Student Profiles

The location of the university is fantastic, being near the centre of Oxford allowing for easy access to local amenities and close to London for when I had to travel home with my washing!

Being able to shape your degree to your specification has really helped me choose my specific career path, which is to work within charity and eventually run one of my own. The degree gives you a vast knowledge of many different aspects in business that I will need to know going into a non for profit organisation.

I am proud to be a student at Oxford Brookes. The staff members are incredibly supportive, helpful, knowledgeable and approachable, they do not mind if you want to have a casual chat. The camaraderie amongst the whole student body is astounding, any student is happy to help another, if you know them or not.

I truly believe that Oxford is the best place for a student! It is the student city. The beautiful historic buildings and architecture of the old city is inspiring. When walking around the city, it is as if it wants to transfer its knowledge to you. It is also motivating to be around so many students all aiming towards one goal, getting a degree.

The financial, marketing and entrepreneurial skills that I gained whilst at Brookes have proved invaluable in my role at Magners. In particular, the Entrepreneurial Business Management module provided me with a lot of preparation for the challenges that I face on a daily basis. As for my future, I'd like to stay in the food and beverages industry, moving down the Marketing route as either a Category or Brand Manager.

As Brookes' recognition continues to grow it provides graduates with a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive job environment.

I decided to do a work placement for developmental reasons as well as to bolster my job prospects. I enrolled in the Business School's 'Skills for Placement Search' module which was really useful as it gave me the skills, knowledge and practical experience I needed to give me the best chance of securing a placement.

I was really pleased when ProspectSoft offered me a place on their award-winning placement scheme. I started as a Marketing Assistant but after training they offered me a Channel Management Assistant role.

I dealt with up to 30 partners on a daily basis and within three months I had gone from a pure marketing role to helping the Sales and Marketing Director make strategic decisions. I was involved in key activities with managers and directors, vetted CVs and ran two assessment days for the next placement students. The support from Brookes throughout my placement and when I came back, was incredible.

At University you learn theory but when you're out in the real world you find out whether it actually works. My work placement has given me a better grip on my lectures and assignments and I look forward to going back to work for ProspectSoft once I've graduated.

I love the novel teaching and learning methods at Brookes, I also love the fact that you can pick and choose the modules you would like to do and the facilities at Brookes are great!

The university is improving its performance year on year in the rankings table and also the university has ambitious plans in expanding and improving the overall student experience with massive renovations going on at the Headington Campus. So its exciting times for Brookes which I am sad that I won't be a part of in the future. However, future students can make use of the new university facilities and the superior performances on rankings.

Also the lecturers and the teaching is excellent! The lecturers seem to be extremely insightful not only in their knowledge of theory but through their real life business experiences. What they bring to the classroom is immense as they enrich the classroom experience with their real life industry experience.

If I had to describe Brookes in only a few words, they would be: An experience you will never forget for a lifetime.

I chose Oxford Brookes because I had friends who were already here at the Business School and they recommended it, so I went to an Open Day and found everyone to be really friendly and helpful.

For me, the best thing about the Business School has been the opportunities that have been presented to me. I didn't just want to have the same experiences as everyone else and Brookes really catered for that. For example, I took a placement working on the Gold Coast in Australia and the Business School helped me along the way and offered me loads of support.

Academically there is plenty of extra help available too, including upgrade, where students who have already passed modules help out other students in sessions that run throughout the year.

At Brookes they want you to have different and unique experiences during the course of your degree and they understand that you're here for more than just sitting in a lecture theatre. And from my experience, I have found that the people who get the most out of University are the ones who take up as many opportunities as possible.

I wanted to study in the UK and did most of my research from Germany. Ranking was very important and with Brookes being rated the best new University together with the reputation of the Business School and the location, I chose Brookes.

Within the Business School there is a really good atmosphere and there are lots of other international students as well which is really nice. There is also a lot of help available from Field Chairs, Personal Tutors and lecturers. Academically there is a large selection of different modules to choose from, which allows you to customise your own degree.

One thing I have really noticed is that it is really personal compared to home, the lecturers are very enthusiastic with lots of experience and they also all know your name.

I would definitely advise anyone to go to Oxford Brookes, both for the University and for the opportunity to live and study in such an amazing city, which as well as being historic and beautiful, is also vibrant and lively.

I originally applied to Oxford Brookes University Business School because of its good reputation and I really like Oxford as a city. Once I visited the campus I decided that it was the place for me, it felt quite instinctive.

Throughout university I have been very career focused and after my second year, having taken a module that is designed to get students on placement programmes, Oxford Brookes helped me get a position with Microsoft in Reading. During my time at Microsoft I worked on the 'I'm a PC campaign' and also organised the Christmas party, which had over 1,700 guests. As a result, I now know that I want a future career in the technology sector and I have a years' work experience heading in to the job market, which has really helped my CV and given me lots of professional contacts.

I would really advise any student to take a placement year if you want to stand out from the crowd and Oxford Brookes will help you at every step along the way.

Since coming to Oxford Brookes I have found everyone here to be really helpful and friendly and I have been really surprised by how many opportunities there are available, whether it be academically, socially or competitively.

For me, I have found one of the most useful departments at the University to be student services as I'm dyslexic and therefore get provisions from them, such as the blue card which is an indicator to any marker that I am dyslexic. I'm also a peer mentor and help other students with their coursework on certain modules that I have already completed.

One of my highlights of University so far has been getting accepted onto the exchange programme so now I get to spend the next semester in Sydney, and skip the rest of the winter here. In order to get accepted I needed to average over 60% in my first year, so my advice would be that it really is worth putting in the effort in the first year as you never know when your prospects might change.

When I was applying for my degree there was a lot of uncertainty about graduate jobs, so it was important for me to incorporate a work placement as part of my course. A Brookes course allowed me to do this.

As a finance analyst at IBM, I had to consolidate and analyse data from four different country groups, checking targets and strategies for each quarter. It gave me a complete overview as to how different cultures communicate and do business. I also gained analytical and problem solving skills by digging deep into individual accounts.

I learnt how to work in a team and how to communicate with colleagues from around the world. As I increased in confidence, I asked positive questions and grabbed every opportunity to improve and develop, especially presentation skills. Three months in, I was sent to Paris for seven days, it was really busy but a huge learning curve and fantastic to meet so many people.

It is great to get a year's 'hands on' work experience which will give me an edge over others as I move into a graduate role. A placement taught me what I like doing and I now know exactly what I am looking for.