Welcome to University of
Southampton’s Virtual Open Day.
First of all,
I would like to say a very
big thank you to all of you
who spend valuable time
with us online.
And I wish you and your loved
ones are well and healthy.
Today, my talk will probably
last about 20 minutes.
And the first part,
I will talk about
the University as a whole,
and then I will move on to talk
about the BSc Marketing at
Southampton Business School.
Let me introduce you
to our university,
first of all.
We are one of the top
100 universities worldwide,
and also a founding member
of Russell Group.
And 96% of Southampton
graduates enter their employment
or further study
with their first six months
of leaving university.
At Southampton, we are also
a Top 20 UK university.
We have a relatively
large student body,
with over 24,800
students on campus.
That’s including 17,000
undergraduates, and from
over 130 different countries.
If you join us in Southampton,
I’m sure you will find a home
to your own hobby and interest
because we have a wide variety
of different societies
where you can fit in.
We have more than 300
different societies with
over 12,000 different members.
Also at Southampton,
we have very flexible modules.
So that means all
of our students actually
experience a wide range
of optional modules.
But also, they have
24/7 access to a lot
of online learning resources.
In terms of the
City of Southampton,
I’m sure some of you have been
to Southampton before, and many
of you probably haven’t.
So just let me quickly give you
an overview of what
the city looks like.
Southampton is rated
as one of the top six cities
in the UK to live.
We have a very convenient
public transportation system,
with Southampton airport just
15 minutes away from the campus.
We also have very
easy access to the train,
which just takes about an hour
from here to London Waterloo.
If you have been to Southampton,
you probably know
that we are surrounded
by the New Forest,
with easy links
to nearby beaches
and you have direct links
to the Isle of Wight.
Southampton as a city,
we have a rich history,
which is well known
for a Roman port
and a medieval hub.
Southampton is also one
of the most productive
ports in Europe.
Some lovely photos of
what the students can do
when they are joining us,
when they are studying here.
I’m sure, as a student here,
you can live a vibrant life.
There are all sorts
of different activities
that you can do
and you never feel alone.
At Southampton, we have
seven different campuses.
As you can see
from the picture here,
we have Highfield Campus,
Boldrewood Campus,
University Hospital,
Waterfront Campus,
Avenue Campus, Winchester,
as well as a campus in Malaysia.
If you study BSc Marketing,
a majority of your teaching
will be conducted
at Highfield Campus.
And for those of you who are
interested in Humanities,
are willing to take
Languages modules,
then the Language modules
will be delivered
at Avenue Campus,
which is only about
ten minutes’ walk away
from the Highfield Campus.
As a university,
we also are a founding signatory
of the Athena SWAN Charter
and we hold a silver-level
Athena SWAN award.
That’s afforded by ten years
of university hard work.
What does that mean?
It means as a university,
we recognise the
specific challenges
that face both male
and female academic careers,
and also, we are fully committed
to address these issues in order
to maximise the potential
for all students and staff.
So that requires
everybody working together.
Therefore, we followed
a coordinated approach
and have worked
across different faculties
within our university.
Let’s move on to talk
about the BSc
Marketing programme at
University of Southampton.
For Marketing, we
have three pathways.
BSc Marketing is
a three-year programme.
But at the same time,
we also offer
two four-year pathways,
one with a work placement,
and the other one is
with a year-long Study Abroad.
Before we talk about
the specific content
that will be delivered
in our programmes,
I want to actually ask you,
what is actually marketing?
I participated in
numerous visit days
and open days in the past
and I often talked to parents
and students and I asked
them the same question.
What do they think marketing is?
Some students, their parents are
actually a marketer themselves,
or others, they are actually
setting up their own business
so they are familiar
with what marketing
actually means to them.
Marketing is at the interface
between a company and customers.
So that informs two primary
roles of the marketer.
First of all,
as a marketer, we need
to inform the organisation
of what their customers’
needs and wants are.
