HSE GSB Programme Administrators completed the CEEMAN Program Management Seminar

The CEEMAN Program Management Seminar for administrators of education programmes organised by The Central and East European Management Development Association (CEEMAN) took place between 25 August and 15 October 2021. The seminars consisted of two main modules, between which a series of individual consultations and training were organised for each of the seminar participants.

The CEEMAN Programme Management Seminar brought together our colleagues from the curriculum support offices: department head Evgeniya Murmuridis; deputy head Katerina Ionova; deputy head Maria Gazali; deputy head Dariya Makrushina.

The seminars covered the following topics: the role of programme administrators in preparing and running the programme; creating a positive learning environment; understanding target markets; ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction; the marketing component of the activity; communication and reputation building; managing alumni relations; teamwork; time management and priority setting; ethics; career and professional development and other topics. Particular attention was paid to current developments and challenges in programme management caused by the pandemic.

Maria Gazali, deputy head of the curriculum support for undergraduate programme in management:

The atmosphere of the seminars was very positive with fantastic speakers and very well structured. The topics of greatest interest to me were:

• Creation of a positive learning environment, especially the examples of speakers given, namely the openness, administrative and teaching staff accessibility with students. International colleagues arrange regular informal communication with small groups of students over lunch or coffee. This option does allow for a relaxed format to interact with the programme managers on various topics.
• Time management. A very important and relevant topic. Using the example of percentages, frequent time allocation mistakes were discussed, and examples were given of structuring priority tasks, which in practice takes the pressure off.
• Teamwork: how important it is to organise the team properly and to determine the importance of each member of staff.

The practical session was an opportunity to share positive experiences in team management, namely solving and dealing with problems/issues from students. Academic supervisor of the Business Administration programme Dmitrii Knatko and the study office organise regular meetings with students to discuss the current situation, progress and difficulties on the course, which allows for rapid problem-solving. Evgeniya Murmuridis suggested trying informal meetings with students, which might increase both the attractiveness of the programme and the understanding of the challenges students face, which shall allow some changes and improvements in programme management, namely "Listening to the student’s voice". We also plan team-building sessions to strengthen the team and outline each member's importance, strengths and professional self-esteem, which is ultimately intended to improve the organisation of the student learning process.

Katerina Ionova, deputy head of the curriculum support for undergraduate programme in management:

I am very grateful to have had such a great opportunity as to participate in CEEMAN seminars: to listen to professional and dedicated speakers, it was especially interesting to interact and exchange experiences with colleagues from other countries, to look at situations that we face every day in a "different way".

I would like to add to Maria's words that the seminars paid particular attention to today's changes and the problems in the organisation of learning processes in programmes caused by the pandemic. Online education cannot replace face-to-face education, but nowadays education is impossible without online technology. On the one hand, online education has advantages: accessibility and convenience, additional possibilities in terms of communication with students and teachers, quicker response to requests. On the other hand, there are disadvantages, which need to be dealt with. One of the disadvantages is the huge flow of information from different sources, a lot of instructions, rules, which are not easy for students to navigate. Students get lost in the flow of information and find it difficult to find the right instructions and rules. In addition, students are surrounded by a huge number of distractions and it is much more difficult to concentrate than face-to-face communication.

After discussions during the seminars, we agreed on the importance of video content on the the educational programmes’ webpages. It would be useful to post short video introductions of university staff, to post video tutorials on the most important learning processes.  The need to "show" oneself is also supported by the research results that were presented at the seminars.

At the Graduate School of Business, we regularly hold thematic meetings with students related to important stages of the academic process (state final examinations, military department, electives, majors, etc.). At these meetings, we explain the organisational processes and rules and answer students’ questions. The plan is to continue and develop such meetings with students, to create a dedicated team in MS Teams of the study office, where videos of such meetings can be published.

CEEMAN seminars devoted a lot of time to the topic of cross-cultural management related to international students. It was highlighted that it is very important to help international students adapt to their new culture, not only during the academic process, but also outside of academic hours. And it is equally important to work in this direction with university staff: to teach the importance of ethical communication, tolerance, tact and caution in their statements and behaviour towards all students and teachers, especially international students.