My first few months as a part-time student at Imperial College Business School

My name is Cherrie, I’m an MSc Strategic Marketing (online, part-time) student from Hong Kong. I am currently studying the programme from Spain and can’t believe how fast the time has flown! I am already finishing my first semester, yet it felt like only yesterday when I visited London to collect my student card!

While studying the programme, I am also working remotely as a student campus ambassador for the Imperial Enterprise Lab. In this blog, I will share a bit about my experience during my first three months as a part-time student studying at Imperial College Business School.

Study life

The on-campus version of the MSc Strategic Marketing programme has actually been available for quite some time, and I was really excited to join this programme given it is one of the best marketing Master’s in the world (#3 in the 2021 QS Masters in Marketing rankings). Since I live in Spain, I was thrilled to found out that I had the option to study the programme in an online, part-time mode so that I could continue with my personal engagements while still furthering my education.

During the first semester, we studied , Consumer Behaviour, Digital Marketing and Strategic Marketing Management. Most of the study materials are posted on The Hub online learning platform. There is a huge variety of materials such as videos, research journals, and  activities where we can learn from each one other within our peer group.

This is how The Hub looks. I can track my progress and ask a question at any time.

We also have live classes once every week, with both morning and afternoon sessions offered so that students from different time zones can join whichever one best fits their schedule. All of the learning materials are very up-to-date and practical. For instance, some concepts were even taught and applied in the current market situation impacted by COVID-19.

This is what a live class looks like:

My favourite subject is Consumer Behaviour because classes are very interactive even though they are delivered online. We always get timely feedback and we can learn a lot in exercises such as the one shown below where each student was asked to upload a real-life business example of a concept taught by the professor.

We were also assigned to different syndicate groups for some of our projects. In my group we have six people from a range of different nationalities, including American, British, Belgian, Chinese, German, and Singaporean. The group work we’ve been been assigned has been really interesting - for Strategic Marketing Management, we worked together on a marketing plan video to launch a new product, while for digital marketing, we were to analyse the digital marketing strategy of an actual business.

Not only could I apply what I learned in real business situations, it was also a great opportunity to learn how to work in a virtual team effectively, especially when all of us are from such varied backgrounds.

Other engagements

While studying on the programme, I also work as a Student Ambassador in the Imperial Enterprise Lab. The E-Lab provides plenty of support, ranging from ideas surgeries to mentoring services, all offered to both students and alumni of the Business School who are interested in starting their own business. They also organise different regular events such as the How To … Talk series as well as annual programmes like Venture Catalyst Challenge to provide workshops, expertise support and funding to students to make their business ideas come true.