The role of a marketer is
about informing their customers
how the organisation delivers
those needs and wants.
It’s really at the interface
between an organisation
and the customers.
Marketing has changed
significantly in the last decade
and we moved away
from standardisation
to personalisation.
So we used to have a car
that was painted
in black or white,
and then the customer
has no say.
Up until nowadays,
I’ll give you
an example from Nike,
you can customise your Nike,
the materials, the colour.
You can customise everything.
Marketing has developed
significantly in
the last decade,
as I just mentioned.
The main trends in marketing
are emphasised on four elements.
The first, there is
a strong emphasis on customers,
what the customers’
needs and wants are.
And also,
how do we actually
survive and compete
with other competitors
through delivering
and creating value
to our valuable customers?
And the third important element
in marketing is about big data.
So every time
when we swipe our card,
you use your loyalty card,
you enter a supermarket,
all that can be recorded
as a data entry.
The fourth element in marketing
is the pervasive use
of digital technology.
Because the customers are using
technology all the time and,
with technology, there’s lots
of interesting things
that are happening
within marketing.
So that’s why,
as we said,
as a 21st century marketer,
you need those three skills.
You have to be a strategist,
analyst and also a technologist.
And this is exactly
what we do at Southampton.
Why do you want to do Marketing
at University of Southampton?
So first of all,
we have a very clear focus.
We’re focused on digital
and data-driven marketing.
And this is very,
very unique in the UK.
And also, as a department,
we rank the third out of 81
in the UK according to
the Complete University Guide.
And when we merged Business,
Management and Marketing,
we ranked the tenth in the UK.
And the BSc marketing programme
at Southampton Business School
is also accredited by IDM,
the Institute of
Data and Marketing.
These are professional
qualifications that are
recognised by practitioners.
In order to get
the professional qualifications,
the student will be asked
to take one extra exam
in their final year
in order to be eligible for
the professional qualification.
Apart from the clear focus
and ranking and
professional accreditations,
at Southampton, we also offer
a great degree of flexibility.
So if you haven’t made up
your mind about whether it’s
the three-year programme
or four-year programme
that I want to do,
that doesn’t matter
at this stage.
So I can easily transfer you
from a three-year programme
to a four-year pathway.
That’s no problem at all.
Here, we also offer,
as I said,
two four-year pathways.
One is an integrated
work placement and the other one
is a year-long international
Study Abroad year.
For BSc Marketing
with work placement,
I’m very proud with
our recent employment rate.
We have 100% employment
in a professional
or managerial role.
And their starting salary
is actually at £28,000,
which is up to 39k
after three years.
It’s much higher than the UK
and Business School average.
For those students who are
on the three-year programme,
30% of them will go on
to do their further study.
They will pursue
their MSc study in the future.
At Southampton Business School,
the whole marketing department
is an award-winning team,
I would say.
As a team,
we have won so
many different awards.
We have the Most
Engaging Lecturer,
Best Academic Support,
Best Feedback and more.
And we have received
a TEF Silver.
At University of Southampton,
we rank the third in the UK
in terms of research intensity,
as well as the research volume
and the quality of it.
Over 96% of our
research is world-leading
and internationally excellent.
Our research is also actually
embedded in our teaching.
We can bring our research
funding into the classroom
and we let the students debate
and discuss a controversial
issue or issues
that they are
most interested in.
As Southampton University,
we are also a founding
partner of SETsquared.
Southampton, the
Marketing syllabus.
This is an overview
of what the programme
curriculum looks like.
You can see
that a significant chunk
of your three or four years’
time will be on analytics,
insight and digital marketing.
So let me give you
some breakdown details
about what modules you
will do in your first,
second or final year.
Here, for the programme
information for BSc Marketing,
as I said,
it’s a three-year programme.
So we have two semesters
each year and you
will be required to take
four modules per semester.
