Section 3.6: Preparing for Consultancy research with live case studies: CASE Study 5: Preparing for consultancy research with live case studies

The primary aim of the PgD/MSc Management of Information Systems (MIS) is to prepare individuals to be operationally effective in their specialist subject area, as contemporary managers of information systems. The Strategic Information Management module precedes the MSc applied consultancy project phase, which focuses on the links between student learning, applying theory and consultancy activity, and the interplay between theory and practice. The module is designed to equip students with the conceptual, theoretical and practical skills required to support and inform modern organisations in responding to new business/organisational opportunities available through the strategic, tactical and operational exploitation of information, systems and information systems. Academics' engagement in consultancy is often perceived to inform and enrich the curricula and students' learning, and help students to achieve their personal and professional goals. Consultancy engagement, and the relationships and insights that emerge, can add value to students' learning, in this case providing an opportunity to develop, sharpen and enhance key graduate skills of problem formulation, engagement with key theoretical concepts and core constructs investigated, and augment their understanding of how theory, practice and policy all intertwine and interplay - all set within a real, live, complex and changing environment.