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Student Consultancy and Support

Collaboration between students and organisations

Becoming involved in student projects is a fantastic means for businesses, enterprises and organisations of all types to access the creativity and fresh perspectives that students bring forward. Working in a professional capacity with real and relevant organisational challenges also helps develop students’ skills and boosts their employability in the graduate job market.

We have an array of business programmes at Oxford Brookes University with students eager to learn and apply their theoretical knowledge to provide targeted and practical recommendations to current business and organisational challenges presented.

Register your interest

Please choose the subject area you wish to become more involved in. Let us know what you are interested in and we will connect you with the appropriate academic lead.   

Ways to connect

There are various ways to tap into our pool of students:

  1. Share a current business challenge
  2. Tell your story
  3. Host a site visit
  4. Help shape the student experience
  5. Receive accountancy services (for local community organisations)
  6. Sustainability and responsibility 
  7. Employ a Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management student during term-time 

1. Share a current business challenge

Do you have a challenge in your organisation that needs addressing with a fresh perspective?

You are welcome to pose a live consultancy brief for our student(s) to work on as part of their degree. You will need to work with our academics to provide a clear project brief. Clients may also be expected to allocate an employee within the organisation as a point of contact for the student(s) and supply access to the necessary data (if applicable). Contact time will depend on the nature of the project ((it can vary from an intensive in class session or week long challenge to a 3 month project). At the end of the project, you will have the chance to review the students’ research and recommendations, and possibly provide feedback on the work presented. 

A previous live client project included Oxford Brookes Business School partnering with tech giant JVCKENWOOD UK where our marketing students worked with JVC’s sub brand Gumy as part of a market research initiative.

University lecture

2. Tell your story

Do you feel you’d like to share your expertise and what you and your business has learnt thus far? 

Do you have a great story, or are you happy to share insights into the journey that led to your career or business’ success? 

Guest speakers are invited to share their experiences and engage with a group of talented, motivated students. 

3. Host a site visit

Are you happy to showcase your organisation to the next generation or do you think your organisation might benefit from connecting with students interested in learning more about your organisation, the roles within it and possibly even as a place to work in the future?

As students prepare to enter the workforce, they see immense value in visiting business sites to better understand specific roles in the organisational structure, different types of businesses and how you function/compete in today’s business environment. From your perspective you might gain new insights from them or even identify new talent for placement or graduate jobs.

4. Help shape the student experience

Would you like to contribute in other ways?

Our business programmes endeavour to include a strong vocational focus where live projects and practitioner involvement can be incorporated into the delivery and assessment of modules. This can range from input into assessment task design, assessing and feeding back to students on their problem-solving approaches and the practical viability of the solutions they devise.

5. Receive accountancy services (for local community organisations)

Could your organisation benefit from a volunteer providing accountancy services? 

Through our Accounting for Communities: Engaging Students (ACES) scheme there is the opportunity to take on a second or final year Accounting student on a voluntary basis. This scheme is an opportunity for co-operatives, community interest companies, charities and voluntary organisations in Oxford to benefit from a student’s accounting skills. Our students can help with basic book-keeping, setting up systems for book-keeping, claiming Gift Aid, producing management accounts for board meetings, producing end of year statements and independent examinations. 

Contact WAVES for more information at waves@brookes.ac.uk.

“JVCKENWOOD UK are extremely proud to be working with a team of bright young minds at Oxford Brookes Business School on an exciting new project exploring consumer trends and new concepts. On a recent return visit, we were very impressed with the level of presentations, and the knowledge shown in this area. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Oxford Brookes University, and keeping our ears and eyes open to new ideas which will help us deliver better value to our customers and retailers.”

Adam Handley, Sales and Marketing Director at JVC

6. Sustainability and responsibility

Sustainability (in its widest sense) and responsible leadership are embedded priorities in all Business School undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. They demonstrate the School's commitment to putting into practice our longstanding signatory status to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education initiative. 

For our students sustainability and an ethical track record are increasingly important criteria in their career choices. We welcome student consultancy projects, student research projects, guest speaker and other offers that will help us create authentic teaching and learning in these areas. These might emerge from many different organisational contexts, e.g. corporate, SMEs, social enterprises, charities, public sector and social movements.

7. Employ a Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management student during term-time

Employ a final-year Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management student for a paid, part-time position during their final year of study. Our new “Work-Based Learning” module is for students who are eager to work alongside their studies, gain industry experience and are open to learning more about future career options/graduate employment in the hospitality, tourism and events sector. 

A minimum of 100 cumulative hours of work by the student is to be undertaken between September 2024 and February 2025 through contracted employment with one employer. The WAVES (Work and Voluntary Experience Services) team will support and manage the process through providing employment advice and support and approving the contract. Students will receive supervision support from a tutor for the duration of their contracted work experience.

Requirements:

  • This part-time (up to 20 hours per week) work needs to be paid in accordance with the minimum/national living wage. 
  • Hybrid and seasonal work is also accepted (e.g. period of full-time work over Christmas holidays).

Contact us

OBBS Business & External Engagement

+44 (0) 1865 534800 (OBBS Reception > Option 4 > Option 1)

obbs-bee@brookes.ac.uk