Dr Hazel Messenger, Course Leader of the London Met MBA, recently travelled to Sri Lanka, to visit the University’s partner ESoft.
Date: 14 December 2016
London Met work with ESoft, the largest, private sector, higher education network in Sri Lanka, to deliver a range of courses for the Guildhall School of Business and Law.
Currently there are over 300 students studying for the MBA with ESoft, spread across three of the organisation’s branches in Sri Lanka; in the capital Colombo, Kurunegela and Kandy. Dr Hazel Messenger, MBA Course Leader, also visited Matara, in Sri Lanka, which will offer the MBA in 2017.
ESoft launched the MBA in September 2014, and their provision is going from strength to strength. Candidates include doctors, dentists and academics as well as business professionals and this mix is proving to be very popular. The course is structured so each individual can relate it to their own working context which means not only can there be positive impact on organisations but also candidates are able to explore each other’s experiences, an important factor in MBA provision.
As a University Teaching Fellow, Hazel also made the most of the visit by leading learning and teaching development with her Sri Lankan colleagues, and modelling active learning sessions with undergraduate students in Kandy and Matara. These development activities are key to the development of the partnership, as they enable everyone involved to learn more about the creation of effective learning environments in the Sri Lankan context.
ESoft has a high degree of commitment to contributing to education in the rural districts of Sri Lanka, and during the visit Hazel accompanied her colleagues when they delivered a large consignment of exercise books to a village school, paid for by the MBA students. When she returned from her busy, but very successful, visit Hazel said: “Visiting our partners in Sri Lanka reinforces the reason I came to work in higher education…to make a difference.”
