Life inside Said Business School, Oxford

My blog tracker tells me that quite a few people end up here after a search on "Said Business School" on Google. So this post is for you people. Let me start with a disclaimer though. I haven't been to any other business school other than Said Business School at Oxford. I haven't seen the classrooms at other places, I haven't attended open days so I don't know how good the professors are. Hence whatever I narrate may be the same in every other b-school out there, I'm only talking about what I saw here over the past few days and how I felt as I went through the cycle.

So here goes...

The Building - Said Business School is a new building and it stands out in the city of Oxford. It was built 10 years ago with a view to create state-of-the-art business school infrastructure and has quite obviously succeeded. The main lecture theatre, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre, seats about 500 I think and is often used for regular University programmes. So you might run into physicists and mathematicians sometimes within the b-school. The classrooms are all horse-shoe shaped and can seat about 100 students at a time. The chairs are comfortable pushbacks with multiple back level controls, I liked that. Every visual aid possible is at the disposal of the professors to use. Access to various parts of the building is controlled by an eletronic card system. There's a lot of open space around, which is great on a sunny day. Construction for second level expansion will start next year. All students are given lockers within the campus. These are big enough to hold business suits and therefore are very important! I've already put a blazer and a couple of ties in there, so I can move around in my usual sweatshirts and change if needed in a jiffy.

The Library - As a student of the University of Oxford, you'll have access to almost all libraries in Oxford (including the Bodleian), so it's pretty much impossible that you won't find a book. Especially because they're all searchable through a central system. The Sainsbury Library in particular (which is within the b-school building) is spread across 2 floors and houses an extensive collection of business and management books. The e-resource has to be seen to be believed and is again linked to the University of Oxford resources. People usually roam around with laptops but every library desk has a terminal if you need it. Printers and copiers are available through an electronic system which charges a nominal fee. I initially found the area space of the library to be a little small. But then I realized that I was comparing it to my undergrad which caters to 10 times more number of students. Like all libraries, some books are for reference only, others can be taken on short loans.

Connectivity - There's wi-fi within the building (duh!) and I found the availability of plugpoints very heartening. They are everywhere and for those like me who have chosen not to spend that much money on laptop batteries, they're a life saver. The intranet is extensive and technology is very central to how things work here. The only painpoint I've felt is that various domains don't seem to carry over sessions very well and so you need to enter the password a few times as you move from one system to another. It may be a security precaution since the intranet is readily available over HTTP(S) but I'm not completely convinced. Especially since the main University of Oxford system works on a single-sign-on basis. Surely the b-school system can be integrated to that. Anyways, the problem is easily solved if you ask your browser to remember your passwords.

Food - Students are expected to be around quite a bit and the dining hall serves all three meals. The prices are about average, the quality is good on most days. Free coffee and tea is available for both the morning and afternoon mid-class breaks. The real awesomeness is the food in the Common Room (a deceptive name, because it's more like a huge lounge). The snacks are good, great cakes and pastries. And made-to-order sandwiches, burgers and baguettes are available at lunchtime. I also love the doughnuts! The usual juice/chocolates/coke is anyways there, so I'm not mentioning that in particular. There's a Happy Hour every Friday with really cheap alcohol. Most professors come down for a beer, so it's a good time to get to know them out of the classroom.

Classes - The class environment is very conversational, much more than I had expected. It doesn't matter if you don't know the answer, there are no set marks for class participation. I particularly loved this fact because I've heard b-schools set marks for class participation and I find that very weird. There's no added pressure to put a question in or make a nice impression on the professor. You don't have to worry about getting cold-called and what the professor might think of you. One would think that the class conversation would become one-sided but that's really not the case. We speak more than the prof usually! The professors are just amazing, I'm so in awe of how they go about their stuff, how interesting they make things, how they go out of their way to make sure people understand how one course relates to another.. and how it relates to the real world.

Evaluation - Within the structure of the University of Oxford, the Said Business School fits in as a department. This means that it occupies the same position as the History department or the Law department. This also means that there are no special provisions for the business school, it fits right within the University of Oxford regulations. The reason I'm bringing this up is that as per the Grey Book, the University is in-charge of all examinations. Not the department. Hence the basic University rule regarding evaluation automatically applies to business school students. And the rule is - all examinations are blind double marked. Every paper, every assignment is marked by 2 people and neither of those 2 is the person who has taught the course. If their marks differ by more than a set percentage, they are supposed to get together and come to an understanding. The markers also do not know whose answers they are marking. One of the examiners is usually an external examiner to whom the copies are sent. There is no indication of the student's identification on the answer sheet. This anonymization is achieved through a complex process that each answer sheet goes through. So there's no question of bias. I loved this! Really! The minute they told us about this, I had such a big smile on my face. This is how it should be. No bias! Too many times in my undergrad have I missed grades because the prof knows I haven't been attending classes. Too many times in my undergrad have I seen others get marked more leniently because they've spent their time running around the prof. Even if it's subconscious, it happens!

That's about it.. more later!