Dr Ali Owrak (Senior Lecturer in Service Systems and Digital Business, Alliance Manchester Business School)

Ali’s submission demonstrated how he redesigned the Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) programmes co-designed the curriculum in partnership with both employers and students as partners. He redesigned the Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) programme using both internal and external analysis. Ali usedran a combination of surveys, interviews and workshops with 50 employers to find out what skills they value in graduates and how these can could be embedded into the programme. The students were involved in all stages of the redesign: firstly they were first asked what they the issues were with the programme from a student perspective, they were then asked to help develop the course, unit and finally Ali went back to the students at the end so they could be a part of the validate the programme approval process.

The effectiveness of Ali’s approach is evidenced by the fact that the revised ITMB programme went on to win the Faculty of Humanities Outstanding Programme of the Year for Teaching, Learning and Student Experience in 2020-21! Ali has since delivered several workshops across the sector on curriculum design. The framework Ali used to redesign the ITMB is now being used for AMBS’ MSc Programme review, and Ali has since shared his expertise in on curriculum redesign through delivering several workshops across the sector. The ITMB programme also won the Faculty of Humanities Outstanding Programme of the Year for Teaching, Learning and Student Experience in 2020-21.