
methodologies, health service research and disease modelling. Her current
teaching areas include healthcare modelling, simulation and project
management, and for several years she taught a very large introductory
management course to first-year undergraduates.

FEE: £45 and will include refreshments, lunch and course material.

REGISTRATION
Please register online
http://ltsn.mathstore.gla.ac.uk/questionnaire/index.asp?quest=34 or by
contacting Brad Payne on 0115 8484713 or email [log in to unmask]