Deloitte brings business challenges directly to post graduate students

Deloitte, the business advisory firm, is pioneering a new initiative with Warwick Business School to bring a real life systems integration consulting project to business school students. MSc students on Warwick Business School’s Information Systems and Management course begin their academic year with a module designed jointly by consultants at Deloitte and Warwick academics.

The module, now in its second year, is designed to give students insight into how their academic understanding will be applied in the business world by putting them through the full life cycle of a typical systems integration consulting project – from pitching for the project to full scale implementation.

72 Masters students took the module over the last five weeks with awards for the leading projects presented by Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor of Warwick University.

David Finnegan, assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School who is responsible for delivering the module, said: “Companies having an involvement with business school modules is nothing new, yet our collaboration with Deloitte is unique as Deloitte is intimately involved in every aspect of the module. Our students find it highly valuable as it really gives meaning to what they are studying. It synchronises theory with practice.”

Paul Leigh, a consultant at Deloitte who leads the initiative, said: “Deloitte is able to provide insights, drawn from our own experience of providing systems integration strategy and implementation to clients, that really brings the theory to life and helps students understand how it applies to businesses. This also includes developing some of the softer skills that you need in business such as an understanding of how to develop business cases, presentation skills and how to interact with clients. We feel that there are considerable mutual benefits in our collaboration and look forward to developing the module further in the years to come.”