INTERVIEW
city campus, which will give our students a different dynamic to the way they interact and learn. We were fortunate in that one of our flagship professional programmes, the MBA, was offered online long before the pandemic. Our online MBA has been well recognised for its quality and effectiveness. This meant our technology, approaches to teaching and willingness to experiment were significantly ahead of our competition. Even so, we learned a lot during the past two years, and learners’ expectations of the online experience advanced significantly. We have introduced many more opportunities for learners to engage with each other, forums to share ideas and best practice and more interactive study materials. Fundamentally though, learners, employers and educators can all now see how they can make more efficient use of their time by opting to learn online. They can also see how to better tailor learning for in-person and online delivery, taking the best bits from both to enhance the study experience. Our
There’s a lot of work to do on both of those agendas. Thankfully, my background in organisational psychology is a great tool for me to understand the importance of instilling the right leadership culture, which will be a key part of the school’s future development which, as dean, is my top priority. Finally, a question we ask everyone: how optimistic do you feel about the future of business schools? Business schools have a long history. We’ve shown numerous times over the years that we can adapt to the challenges that business, economic and societal change might bring our way. In the UK, we are seeing an increased demand for business education, especially at that earlier undergraduate level. There’s a thirst for the knowledge and experience that only business schools can provide and the skills they can help an aspiring leader develop. I’m an optimist by nature and I’m very optimistic for the future of business schools overall.
own hybrid executive education model reflects exactly this. We expect this trend to continue and we must continue to invest in new technologies in the education sphere. What are the next steps for yourself as a business school decisionmaker as well as an academic thought leader? I think my task now is to really get to know Durham and how it works, the culture of the school and to focus on the future development of the school on the global stage. However, as an academic, I think you never stop wanting to be a ‘thought leader’. Academics thrive on research and exploration, it’s in their blood. They’re always thinking and they’re always interested. Currently, I’m really interested in researching the inclusive workplace. There are some projects I’ve worked on recently with colleagues such as Jackie Ford here at Durham and Kathryn Watson at Leeds University Business School about how we develop the notion of inclusive workplaces.
Biography Cathy Cassell has been the executive dean of Durham University Business School since September 2022. Previously, she was dean of Birmingham Business School at the University of Birmingham, deputy director of Alliance Manchester Business School and deputy executive dean of Leeds University Business School. Cassell is a professor of organisational psychology and holds fellowships of the Academy of Social Sciences, the British Academy of Management and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 | 19
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