The P&Q Interview: A Strengths-Based Approach To Employability At This UK B-School

In the United Kingdom, it can be hard for a business school to stand out and find its niche. The UK has more than 100 business schools with nearly 130 MBA programs packed in an area about the same size as the state of Oregon. Ten of the Financial Times’ top 100 global MBA programs as well as 10 of its top 100 MiMs are located in the UK. The island is home to 27 of the 129 business schools in the world that are Triple Crowned. That’s more than any other country.

So, while you may not have heard of Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, it’s a school that deserves a second look.

Manchester Met is a post 1992-university, a distinction for former polytechnics that were granted university status by the UK’s Further and Higher Education Act of 1992. Under the leadership of dean Hannah Holmes, the B-school is planting its flag in employability and impact.

This year, it won the Best Innovation Strategy Award at the Association of MBAs & Business Graduates conference for its strength-based approach to business education. Holmes was also part of the executive team that led the school to earn that coveted Triple Crown accreditation in 2019, joining an elite group of just 1% of business schools worldwide.

“I really want to be known as a business school with a purpose of transforming lives, businesses, and communities. I’m really proud that we deliver that through our education and research, and it sits behind every decision we make,” Holmes tells Poets&Quants.

Q&A WITH DEAN HANNAH HOLMES

Manchester Met enrolls about 9,500 students per year across its undergraduate, MBA, master’s and executive programs. Some 49% are first-generation college students and 1,600 are international.

Holmes started at Manchester Met in 2005 as a part-time lecturer and worked her way up to dean in 2021. She is also Deputy Faculty Pro-Vice Chancellor within the Faculty of Business and Law at the university level, a principal fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and chair of the Economic Review Editorial Board.

We recently spoke with her about finding Manchester Met’s identity, and carving its niche in impact and strength-based employability. Our conversation, presented below, has been edited for length and clarity.

To start, tell us why you wanted to take on the role of dean?

That’s a difficult question. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to; I really did, but it wasn’t a career plan I had. I was head of department in the business school for accounting, finance, and banking, which is now finance and economics. The role came up to be Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor for the faculty, which is made up of Business and Law, and I took that role on an interim basis. They then made the decision to create the dean’s title and assign it to me. It was exciting because it meant I could create an identity for the business school.

There are so many reasons why you’d want to be a dean. I think a dean of a business school is one of the best jobs in the university sector because business schools are obviously hugely impactful in creating future workforces. They have a lot to contribute to the wider university, the region, and internationally.

Because business schools are located in communities across the UK and all around the world, the support network, the collaboration, and the learning from each other is incredible. So, I think the dean’s job is an amazing opportunity. Manchester Met has really been able to carve out our identity, and it’s a real privilege to work with the heads of departments and others in the school to shape what we want to be known for.

How do you see the identity of the school now?

It’s difficult in business schools because we all teach in similar areas. So, Manchester Met has done a lot of soul searching about what’s different about us and where our strengths lie.

First, we have a real diversity of students. Nearly half of our students are the first in their family to go to university, about two-thirds are from ethnic minorities, and we have a number of commuter students. We also have an increasingly global population, so it’s a really healthy mix.

I think there’s also something about how passionate we are about social mobility and transforming lives. Our researchers are very much connected in areas like place, decent work, and productivity, so they work very closely with the government. I think those things are unique for us.

Finally, another thing we do exceptionally is our work with SMEs (Small and Midsize Enterprises). Our Centre for Enterprise has worked with nearly 3,000 SMEs to help them grow, transform in terms of digital, and develop their leadership capabilities.

I think in every case, what we treasure is making a difference. When we work with students, and when we think about our education, we think about what our students need given their wide variety of backgrounds as well as the sorts of career aspirations they have. Is our curriculum fit for purpose to transform their lives? Same with our research, it’s really measuring the impact that we make. We really try to do things that make a difference.

I think we’re good at measuring impact, monitoring impact, and being able to genuinely say that we do make a difference in our areas of strength.

