Last year we bought you the story of Rami Mhanna receiving a Santander Scholarship. Below he shares his experiences of travelling to Russia as part of his grant:

As part of Santander Travel Grant, I am visiting Russia in order to do a research about Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

I started by visiting Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), which is one of the Santander Universities. I also visited the Russian International Olympic University in Moscow RIOU, where I met Professor Nicolay Peshin. And then, I did an interview at Sochi 2014 Committee in Moscow.

In Krasnodar Region where Sochi is located my research focused on the planning and preparation for Sochi 2014 as well as the perceptions of Sport and Tourism legacy. I met some of the key decision makers such as the Deputy Ministers of Sport, and Deputy Minister of Tourism for Krasnodar Region. During my stay in Krasnodar, I visited Kuban State University for Physical Education Sport and Tourism; I met the Vice Rector of Research and the head of Sochi 2014 volunteers centre. The Kuban University welcomed me and BU and they thanked me for doing research about Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

I moved then to Sochi city and I stayed 4 days, where I visited Sochi City Administration. I interviewed the Deputy Mayor of Sochi, the Deputy Head of the department for Sport and the Deputy Head of the Department for Tourism.

My visit to Russia was successful at all levels, and it will enrich my experience and my research skills.

I would like to thank Santander and BU and my great supervisors: Professor Adam Blake and Dr. Ian Jones for their support.

School of Tourism lecturer, Dorothy Fox, will be part of the senior race crew during the marathon.  As part of their training, they all attended the Edinburgh Marathon to shadow their counterparts.

Dorothy is leading the baggage team during the Bournemouth Marathon with members of Bournemouth Lifeguard Corps and Bournemouth School  Combined Cadet  Force.

Dorothy commented “The scouts who handled all the bags in Edinburgh were all very well organised group of volunteers and the trip was really useful.  I look forward to being involved in the Bournemouth’s first marathon”

For more information on the run and to register please see here http://www.run-bmf.com/

After a very competitive application process, Shrehan Lynch (final year sports development), Andrew Imms (final year sports management), Oliver Fulljames and Jack Mogridge (both third year sports management) were accepted as the first set of BU students to attend this sports management game.

For more information please read this blog article

All four students were wonderful representatives of BU and their reflections collected weeks after the activity demonstrate the high value of international experience as part of learning and growing at university.

Oliver Fulljames, Jack Mogridge and Shrehan Lynch comment on the Groningen trip in particular and international opportunities in general

Oliver Fulljames

I would highly recommend that students from Bournemouth utilise the international opportunities on offer

“The Sport Management Game 2013 is an event that I feel I benefitted from both professionally and personally. The event focuses on teamwork within a multicultural setting, challenging each individual to overcome cultural barriers, along with allowing time to socialise with your peers over the week.

I now understand the cultural intricacies needed in order to work effectively with those from other countries with those whose English may not be of the highest standard. Not everything ran smoothly, initially it was very difficult when delegating tasks to others, despite this, it was a valuable learning curve and communication improved as the week progressed.

Friends made on the trip have already made plans to visit in London, whilst the favour will also be returned when visiting Germany and Netherlands. Many people worked at high profile sport organisations throughout Europe, which may provide me a point of call when I graduate and begin searching for jobs around Europe.

Overall, I believe that the Sports Management Game will not only add a valuable experience to my CV, but also provide me knowledge that I can put to use within the workplace and when back at university. I would highly recommend that students from Bournemouth utilise the international opportunities on offer.”

Jack Mogridge

Someone who hasn’t travelled a great deal, I was enjoying the experiences of this trip

“I can honestly say that the 5 days in Groningen easily exceeded my expectations. Highlights have been networking with like-minded individuals and making friends with the other international students either through work or social evening engagements. Having never worked in this type of environment I have attained skills which I can take into my final year at Bournemouth, the team I am working with on my placement and future employment. Someone who hasn’t travelled a great deal, I was enjoying the experiences of this trip, soaking up the wonderful culture that the Netherlands has to offer.

We began each day with an academic lecture at 8.30 before beginning group work at 10. Most days would be split up by one morning and one afternoon task which allowed enough time to produce a thorough piece of work. From HR to Marketing to Operations we covered all aspects of running a mega sporting event through engaging group activities such as: promotional videos, academic posters and a question time like set up to name a few.

Having only communicated through the medium of technology in the past, especially throughout my placement, meeting face to face was a different experience. Within this team in order to work most effectively we faced barriers to overcome. Communication was the most obvious of these, which proved difficult when two of the Dutch students spoke little English however once we overcome this and leaders in the group were distinguished productivity increased. Although difficult at times this was one of the reasons I applied for this opportunity and therefor I felt I needed to embrace it. My English skills proved valuable in the group and I soon took the role of leader, this gave me chance to interact with all the members on a personal level which proved very fulfilling.

I would like to thank Bournemouth University and especially Tim Breitbarth for the support throughout and in planning, preparation and communication throughout to offer such a wonderful opportunity.”

Shrehan Lynch

This experience taught me mainly about myself, I feel I show attributes of managing people well, using initiative and taking on responsibility of a high level

“After being part of the Groningen trip I must thank the University for giving me the experience. I learnt a great deal about myself on this trip and was able to appreciate an alternative culture.

Holland is a phenomenal country; the residents are friendly, relaxed and welcoming to visitors. The Hanze University itself had facilities to be in awe of and quite abstract building infrastructures that made it one of the most unusual universities I have been to.

The Sports Management Game allowed me to work in a group of mixed languages and cultures and I was able to take a team leader role as the only native speaker. This experience taught me mainly about myself, I feel I show attributes of managing people well, using initiative and taking on responsibility of a high level. I was able to lead this team into third place at the management game which I feel was a real achievement considering the barriers we faced as a team regarding language and prior academic learning.

