The University of Lincoln has prided itself on being a pioneer in student engagement, demonstrated through its ambitious and successful initiatives (e.g. ‘Student as Producer’) aimed at creating rich and active partnerships between its staff and students. In more recent years, it has sought to deepen such engagement across the institution, by identifying and developing further opportunities for students to produce university content and work with key industry partners. An example of this can be found in the Lincoln International Business School (LIBS), where an exciting new collaboration is being pursued with Siemens.

Recently on the core module People and Global Organisations (MSc International Business), students were treated to a tandem guest lecture on cross-cultural management by Siemens field service manager, Philipp Bauer, and his wife and fellow expatriate manager (Julia Bauer) from the Schaeffler Group. Following the lecture, Philipp explained that Siemens was currently pursuing a new venture called Upward Mentoring, where its managers would be mentored by a student in the area of digitalisation and the use of social media. With the increasing influence of communication technologies and social media in business, Siemens believed that those students who were comfortable with technology from a very young age could help senior managers to quickly learn and develop the ability to interact on these platforms. With this in mind, Philipp asked module leader, Dr. Rochelle Haynes (one of LIBS’ Student Engagement Champions), to select a student that would be suitable for this role. The selected student was Anass Hajbane, one of Rochelle’s dissertation students who had performed well on the module in semester one and attended the lecture for research purposes. Anass, who wants to pursue management consulting following his studies, happily agreed to this exciting venture and, with the support of Rochelle throughout the process, he will commence mentoring relationship with Philipp from the 5th of July.

The University of Lincoln and LIBS are very proud of this collaboration and will continue to monitor the development of this novel and exciting venture. Stay tuned for more updates on the outcomes of this unique partnership.