 

What kind of students are coming to you, and what are they looking for?

I think all students now are looking for fulfilling careers. One of the things that we focus on is helping them realize their own strengths, and we do that through our strengths-based curriculum.

From the beginning of their time with us, students undertake an evaluation of their strengths. Then, during their studies, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, those are the areas we work with them to develop. It’s not a deficit model, it’s much more progressive. It really helps students establish where they’ll be able to thrive when they move into their careers.

The other thing our students really care about is sustainability, and the university has always prided itself on our sustainability credentials. For 10 years we’ve been ranked in the top three in the People and Planet University League, and this year we climbed 22 places to 44th in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking. Our business school has been a signatory to PRME for over 10 years. We also have a new sustainability hub which launched in February and a large percentage of our academics have voluntarily signed up to participate.

I think it matters to our students that t​​hey’re supported not as a homogenous group, and not to just achieve a conveyor belt of skills, and that sustainability is really integral to the way that we we deliver their education.

Can you provide an overview of the programs you offer?

We have about 9,500 students, making us one of the largest business schools in the UK. We offer 80 courses, including foundation year, undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, and executive courses.

We have an MBA and a Masters of Sports Directorship, which is another one of our strengths. The university has a real strength in sport being in Manchester where sport is a huge part of our place. We have the Institute of Sport which the business school is a part of. Our postgraduate research programs are also significant.

What are some accomplishments you’re proud of since becoming dean?

When I came in, I observed that the business school wasn’t as confident as it should have been. We were very internally focused and not sharing our achievements. So, the first thing I spoke to people about was being much more external – sharing more of what we do, being proud of what we do, and underpinning that is you have to have evidence that it’s good. I really tried to drive home pointing to markers of prestige.

Our apprenticeships are an example. We have over 2,000 apprentices in the business school, and that’s the largest in the UK. It’s outstanding; that’s sector leading. Those things give credibility to the fact that we do that exceptionally well, so we can talk really proudly about it.

The second thing was we were a bit siloed. People identified strongly with their particular subject and department, and I understand that, but we’ve been on a journey to work much more holistically as a business school. It’s not that we didn’t work together before – we did – but people very much identified into a smaller area.

Another area of personal passion for me is recognizing our education track academics. There is a much more well-forged path for researchers, with clear benchmarks for progression and success. It’s more difficult on an education track because it’s a bit more subjective; it’s harder to evidence that you’ve made a difference. I’ve put a lot of work into this area, and we’ve seen a number of people promoted. We’ve also seen many, many more people now at conferences, writing papers and sharing their work. That’s something I’m really proud of because, with nearly 10,000 students, it’s important to highlight our excellent education.

What is your vision for the future?

We are now, as an executive team and supported by our 400 academics, talking about our vision for 2030. Where do we want to take the school?

We’ve seen improved rankings. We do a lot more work with our stakeholder groups, really trying to embed with them because it creates a lot of learning for us. It’s great for our reputation to be much more externally focused and engaged with committees, membership groups, and speaker events, but it’s also great for people’s careers as well. These things are interconnected. They benefit the individual, because academics can be quite individualistic, but it’s also great for the school.

Where we’ve really shifted is in ownership of responsibilities around supporting the school. We’ve adopted a more collective approach. It’s not just the role of certain people—it’s the role of all of us. The marketing team can’t cover everything, so individuals need to take responsibility for sharing their achievements. Our students have started to do this as well.

Manchester Met is triple accredited as well, a distinction only 1% of the world’s business schools can claim. This ‘Triple Crown’ signifies a school is accredited by the three most important accreditation agencies in business education: The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Association of MBAs (AMBA), and EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS). Can you tell us a little more about the process and why Manchester Met pursued it?