And in your final year,
all students are required to
take a final-year dissertation
which will be supervised
by Marketing academics.
Also, at the same time,
we offer two four-year pathways.
One is with work placement
and the other one
is Study Abroad.
So in terms of the curriculum,
you will do exactly
the same modules,
but in your third year,
you will either be out
and doing your work placement
or studying at one
of our international
partner universities.
And you will come back
and finish off your final year
with us here at Southampton.
So this is a breakdown
of programme structure.
So as you can see,
in year one,
we introduce a wide range
of different modules,
including Marketing and general
business management modules,
if you like.
As you can see, we do
Introduction to Management.
We’re also doing
Management Analysis,
Introduction to Marketing.
And you have several
option modules to choose.
And in your second semester,
you will be doing
Introduction to Accounting
and Financial Control,
Strategic Marketing Decisions
as a core module,
and also some other
optional modules.
And as you can see
from the slides,
we have three
different module types.
They are core modules,
compulsory modules
and optional modules.
So what are the differences?
Core modules means
all the students have
to pass the module
in order to progress
to their year two.
Compulsory modules,
they are compensatable.
So that means
if the student fails the module
but passes the qualifying mark,
which is 25,
it can be compensated.
An optional module works
in a similar way as
the compulsory modules.
They both can be compensated.
As the students move
to the second year,
as you can see,
we are moving away
from a broader business spectrum
to much more specialised
marketing modules
or marketing focus.
So we’re doing
Digital Marketing,
Analytics for Marketing,
International Retailing,
Services Value
for Digital Managers
and Marketing Communications
and Media Management.
So there’s a wider range
of different marketing modules.
But alongside,
as you can see
from the structure,
we offer lots of different
optional modules to our students
which students really like.
So Curriculum Innovation
Programme, I want to slightly
emphasise on that.
It’s not a programme
but a whole list,
a long list of
different optional modules
that are delivered
or offered by other faculties.
In the past,
we’ve had students select
modules in Humanities,
in Web Science,
in many other
different faculties
if they are interested.
When a student moves
on to year three,
or when they come back
from their Study Abroad year
or work placement year,
they will be required
to complete all year
three modules here.
So as you can see,
all final year students will be
taking a year-long dissertation.
At the same time,
there are several top modules
which students have to complete.
We have Marketing Simulation,
Customer Insight,
Data Mining for Marketing,
Measuring Marketing
Effectiveness,
Digital Marketing, CSR,
and many other optional modules.
Here I want to elaborate
a bit more on the modules,
give you a bit more detail
about some of the modules here.
So the first one
is Customer Insight.
This is a module
that I have been teaching
for the last three, four years,
where I draw lots
of psychological theories
to marketing here.
And Data Mining for Marketing
is one of the flagship modules,
if you like.
It’s very, very important.
So I’ll give you very
practical applications of
what the module will do.
So imagine today all of us,
all the audience,
we decided to actually
run a marketing campaign
with the Southampton residents.
And we decided to,
for example, design
a leaflet and we want
to distribute the leaflet
to Southampton residents.
So the critical decision
we need to make is
who are the ones?
Who should we target?
It will be completely
a waste of money
if we target everyone
or Southampton residents.
Therefore, we need
to rely on the data.
So with the data
mining techniques,
it allows us to calculate
and helps us to decide,
right, okay, S07 17 3 is
probably the most
profitable segment that
I should focus on.
So this is another
interesting module.
Another module I
want to briefly talk
about is Measuring
Marketing Effectiveness.
So after you design a campaign,
then you go to tell your boss
how the marketing campaign went,
is it successful,
or is it not,
where to improve,
how to improve.
And they will ask you
to report some of the metrics.
Therefore, it’s really important
for us to deliver
the Measuring Marketing
Effectiveness module here.
Also, we’re also offering,
as you can see there,
a wider range
of different optional modules.
So, for example,
Project Management,
New Venture Development.
