The Graduate Consulting and Research Unit
Overview
The Graduate Consulting and Research Unit (GCRU) is a pilot programme focusing upon recruiting competitive Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral students from across the Faculty (and University) in order for them to be employed as Junior Consultants to offer contract consultancy and research services for internal and external clients. The aim is to build on the theoretical skills alongside the courses students undertake by providing them with practical experience and relevant training and thus increasing their employability and creating opportunities for knowledge creation in the form of project-based case studies for wider application. All students will work under the guidance of academic staff. The GCRU, because of its aims, lies at the heart of SBS and facilitates the fulfilment of some of its primary goals. Its focus will be to unify the research and knowledge transfer agendas with student experience, student employability and business engagement, and, through contributing to the delivery of customer lifetime value, help create a larger business network or community. The GCRU is currently in the pilot phase and aims to officially launch late May of this year (2009). It is currently undertaking projects that require market research and has recruited students from various subject disciplines, for example, an undergraduate Marketing student, a postgraduate Risk Management student and a Doctoral student (non O&M). It is expected that multi-disciplinary projects will be facilitated in future.
Resources
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Project Team
Lakshmi Damodaran (currently acting as Project Manager during Feasibility study and Pilot phase) L.R.Damodaran@shu.ac.uk
Robin Lowe (Head of CIOD: advisory capacity to the GCRU)
Andrew Cropper
Christine O'Leary (Faculty Associate Director (CPLA): advisory capacity)