MBPhD Breakfast Club

Case study by Manuela Sadik

What was the aim of your project?

We aimed to create a forum through which all MBPhD students could provide structured, targeted feedback about the programme. We hoped that this feedback would be used to implement informed changes and improvements.

What did you do?

We organised around ten  ‘breakfast’ sessions to take place throughout the academic year. The vast number of sessions meant that we were able to have a wide-ranging discussion about various aspects of the programme and how things were changing over the course of the year. 

What were the main successes of the project?

The sessions were a great success! There was good participation, with around seven students attending each session, and their discussions showed that the programme is doing a good job of listening and adhering to the needs of the students. The students seemed to think positively of the changes made and had many ideas regarding how to keep improving. 

We also think the sessions were very successful at forging connections between multiple members of the programme and providing a space for discussions about our own research (for which there is no real forum).

What difficulties did you face during your project? What would you do differently?

Ideally it would have been nice for all of the students on the programme to attend our sessions. However, we don’t think there was much we could have done to ensure this as we were never going to force them to attend. Perhaps a different time or location may have encouraged a larger number to attend but, frankly, we don’t think it would have made a significant difference. 

What impact has your project had? On whom?

The project made an impact on the MBPhD student body by promoting discourse and community. We discovered that most people were happy with how the programme currently provides for them. Although this meant that no significant changes were required, so the impact of the project was somewhat limited, it was a pleasing result.