Ethan Harrison

What's it like to study at Northumbria? 

Studying at Northumbria has been great; paired with a city like Newcastle, you have the perfect mix. You will be thoroughly supported through your time at the university whilst enjoying every second. 

Best thing about studying Business and Supply Chain Management 

Our module leader, Marcelo, has been a fantastic ambassador for the programme and has worked hard to provide us with the best learning experience during our time at Northumbria. In addition, the entire cohort of academic staff teaching this module has been engaging, responsive, and committed to our development, which has been a real pleasure. 

Favourite thing to do on campus / community 

Sport Central provides fantastic leisure facilities to suit your everyday needs and is conveniently located on the Newcastle City Campus. The sense of community is certainly there amongst students and staff alike. 

Course & career goals / industry links 

The Business and Supply Chain Management course has fantastic industry connections through its strong links with CILT and CIPS. Regarding CILT, there is also a scheme called NOVUS that the course is part of, which provides industry-leading exclusive summer internships and year-long placements to eligible students. Northumbria is one of only a small group of UK universities that support/align with this scheme; therefore, it is a key differentiator for anyone looking to capitalise on experiential learning. Many of these organisations also offer to take on their students post-graduation, providing instant relief from final-year worries about securing graduate roles. 

In addition, the content taught in this course is up to date, relevant, and highly applicable to roles in the job market - making students ideal and attractive candidates for organisations. 

A time you realised you were capable of more 

There have been many occasions; however, one relevant, timely example that sticks out to me is my experience writing my dissertation. For those who might not know, a dissertation is basically your capstone module in your final year (provided you did a placement and chose it), which involves independent research, creation, review, data collection, and subsequent analysis. Given the amount of responsibility you are given for this work, it was initially quite a daunting prospect; however, the more I learned and "deep-dived" over time, the more confident and interested I became in my project and findings. Ultimately, this led to a research project I was proud of, and it was definitely an occasion when I realised I was more capable than I initially thought. 

Support that boosted confidence / ambition 

The strong focus on experiential learning has been absolutely core to my overall confidence development. Through the active encouragement and exploration promoted for these opportunities, I have significantly boosted my personal "on-the-job" confidence, making me a confident and resilient candidate about to enter the graduate job market. 

Advice for someone considering Northumbria 

If you join NU, make sure to get involved where you can right from the start, whether that means joining or creating a society, engaging in experiential learning, pursuing further research, or other ways. There is a wide variety of opportunities to develop from the start of your time at the university. In the long run, you get back what you put in.