First year, First Semester

Debbie Holley, Principal Lecturer in Teaching and Learning at London Metropolitan Business School (LMBS) leads a large first year ‘Higher Education Module’ that all business school students study as part of their first semester. A student focus group, run as part of the student debt project, emphasised how important financial matters were to students, and how important it was to be included as part of their curriculum. Debbie plans to embed the student flat resource within Blackboard, the Institutional Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so it is accessible at all times to the students. In the classroom she plans to have a student led discussion taking one or two of the scenarios as a starting point, and to run an online discussion board encouraging the students to post their hints and tips on finance as they progress through the module.

Dr Yaz Djebbour (LMBS) teaches on a first year Quantitative Analysis module. The personal finance section of his module interests him greatly. It is a part of the module that the students find hard to understand given the mathematical demands. He plans to re-design his 'personal finances' session to draw upon selected aspects of the student flat project, and has designed new questions for students to work through using excel spreadsheet, based on 'real life' situations they may face. Yaz has produced an easy to follow tasks, and this year the section on personal finance will include videos on how to use Excel to answer all these questions and many more. Students are encouraged to work through these questions and get feedback on. Debbie and Yaz will work together to make the most effective use of the student flat project resources.

A Financial Capability Module

Nirmala Lee BA MA DipTD CAIIB PGCTLHE FHEA FCIB, Senior Lecturer in Banking and Financial Services has validated a complete Financial Capability module, aimed at students about to enter the workplace. Nirmala, a former bank manager, has drawn upon her industry experience and her own doctoral research to produce a module with an innovative blend of personal finance concepts and theory. Her students will apply these concepts to their individual circumstances using action learning sets. Having developed competencies and increased confidence in the domains of financial capability, such as managing and keeping track of finances, financial planning, making financial choices and staying informed, students will be well prepared for leaving university and managing their finances.

New Entrant events

Dr Matilda Buckley, who leads the delivery of the Consumer Financial Education Body Money Doctors Project, delivers induction week talks to new entrants on planning finances whilst at University. The talks, which reach out to students from all departments within the University, will now include working collectively through areas of the Student Flat resource. The Student Flat resource will feature prominently on the University’s Welcome pages where there is a link to Student Finance. All new entrants will be encouraged to work through the resource. Academics will be encouraged to use parts of the resource in their Higher Education Orientation module.

The Psychology of Money.

Hugh Clarke M.A. B.Ed, UKCP Reg. BACP Accred. (Counselling & Wellbeing Service Manager) works in Student Services and leads a fun and interactive workshop called ‘Money Makes The World Go Round?’ for student events. The session looks at the relationship; or lack of relationship?; between money and happiness. Above you can access a summary of the session. This is a different way of embedding money matters within a wider curriculum, and Hugh’s session was delivered as part of the ‘GetAhead’ student conference, a conference led by students for students.
(http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/getahead/).