No summer recess for business school professional managers

Professional Services

Summer holiday clashes resulted in a depleted attendance at the Professional Managers Committee meeting on 14 July, but that didn’t stop us from having excellent discussions and making good progress on all the key agenda items.

Plans for the Professional Managers Annual Conference (PMAC) 2017 are well underway, with a commendable response to the call for submissions for presentations and posters for the conference. As it is the first time for this approach, we are delighted with the level of interest and the extremely high standard of the proposals. Authors of the submissions will be informed shortly about whether they have been accepted for the conference. In addition to these sessions, programme slots are being prepared on the practical use of the committee’s professional development matrix using some case studies and the Teaching Excellence Framework’s impact on professional managers, working alongside academic colleagues.

The coming year’s key projects for the committee are being carefully considered. As well as the further work on our professional development matrix, we will be seeking to increase our visibility and enhance links with the Chartered ABS Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Committee to maximise impact for the wider business school community. A new project, on which work will begin at the October committee meeting, is to consider and develop a professional managers’ mentoring scheme. Finally, beginning to develop international links with similar representative bodies in other countries is a priority; to this end, I have been having valuable conversations with representatives in both Canada and Australia.

If you are interested in representing professional manager colleagues, new members of our committee are currently being sought. Applications should be sent to Gail Norcliffe by the deadline of 28 July 2017 and consist of:

  • Curriculum Vitae;
  • A letter of application outlining the skills and experience that you can bring to the Committee (the letter should be a maximum of two sides of A4);
  • A short letter of recommendation from your Dean/Head of School to join the Professional Managers Committee;
  • An organogram showing your position in the organisational structure of your business school.

Full details are available here

Wishing you all enjoyable, well-deserved summer holidays and we look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in December at PMAC, our annual professional managers conference.

Dr Phillipa Towlson, Chair, Chartered ABS Professional Managers' Committee
Head of Operations and Administration, Lord Ashcroft International Business School, Anglia Ruskin University