Many of our students
really like it,
especially the New
Venture Development.
They are very useful
if our students are thinking
about being an entrepreneur
themselves in the future.
So here, the module leader
will ask you to brief
your business ideas
and there will be a lot
of discussion around it.
So I receive lots
of good feedback
from students about
the optional modules as well.
So talking about the programme,
the module specific details.
So I want to give you some idea
of what your year-long
work employment looks like.
So all the students
are required to work
for a year in a role
in the industry of your choice.
And also, it’s really useful.
As you can see,
it’s reflected in
our employment rate
and starting salary.
Because a lot of students
gained valuable work experience
from the long placement
and that reflected
in their salary and also in
the high employment rate for us.
However, as I said,
if you are on
the three-year programme,
you can certainly opt in
and actually choose
to do your work placement
if you change your mind.
That’s not a problem at all.
And if you are
on the four-year programme,
you will remain registered
as a student,
where you also have access
to all the university facilities
and also your
personal academic tutor.
You will enjoy significantly
reduced tuition fees.
All students will only
be required to pay 20%
of tuition fees.
And another thing I
want to emphasise about
the work placement is we have
a fantastic placement office
who is there to support
our students from day one.
So this also makes
us different from many
of our other universities,
if you like.
So in contrast
to some other universities
where they offer a
university-based career office,
at Southampton Business School,
we have a
dedicated placement team.
So we have three
full-time members of staff
who are there to facilitate
and assist our students
in order to find a placement.
Study Abroad year is
another fantastic opportunity
that we offer to all students.
It definitely helps
you to enhance
your university experience and
boost your career opportunities.
It is a good opportunity
for those students
who like to travel,
who want to work somewhere else,
who want to experience
a different culture,
interact with people
around the world.
And this is
a fantastic opportunity.
But other than the full
year-long Study Abroad,
we also run summer schools.
So if the students
are really interested
and they are not actually
wanting to spend a whole year
in a partner university,
there will be summer school
opportunities on offer to them.
So here, if you choose
to do Study Abroad,
you are only required to pay
15% tuition fees to us
and there won’t be any fees
that you need to pay
to our partner university.
Other than that,
we do actually offer a lot
of financial assistance
to our students.
So it is available
through Student Finance England,
if you are interested
in getting that.
And also, if you are studying,
if you are going
to our partner university,
you will be guaranteed a place
in the halls of residence.
So you shouldn’t really worry
about where you stay,
should you actually
find a private landlord
or private place to live.
All of our students
will be guaranteed the
university halls of residence,
if you like.
So for your degree here,
and we talk about the programme,
we also talk about the modules,
but actually what kind
of assessments do we have?
So we are using a wide range
of different assessments.
So some modules will be exams.
Many others include
presentations, you need
to design a campaign,
you need to write a report,
and many different…
A whole wide range
of assessment methods
that we use at Southampton.
So here, I just put
the assessments in context
to give you an overview
of the assessments
that you’re probably going
to be asked to complete
when you are studying here.
So you quite often
as a student will be asked
to provide strategic options
for a multinational corporation.
And we can also ask you to
conduct a service quality audit
for a company.
And you will be required to,
for example, prepare a digital
marketing campaign for a firm.
And it’s quite often
that we will ask
the students to analyse
the customer characteristics
and which one is actually
leading to a higher spend
in order to maximise
their profitability.
And also maybe there will be
some game experiences
in marketing simulation games
where students will be asked
to play a game with a team
of five or six students,
and they will be assigned
as CEOs, as CFOs,
with very different big titles.
And you set up your company,
you choose what
product to promote,
you will compare your share
prices between different groups,
and lots of interesting stuff
that you can do here.
So when you graduate from here,
what sort of career pathway
will you be looking at?
So in the past,
these are the jobs
that our students have taken.
So you can be an Assistant
Brand Manager at Nestle,
helping them to
plan their production
and advertising budget
and also managing the sales.
