Student Guide

 

Introduction

This guide is for new and existing Heriot-Watt MBA students. Its aim is to give information on:

                       

How to register on the programme   and apply for the examinations. How to prepare for the examinations The examinations themselves,   including results. Student support services and the          Scandinavian Network. On-campus study.

 

Edinburgh Business School

In the Guide reference is made to Edinburgh Business School. This is the department that provides administrative support for the Heriot-Watt University MBA.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions on the MBA programme.

With Best Wishes for your MBA studies!

Robert J. Hartnett MBA FRSA

Heriot-Watt University MBA
The Old Pharmacy
Fuglekildevej 3
Verninge
5690 Tommerup

Tel: +45 65 33 12 36 Fax: +45 65 33 12 86 
E-mail: Admin@ebsmba.dk  Website: ebsmba.dk


This guide is not meant as a replacement for the Heriot-Watt University Student Handbook.

CONTENTS

 

PART 1: YOUR FIRST COURSE

• the green forms
• how to register for the examinations
• examination deadlines
• applying for exemptions
• your next course

PART 2 : PREPARING FOR THE EXAMINATIONS

• final preparation

PART 3 : THE EXAMINATIONS 

• examination protocols
• which calculator
• examination techniques
• examination results
• deferring an examination

PART 4 : STUDENT SUPPORT

• The Heriot-Watt University student help-line
• The Software option
• The Scandinavian Student Network
• Websites and Links

PART 5 : ON-CAMPUS STUDY

• The Heriot-Watt University full- and part-time MBAs

APPENDIX 1: Examination dates 2002

APPENDIX 2: Graduation Fee

PART 1

Your First Course

1.1 Heriot-Watt University MBA - Green Forms

When you receive the registration papers with your first module, there will be a number of forms that will need to be completed immediately, or when you apply for the examination.

Application for Matriculation

This form must be completed by all first time applicants, as it lets Edinburgh Business School know that you have joined the system. Please send the form off straight away. You need only send this form in once.

You will need to have the left-hand side of the form certified by your employer, or someone of good standing in your community. Please include a second photograph with the form.

If you do not qualify for matriculation, the university will hold the form until you have passed two of the compulsory courses. You will then be enrolled as a part-time student with Heriot-Watt University and sent your Student Matriculation Card.

Examination Request

Please supply and fix one passport photograph and sign the form where required. For the ‘Preferred Examination Location’ please enter the name of the city required.

Payment: Edinburgh Business School do not accept Diners or American Express credit cards. If you cannot use Access/Mastercard/Eurocard or VISA, you will need to send a bankers draft for £65.00 (where the form shows £55.00, this should be paid) drawn on an UK bank.

Examination Acknowledgement

It is worth sending this card, as the university will let you know that your application has been received.

Change of Address

You need to complete the form called Notification of Change of Address/Name Form included in your course materials and please fax it to the following:
 

1. Edinburgh Business School; fax no.: +44 131 451 3002 

2. Financial Times Knowledge; fax. no.: +44 1704 506 723 

3. Scandinavian Agency; fax. no.: +45 65 33 12 86

Relevant information on your MBA can come from these sources, and you want to be sure that you receive all future notices promptly.

Course Serial Number

Each course has an individual serial number shown on the Examination, Registration, and Information Forms. This number is your security for your progression in obtaining your degree. The green forms must not be lost or destroyed, as without these you will be unable to register for your examination.

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1.2 How to Register for the Examinations

Please send the Examination Request Form to Edinburgh Business School in good time, and do not risk waiting to the last minute before registering.

You need send only one photograph per application even if the form asks for three, as the University will scan your picture and reproduce it.

Examinations are held at the British Council, major colleges and universities all over the world. There are over 300 examination centres, located in over 130 countries worldwide. In the Preferred Examination Location section, you may give the name of the nearest city, including the name of the county or island. Edinburgh Business School will try to meet your preferences if possible. Do not write in a university name.

We strongly recommend that you send you application by registered post, together with the examination acknowledgement form, or by courier. The university will acknowledge your application, usually within a month. Please note that it may take up to eight weeks or more before you will hear where your examination will be held.

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1.3 Examination Deadlines

The deadlines for the Examination Request and Acknowledgement Forms to be at Edinburgh Business School are:

June examination:  1st March  December examination:  1st September

The deadline date for enrolling in the March diet of examinations is 7 February and for the August diet it is 24 July.

First-time Applicants

If you have not already done so, please complete the Application for Matriculation as fully as possible. If you do not qualify for Matriculation (i.e. no degree) send in the form anyway as it gets your name onto the EBS computer system. Please include two photographs, one glued to the form where marked. You will need to have this photograph witnessed.