On the whole this experience showed me that each culture learn differently within their universities and take different approaches individually to the learning process. Also, I learnt that I am a hardworking individual that can work with people from across the globe effectively to achieve results.“

In April, Dr Tim Breitbarth, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, visited Hanzehogeschool Groningen, a Dutch Erasmus partner university of the sports group since 2012.

The extended visit was almost overdue since senior academic Gerco van Dalfsen, who is also the European Association for Sport Management General Secretary, visited Bournemouth in October last year, and is looking forward to another visit to the Southwest as part of the next International Week in October 2013. Also, the first student study exchanges between Bournemouth and Groningen are in the pipeline for the 2013/14 academic year.

The visit mostly revolved around the intensive international student management game hosted at Hanzehogeschool in cooperation with Bournemouth University, Coventry University and German Sport University. Overall, 140 students from 10 countries participated in the 5-day event.

After an application process, Shrehan Lynch (final year sports development), Andrew Imms (final year sports management), Oliver Fulljames and Jack Mogridge (both third year sports management) were selected to represent BU.

In mixed teams of six members, students listened to two major lectures per day and had to complete more than ten group assignments throughout the week. In addition, the students created a fundraising campaign for the university’s currently supported charity, Care4Kenya, and raised about 230 Euros on campus within just one hour. In order to foster informal networking, students also participated in cultural and sporting events.

Dr Breitbarth summarises the added value of such international study and work experiences: “Recently, we have started to add more inbound and outbound internationalisation to our programmes in order to enhance the value of our sport degrees. Shrehan, Andrew, Oliver and Jack benefited from the intercultural teamwork experience and learned much about themselves besides gaining new insights into sport event management issues from a range of international tutors.”

Besides extensive involvement in the management game, Dr Breitbarth discussed experiences with different teaching, learning and assessment formats with international colleagues and forged relationships with local and visiting academics that are expected to prove useful for upcoming conference and publication projects.

Hanzehogeschool is one of The Netherlands most modern university with 25,000 students and state-of-art – even arty – infrastructure, including some impressive sport learning and research facilities.

ITT has recently announced that Bournemouth University has become the latest ITT Centre of Excellence.

ITT created the Centres of Excellence status to recognise leading universities keen on working particularly closely with the Institute.

Universities with Centre of Excellence status will be able to use a dedicated logo, receive support in organising industrial placements, have access to high level industry speakers, have access to senior industry figures for research purposes and will grant an annual ITT Centre of Excellence Student of the Year award to a student identified by the university.

School of Tourism Dean Keith Wilkes commented “The School of Tourism at Bournemouth University aims to secure accreditation for all its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes by 2018 and recognition as an ITT Centre of Excellence is an important and much-valued part of the process.”

For more information on the benefits of being a ITT Centre of Excellence please see here

On Monday 3rd June, Debbie Sadd will be hosting a free “Social Media for the Terrified” workshop as part of the festival of learning taking place this June at Bournemouth University.
This interactive workshop is aimed at anyone who wants to find out more about how to use social media.

The half-day activity will comprise demonstrations, workshops and tutorials on different platforms of social media as well as the chance to ask any questions you have, in addition to developing personalised plans for using social media.

You are encouraged to bring mobiles, tablets or laptops with you to develop their social media usage, although we will have computers and other mobile devices available on the day.
This event is suitable for the general public, Charities and community groups as well as for professional development.

To book on to this free workshop please see here

The Festival of Learning will host over 100 events at BU from the 3-14 June 2013. For more information and to see what else is on please see here

Rafa’s PhD is titled “A critical analysis of the experiences of female business owners in the development and management of tourism-related micro and small handicraft businesses in an Islamic society: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan”

Her PhD is about the power of structures ‘external socio-cultural-religious and business environment’ on the experiences of women handicraft business owners in developing and managing their businesses in a collectivist, Muslim, traditional and patriarchal society ‘The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’.

Congratulations to Rafa on this achievement!

 Last week 14 of our School of Tourism students took the BiiAB personal licence certification course. Today we found out that all of them passed the course.

 Passing the course allows the holder to apply for the very sought after personal alcohol licence issued by the UK government as part of the licensing act 2003.

 This means that the holder is authorised to sell or authorise the sale of alcohol on licenced premises.

 The pass mark for the course is 70% and all our students achieved above 80%, with one student, George Alback, Hospitality Management level I, achieving 100%.

 Congratulations to all our students who took part in this course.

Senior lecturer in Sports Management, Andrew Adams has contributed a chapter to the “Routledge Handbook of Sport Policy” to be published in July 2013.

Andrew co-authored the chapter with his old colleague Iain Lindsey, from Edge Hill University.

The chapter titled “Sport Development and Community Development” critically analyses some of the important conceptual and policy themes that bind sport development to community development. First looking at the potential of sport to contribute to community development, its salience as a mechanism of policy and the processes underpinning this alignment of sport with community development.  Second, we examine sport and its capacity to deliver in relation to community development and meeting broader policy themes, such as well-being, sustainability, community and civil renewal.

Overall the book introduces a diverse range of approaches to policy analysis across the full range of political and societal contexts, including developed and developing economies; state-centric, mixed economy and market-led systems, and both liberal democracies and political systems characterized by a dominant elite. It is arranged into five sections addressing the key topics and themes in the analysis of contemporary sport policy, including:

• theory and its implications for methodology
• globalization, governance, partnerships and networks
• elite sport policy
• development, sport and joint policy agendas
• sport policy and social theory.

With contributions from leading policy analysts around the world, including Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia, this book is important reading for any student, researcher or professional working in sport management, sport development, sport and society, or mainstream public policy, policy analysis or social policy.

For more information please see here