And you could also be
a Marketing Researcher
at a leading advertising agency,
Kantar Worldwide.
So you can help the companies,
the organisations to actually
know your customers’
needs and wants
by doing some interviews,
to analyse some data
and then prepare the report
for your client.
Many students may end up
in a Digital Marketing position.
So we have students
working at Disney as
a Digital Marketing Assistant.
So they will be managing
Disney’s social media presence
and they will be tracking
the online metrics
and in terms
of the customer engagement
and helping them to maintain
and enhance their customer
interaction and relationships.
So finally, I would like
to briefly touch
on the admissions information.
So what are
our admission criteria?
I’m sure you can find this
information from our website.
So we require A levels, AAB
excluding the General Studies.
And we also accept ABB with the
extended project qualification.
So if you can get
an A in your EPQs,
then we can lower
one grade down.
So instead of AAB,
it will be ABB.
For the GCSEs,
we require Grade 4 or C
in the GCSE English language.
And for Mathematics,
we require the Grade of 6
or B in Mathematics.
And also, we accept
a BTEC Level 3 with Extended
Diploma in Business.
So we require three
distinctions for BTEC.
And at the same time,
we also recognise IB.
So we require
34 points overall,
with 17 at Higher level.
So if you have any questions
after today about
the Admissions team,
please feel free to get in touch
with our Admissions team
or give them a ring
so that they will be able
to assist you further
if you have specific questions
about our entry tariff.
So I think this is
the end of my talk.
Let me quickly summarise
what I have covered today.
So I think that one
of the main common questions
that I often got
asked by parents
and prospective students is
what actually makes Southampton
different from others?
So I want to say a few things.
First of all,
we have a very clear focus.
We focus on digital
and analytics and this
is very, very unique.
And it’s reflected
in our curriculum design
and also in our employment rate.
And also, we include a lot of
practice-based learning approach
in our teaching
and also in our assessment,
if you like.
So we work closely
with local businesses
and international firms
as well also,
where the students have
the chance to work on actual,
real business problems rather
than hypothetical scenarios
that we designed.
And also a lot of…
At Southampton Business School,
we are very
much student focused.
As the programme lead,
I do look after
our student experiences.
I want to make sure
that they enjoy
their studies here with us.
So I can give you
a lot of examples.
The one example
I can say is based
on the student feedback,
for example.
We took the student
feedback seriously.
So there was one module
in the second year
called Digital Marketing.
And that module was used
to deliver to both the marketing
and business management teams.
But then I received
feedback from students
where there were
a lot of discrepancies
in the understanding
of the marketing subject.
So therefore, we are not afraid
of spending extra resources.
So therefore,
we separated marketing students
from non-marketing students
and we designed
a simplified version
for the non-marketing students,
so that our students are
on track and they enjoy
their experience here with us.
There’s many other things.
Other great news
that has recently come out is
that our university joined
the TISA competition.
I’m not sure whether you heard
about the TISA competition,
but it is a savings culture.
So this is the TISA,
The Investing
and Saving Alliance.
As you can see,
five universities participated
in this competition.
So the competition is about
how to market a savings culture
to digital generations.
So there’s a lot of data support
that there are less
and less people
actually saving regularly,
especially for the millennials.
So how do we actually engage
with this specific group?
How to change
their behavioural pattern.
And this is primarily what
the competition is about.
In total, 12 teams
entered the competition
and six students
from BSc Marketing also
joined the competition and,
very fortunately,
they won second place
in the competition.
So all of them have been given
a paid working experience
at one of the financial
institutions including,
for example, Santander.
So a lot of interesting
things are happening
here at Southampton.
So I really hope
that you enjoyed my talk today.
And if you have
any other questions,
please feel free
to get in touch.
It is my pleasure to actually
welcome you in the future.
I look forward to seeing all
of you in the future.
Thank you very much.