The Examination Request Form now needs only one photograph, EBS having invested in a scanner recently. Please ensure that you include payment, either by credit card, or by cheque drawn on an English bank payable to Heriot-Watt University. EBS will not accept bank transfers; well with 10,000 applications, who can blame them!

It is vital to complete the Examination Request Form correctly, otherwise your application will get put into a pile of queries to be dealt with after the deadline.

 

Examination Deferral before Deadline

If you defer your examination in good time, before 1^st November or 1^st May, you will automatically be entered for the next exam without loss of fee.

 

Examination Deferral after Deadline

If you do not defer in time, you will not be automatically re-entered and your fee will be lost. To sit the next examination, please write to:

The Examinations Officer
Edinburgh Business School
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh EH14 4AS

stating that you wish to sit the exam, and giving the same information as on the form:

Course serial number
Full name and address
Preferred examination location
And payment of £65,00

No photographs are necessary.

 

Resit Examinations

The same procedure as stated in Examination Deferral after Deadline is applicable.

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1.4 Applying for Exemptions

Edinburgh Business School will consider up to two exemptions from the seven compulsory courses; one exemption for single-subject Bachelor degrees or Master’s degrees, and two exemptions for approved Professional qualifications. In all cases the subject or subjects must correspond to a compulsory module.

You can apply for exemption using the Application for Exemption form that comes with the other green forms. You will need to include a certified copy of your certificate and transcripts, in English. Please contact us if you have any questions on exemption. The fee for exemption is £65.00 per subject.

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1.5 Your Next Course

It is strongly recommend that you should leave Strategic Planning to last, as it covers areas taught in the other compulsory courses. Some students have commented that Marketing was the most helpful subject in Strategic Planning, and so this might best be done immediately before Strategic Planning.

Some other compulsory courses could best be taken near to each other; Accounting and Finance, although probably not at the same time, followed by Quantitative Methods. This could be a ‘middle’ group depending, of course on your maths ability.

The two most popular ‘starter’ courses are Organisational Behaviour and Economics. So, one order for the compulsory courses might be:

Organisational Behaviour Economics Accounting Finance Quantitative Methods Marketing Strategic Planning

Your choice of electives depends on your interests, although some are related to compulsory subjects:

Organisational Behaviour	Negotiation Strategies for Change Human Resource Management
Economics	International Trade and Finance
Finance	Financial Risk Management I and II

 

This is a suggested study route only. The Heriot-Watt MBA is a flexible study allowing you to choose the study order, which is best for you. 

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PART 2: Preparing for the Examinations 

1. Final Preparations

After having worked through the course materials, try to leave at least one week for a thorough review of the materials. 

• You can use the Table of Contents and Summary Points in each chapter as a reminder of the likely areas to be revised. 

• Work through the Review and Discussion questions again to assess your knowledge, and to identify areas that require further work.
  
• The best preparation for the examination is to do the Practice Final Examinations and Worked Solutions in the manual.
  
• Treat the Practice Examinations as if you really were in the examination. Check your answers carefully against the solutions, and go over the parts of the materials, which were unclear or were difficult to remember.

Edinburgh Business School publishes past examination papers in book form for each subject, and these are available from Edinburgh Business School and cost five pounds including postage. Unfortunately, solutions are not provided.

Past examination papers including solutions up to December 1994 are available free of charge from the Agency.

 

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PART 3: The Examinations

1. Examination Protocols

• All examinations are three hours long.

• Government and Industry, Marketing, Strategic Planning and Negotiation are all essay and/or case study questions; the others are approximately two-thirds essay and one-third multiple-choice questions. Please see the sample examination section at the end of your course for further information.

• You may use a programmable financial calculator in the examinations, providing that the latter does not have text-storing capabilities, e.g. Psion Organisers 3, 5 or 7 series, Palm Pilots, etc. 

• Examination scripts must be completed in ink.

• Use of tippex or any other correction fluid is not permitted in MBA Distance Learning examinations.

• Use of scrap paper is permitted in MBA Distance Learning examinations. Requests for scrap paper should be made to the invigilator. Please note that all paper on which you have written or drawn during the examinations must be handed back to the invigilator at the end of the examination.

• Statistical tables will be provided where necessary. A formula sheet is provided in Quantitative Methods, formulae for other courses will have to be memorised, although the more complex ones will not be asked for.

• Mechanical or electronic items which emit audible sounds are not permitted in examinations. These include electronic watches with beepers or mobile telephones or pagers. All such items must be silenced prior to the examination or alternatively excluded from the examination room completely.

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2. Which Calculator?

