Kent Business School establish, build and nurture student and business collaboration in Brunei
Dr Mark Hampton visited Brunei during May 2011, for a variety of events that continue to deepen and develop Kent Business School’s international connections. Dr Hampton met with a Business School student out in Brunei on placement, and in his eventful trip, visited an educational organisation working with local students wanting to learn more about ways to collaborate with the School, as well as meeting with local government tourist officials and a partner university.
Kent Business School student, Ritchie Chin met up with Dr Hampton in early May for an informative discussion following the completion of his student work placement year within the financial sector in Brunei. Ritchie is studying a BA in Business Studies at Kent Business School Medway campus, and the year in industry is an exciting and key part of the BA Business Studies programme that provides links and connections into the industry the student is studying and is a major factor in the high level of employability of Kent students.
I was extremely happy with how Kent Business School arranged for Mark to come all the way to Brunei to meet me, it has really given me a lot more to think about. During conversations with Mark, he made me realise that there is actually much more to be learnt than just doing the work placement for the past 10 months. Overall, I am confident that I will be able to produce a final report that will gain the highest marks -Ritchie Chin.
During his visit, Dr Hampton was delighted to meet up with senior staff at HRD Services Global education to discuss potential future university provision. Dr Hampton is Director of Studies for the BA in Tourism Management which has been popular with students from Brunei. In the forthcoming academic year Kent Business School’s BA Tourism degree programme is being updated and relaunched as ‘BA Business Studies with Tourism’ to be even more market-facing and real-world relevant.
At Kent Business School we are excited about the extensive revisions and relaunch of the tourism programme. The new programme pathway allows students to develop a detailed understanding of how business and modern management works in the real world and allows them to apply this to the dynamic and fast-moving sector of international tourism. -Dr Mark Hampton.
Also, as Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management, Dr Hampton has worked on Tourism and Economic Development in South-East Asia for over 15 years, with extensive field experience in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. His research includes backpacker tourism, cross-border tourism and dive tourism and this has been funded by the British Academy, the British Council and the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia. Additionally, he is Director of CENTICA (the Centre for Tourism in Islands and Coastal Areas) an Applied Research Unit within Kent Business School, so he also took time to attend key meetings with Brunei tourism government official and private sector tourism business.
During his stay in the South-East Asia, Dr Hampton has also visited Kent Business School’s strategic partner University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Johor Bahru, where he is Visiting Professor of Tourism and gave guest lectures on the process of research and publishing in academic journals.