We became triple accredited in 2019 when I was part of the executive group. The school definitely had aspirations around being triple accredited. We’ve held AMBA since 1994 and the Small Business Charter since its inception. We’ve been a PRME signatory. We’ve always moved in those spaces because it connects us to the communities where we place a lot of value on our work. It enhances that work if you’re connected to the right stakeholder groups.

Since I came into the deanship, we’ve had to renew every single accreditation. They all came back up. Being triple accredited was a massive achievement, especially since we were the first post-1992 institution to gain triple accreditation. It shifted our business school because it recognized that a different type of school could achieve those global standards. This recognition also drove our internal focus since accreditations require so much work. Everyone was focused on ensuring we did what needed to be done.

Now that we’ve achieved it, we need to take advantage of the opportunities that being accredited gives us. We can connect to new networks and drive our research further. The types of universities we can now work with are different, and we need to play to that advantage. This has really helped, and people now have a sense of self-belief. Getting re-accredited solidified that belief.

It has also supported our international partnerships. While we don’t only partner with accredited schools, it helps establish a parity of quality. The networks and learning opportunities through accreditations have been excellent.

Being triple accredited has been huge for our reputation, especially for demonstrating the value of a post-92 institution. I believe we bring variety to these spaces because our students have different perspectives and diverse backgrounds. They accomplish the same as other students, and we can now tell their stories from a platform we didn’t have before.

In January, Manchester Met won the Best Innovation Strategy Award at the Association of MBAs & Business Graduates conference. What was the innovation?

We won the award for our strengths-based approach to employability. We launched the program in 2019 after a comprehensive review, and I wanted to reevaluate our approach to employability.

Previously, we had a deficit model with one unit in the students’ first year and nothing at the postgraduate level. It was very modular, with a week on each topic, but there were no follow-up activities. There were many extracurricular opportunities, but if you think about our types of students, engaging in extracurriculars can be quite a privilege. Many of our students need to commute home, many of them work. So embedding employability in the curriculum was critical to avoid some students being able to benefit and others not. We were also aware that having employability only in the first year undermined its importance because students saw it as a tick-box exercise. So, we extended it across three years, building on a strengths-based approach.

All students complete a strengths questionnaire, and our staff are trained in strengths-based approaches. They work with the students to develop these strengths over the three years. Every student goes through mock assessment centers where we bring in industry, they do mock applications, mock interviews, and so on, all aligned to the likely experience they will have going through an actual recruitment process.

This innovation has significantly impacted our graduate outcomes, with a 14% improvement in accounting and finance, where it was first implemented. The approach has now been implemented across the entire business school and we are looking at how it can be further applied to our MBA program, potentially using virtual reality to simulate real-life scenarios.

We’ve measured the impact through student feedback, assessment outcomes, and self-assessed preparedness for work, all of which seems to have had a big impact. I’m really proud of this work.

What are some other innovations in the MBA or graduate space?

We’re launching a new part-time MBA in September. We’ve almost finished creating a high-flex space, so the program will be delivered in a proper high-flex format. This means we’ve invested in a new room equipped with advanced streaming capabilities, allowing students in the room and those online to feel like they’re together. We can have truly interactive breakout spaces. This high-flex format will be unique to us when it launches in September.

The MBA has also been rewritten to integrate our strengths throughout the curriculum. Our focus as a business school on responsible leadership is an absolute core of the MBA. We’re offering a program specifically designed for future leaders who care about creating socially responsible workplaces and businesses. This has been the driving force behind the MBA.

Anything else you’d like to add? What do you want people to know about Manchester Metropolitan Business School?

I really want to be known as a business school with a purpose of transforming lives, businesses, and communities. I’m really proud that we deliver that through our education and research, and it sits behind every decision we make.

Sometimes these purposes can sound grandiose, but I can genuinely tell stories about how we actually walk the talk. I think Manchester Met being known as a really impactful business school that cares about our region and global commitments is really important. We’re an exciting place to study, a great place to work, and we do some sector-leading work in research, SMEs, and education. Making a difference is what we strive to do.

 

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