The latest recommendation we have had is the Hewlett-Packard HP 17B II, in addition to the Texas Instruments TI 83. Since the HP 19BII Business Consultant can store contract information, it presumably has a text-storing capability making it unsuitable.

Don’t forget to bring a spare battery!

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3.3 Key Points from the Scandinavian Agency’s Pre-examination Workshops

1.   Do the multiple choice and true and false questions before the written ones.

What applies to essay questions is also applicable to case studies. The majority of students fail an examination because they do not answer the question in depth, or because they run out of time. Time management is easy to do, but depth is another matter. The following could be said on the matter:

2.   Before writing: 

q       Analyse the question to establish the topic, or subject area of the
question to be answered. 

q       Understand exactly what the examiner requires - this involves knowing
what 'discuss', 'explain', 'illustrate' means. -  see Examspeak below. 

q       Follow the precise instructions carefully. 

q       Do not begin writing immediately but draw up headings to cover the
topic, and what you are asked to do ,and make notes under them.  

q       Follow the structure of the question where possible, or use S.P.S.E. - see below.

 

3.3.1 Writing 

Using the framework developed above, 

q       Always give definitions. Where the question asks for a definition,
give one, and where it does not, still give one. Up to two marks per
question are available for definitions. 

q       Always state limitations or drawbacks with your definition, arguments, information etc. 

q       You must write in the language of the examiner, and that means
knowing the terminology of your course, and using it. 

q       Depth means not only saying what something is, but also the effects of something. Let us say you are asked about performance appraisal, the problems associated with it, and what can be done to introduce a good performance appraisal system. First you would define performance appraisal. Then you would discuss the problems associated with such systems. Just listing the items from memory would not be enough, you need to show that you know what they are, and the effects of each problem. So, one of the problems would be recency errors. You would need to say what a recency error is, which is a good start, but also what the effects or such an error are. If you can give an example from your own experience then this will attract extra marks. Finally, you would have to say what should be done to prevent recency errors, and the effects of such prevention. You see, effects or outcomes are important because they show that you have read the course and understand it. None of the MBA modules are memory tests! 

q       There are many limitations to theories and ideas, and you should not
be shy about pointing out any, but only after you have shown the
examiner that you know, and understand, your subject.

q       Expand your answers; say why something is done, what it is, and give examples if relevant. Use diagrams when suitable. 

q       Make your text easier to read by matching topics and linking sections. 

q       Always write a strong conclusion.

 

EXAMSPEAK

Here are the most popular Examspeak terms:

Question word	Meaning
consider	think about carefully
compare	describe similarities
compare and contrast	describe similarities and    differences
define	state precisely the meaning of;    explain
describe	say what something is like
discuss	consider something from    different points of view, and then    give your own opinion.
differentiate between	show how something is different
evaluate	assess and explain
examine	look at carefully; consider
explain	make clear; give reasons for
identify	point out and describe
outline	give a short description of the    main points.
Taken from recent OB question papers. From ‘Academic Writing Course’ by R.R. Jordan. Published by Collins ELT.

S.P.S.E means:

Situation answers the question:

What are we talking about?

 
Problem answers the question:

1. Why are we talking about this?
   are we talking about this?
   are we talking about this?
   
2. What is the problem?

 
Solution answers the question:

What is to be/has been done?

 
Evaluation answers the question:

How good is the solution?

 

The good feature of S.P.S.E. is that it gives a predictable text structure, and therefore makes an answer easy to follow. You can use S.P.S.E. as a heading guide too.

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4. Examination Results

The results of you examination(s) will be sent to you directly from Edinburgh Business School approximately eight weeks from the end of the examination week.

The results are given in percentage categories. You will need to score 50% or more to pass an examination. The Edinburgh Business School gives the equivalent percentage of correct answers and letter grade as:

A = 65% and above         B = 50% to 64%         C = 45% to 49%

 

Compensatory Awards

Edinburgh Business School advise:

"STUDENTS should be aware that a compensatory pass may be awarded where failure in a course is marginal (in the range 45-49%). Two compensatory
passes may be awarded where the combined shortfall in the two courses is
not greater than 5%.

In each case, the award(s) will be made when all other course requirements
have been met."

This means, that a student with marks of 45% and 45% will not be given conditional passes because the total percentage below 50% is 10%.

A student with 48% and 47% would be granted conditional passes, as the total shortfall is 5%.

At the completion of the MBA study, a student who qualifies for a conditional pass(es) is sent a letter of confirmation, along with the missing Certificates of Achievement in the conditional subjects. The degree is awarded in the normal way and no mention is made on the certificate of conditional pass(es).

