The week after that, the Oxford Literary Festival took place at Christ Church College. Since I really love books I went to quite a few events there, e.g. to a discussion with Louis de Bernières and to a really interesting talk by Robert Fisk, the Middle East Correspondent for the Independent. It’s fascinating how much he knows about the history of and the present situation in the Middle East. If you ever get the chance to go to one of his talks you should definitely go for it. I’m sure his books are really interesting, too. Unfortunately, their length is a real disincentive to read them.
That reminds me of some of the readings we have to do for our classes. Although most of them are quite interesting unfortunately these are often long and I just don’t manage to read all of them. But before getting back to our lectures, let me continue with the Easter Break.
Well, during the break, there were also two major assignments (Financial Management and the Entrepreneurial Project) due. So, it wasn’t all about enjoying life in and around Oxford for me. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the break. My girl-friend visited for a few days. Although that’s really unusual we had a wonderful snowy day in Oxford.

We then got a rental car and went to the Cotswolds for a couple of days. In Stratford-upon-Avon, we saw a Shakespeare play (The Merchant of Venice) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. In Cheltenham, we had lunch at a two-star restaurant, the Champignon Sauvage. Besides that, we visited Winchcombe, Charlecote Park, Sudeley Castle, Broadway Tower and Chastleton House. I was really impressed by all these villages, castles and so on, and can only recommend visiting the Cotswolds.

It’s one of the advantages of studying in Oxford, not only that there’s so much happening in Oxford itself but also that there are so many interesting places close by. For example, I still definitely want to visit the Blenheim Palace and Salisbury.
During the break, we had two more conferences at the business school, the Summit on Business & Environment and the Private Equity Forum. Since I couldn’t get enough of these conferences I went to another one in Germany during week 0. That’s the reason why I missed all my lectures then. Anyways, I think I have managed to catch up with everything by now. I chose quite a variety of courses this term. My most favourite Trinity courses are Corporate Social Responsibility & Ethical Marketing and Business in China.

There’s only one week of lectures left for Hilary Term. After that, it’s one week for revision and then, it’s exams week again. I can’t believe that the second term is already almost over. It seems that it just started. Last Friday, I submitted an assignment for Operations Management. It was about Zara, a multinational clothing retailer. I don’t think I have ever been in one of these shops. Anyways, the case study was about its IT infrastructure. We had to decide whether to keep the old system or to replace it with a new system. If we wanted to replace it which functionalities should we build into the new system? It was an individual assignment which is rather unusual because most of our practical work is done in groups. For example, for Operations Management, there were already two group assignments before the individual one. There’s one exception though. As one of the electives for this term, I chose Marketing, Culture & Society. That’s probably not such a typical MBA course. The amount of reading we have to do for this course is really immense. I’m not saying that there’s not much reading for all the other courses, but for that course, it’s definitely even more. We draw from anthropology and question some of the economic theories we are taught in other courses. It’s quite interesting but it definitely is a lot of work, not only because of the readings but also because of the assignments. It’s three of them and they are all individual. The last one – which is due a week from now – has a word limit between 4,500 and 5,500 words. I really have to get started on it. Yet, the good thing about this course is it doesn’t have an exam.

Also nice about the course is that we get to hear many guest speakers, e.g. Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones from L’Oreal and Paul Temporal who gave an interesting presentation on Nation Branding. In general, there was a really great variety of guest speakers at the business school this term. I can’t even remember all of them. But I will probably never forget John Bird’s presentation. He’s the founder of “The Big Issue” and drank a bottle of wine faster during his presentation than I would usually do at a party. Speaking of parties, that reminds me of the vibrant social life here in Oxford. One of the highlights was the Burns Night. At my college, Mansfield, we had a bagpipe player, some whisky and lots of really delicious haggis. There were several other nice dinners as well, e.g. the New Year Dinner at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London or all the Exchange Dinners that my MCR (Middle Common Room) had organised with other college’s MCRs. I could probably go on writing about dinners forever. I just do love all these dinners. Another thing Oxford is famous for are the College Bops. Unfortunately, I only managed to go to one this term, the Hollywood Bop at Linacre College, but that was definitely a lot of fun. It’s almost sad that Hilary Term is nearly over. I just wished all the exams were already over, too!

It’s a few months ago now that I started my MBA at the Saïd Business School. The first term is over. It’s called Michaelmas Term here in Oxford. In a few days, the next term, Hilary, will start. It’s strange to look back at the previous term. I didn’t really know what to expect from the programme. Sure, I knew I wanted to do an MBA. I carefully looked at several different business schools and decided that Oxford was the best option for me. But how would it really be?

On the first day, we were welcomed by our Dean and our MBA Programme Director in the school’s largest lecture theatre, named after South Africa’s freedom-fighter and then President Nelson Mandela. Next, it was our turn. All students had to give a short one-minute-introduction of themselves. 220 new faces from 40 different countries, that was impressive. I couldn’t remember a single name afterwards.

It’s different now. When I stroll around the business school, these are all familiar faces now. The MBA Programme is very intense, especially since it’s only a one-year-programme. That means that we spend a lot of time at the business school, discussing in classes, working in teams, studying in the library, asking and helping each other. That helps to get to know each other.

The downside is, it’s really hard work. There were moments where I wished I hadn’t decided to do an MBA. I started last term with a very bad cold, never really caught up with all the readings we were supposed to do and hardly had time to explore Oxford, at least not as much as I would have liked. And that’s a pity since Oxford has so much to offer. The University consists of 39 Colleges. Most of them are truly historic and really worth visiting. In addition, there are several museums, the Bodleian Library, the Covered Market and lots of fantastic pubs, just to name a few of the sights. By the way, every MBA student is also a member of one of the Colleges, e.g. I am a member of Mansfield College. And the Colleges also organise many events that are worth attending. At least at my college, it’s definitely always fun to hang out there!

Well, with the intense course and all the other things going on, one doesn’t really realise how fast the term passes and suddenly, it’s time for exams. Last term, we had to take six exams in four days. That was crazy. But somehow we all managed to do it. The party afterwards was fantastic!

After having spent Christmas in Germany, I am back in Oxford now. In a few days, Hilary Term will start. We already have the reading lists and an overview of the assignments for each course. While we all had the same six courses in Michaelmas (Strategy 1, Finance 1, Decision Science, Developing Effective Managers, Financial Reporting and Managerial Economics) we were able to choose three electives in addition to two core courses (Operations Management and Marketing) for Hilary. I chose Developing Effective Organisations, Financial Management and Marketing, Culture & Society. Besides the courses, we have to work on our Entrepreneurial Project during Hilary, i.e. we have to develop a business idea, present that to an external panel and write a business plan for it.

Although I have learned so much about Oxford and about how the business school works I have the same feeling as in the days before the MBA Programme had started. I don’t really know what to expect from the new courses and lecturers and from the Entrepreneurial Project. But I am looking forward to finding it out. Let’s see…