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5. Deferring an Examination

If you decide that you do not want to sit an examination, write or send a fax to Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University (fax: +44 131 451 3002) as soon as you have made your decision.

If you contact Edinburgh Business School by 1^st May for the June examinations, or by 1^st November for the December examination, you will not lose your examination fee. This will be kept for your next application. Should you cancel after these dates, your fee will be forfeited.

Should you not turn up for the examination, you will lose your fee, but your absence will not be considered a failure. Please do notify Edinburgh Business School even if it is only a day or two before the examination; Examinations are arranged in so many various locations you might be the only student at your particular venue!

When you decide to take the examination you have missed, send a letter to Edinburgh Business School giving the serial number of your course and stating that you wish to re-register for the examination. If you have failed on your first attempt, or have forfeited your fee, please include the examination fee with your application. 

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PART 4: Student Support

1. The Heriot-Watt University student help-line

If you have a specific academic question on your text, please write or fax  Edinburgh Business School, and your question will be forwarded to the appropriate person, often one of the course authors, and will get back to you.

You also have the option of visiting the Student Query's page and filling out the on-line Query Form.

2. The software option

Computer software is presently unavailable for the compulsory courses.

A new software package on CD-ROM for Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP is currently under development at Edinburgh Business School.

 

3. The Scandinavian Student Network

There are over 500 students on the Scandinavian Network, and the benefits of membership include:

• Dedicated Internet website with MBA links, examination hints etc.
  
• Regular meetings in Copenhagen and other locations.
  
• Pre-examination revision workshops.
  
• Regular newsletter ‘MBA Matters’.

Several students have formed study groups, and revision workshops in compulsory subjects are planned for the future.

 

4. Websites and Links

Heriot-Watt University:

www.hw.ac.uk

Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University:

www.ebs.hw.ac.uk

Scandinavian Agency:

ebsmba.dk

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PART 5: On-Campus Study

1. The Heriot-Watt University full- and part-time MBAs

Once you have successfully completed two of the compulsory courses, and subject to the approval of the Head of Business School and availability of places, you can apply for transfer to the full- or part-time programmes if you wish to complete your MBA on campus. Alternatively, you may not wish to transfer, but would like to complete a six or nine week study block on-campus.

All Heriot-Watt MBA programmes use identical materials, although there is a wider elective choice on-campus.

Please contact us for further details, or see the Heriot-Watt Student Handbook pages 1/27.

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APPENDIX 1: Examination Schedules-Major Diets
2003

June 2003
Monday 2nd June	International Marketing am Organisational Behaviour am   Decision Making Techniques pm   International Trade and Finance pm
Tuesday 3rd June	Accounting am Financial Risk Management 1 am Marketing Research am   Economics pm Financial Risk Management 2 pm Project Management pm
Wednesday 4th June	Consumer Behaviour am Finance am Influence am   Strategic Information Systems pm  Strategic Planning pm
Thursday 5th June	Marketing am Marketing Channels am   Government and Industry pm Human Resource Management pm
Friday 6th June	Quantitative Methods am Sales Force Management am   Competitive Strategy pm Negotiation pm  Strategies for Change pm

 

December 2003
Monday 1st December	Marketing am   Marketing Research am   Negotiation pm   Strategic Information Systems pm
Tuesday 2nd December	Consumer Behaviour am Quantitative Methods am         Decision Making Techniques pm   Human Resource Management pm Project Management pm
Wednesday 3rd December	Marketing Channels am Organisational Behaviour am   Competitive Strategy pm Economics pm Strategies for Change pm
Thursday 4th December	Accounting am   Influence am   Sales Force Management am   International Trade and Finance pm Strategic Planning pm
Friday 5th December	Finance am Financial Risk Management 1 am International Marketing am    Financial Risk Management 2 pm Government and Industry pm

Examination Schedules-Minor Diets Pilots
                           for 2003

 

March 2003
Monday 17 March	Marketing am
Tuesday 18 March	Negotiation am
Wednesday 19 March	Organisational Behaviour pm
Thursday 20 March	Accounting pm

 

August 2003
Monday 18 August	Strategic Planning am
Tuesday 19 August	Finance am

Please note: The deadline dates for examination applications and deferrals are 7 February and 
                      24 July for the Spring and Autumn diets respectively.

Note: These examinations will only be held in:

Edinburgh, Scotland
Hong Kong
Johannesburg, RSA
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
London, England
New York, USA
Oslo, Norway
Shanghai, China
Stockholm, Sweden
Toronto, Canada
 

For further dates, please go to EBS Student Services

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APPENDIX 2: Graduation Fee

On completion of your MBA studies, your final expense will be the £30.00 graduation fee payable to the University.

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