Nottingham Trent University supports students and society

Melanie Currie is a Deputy Dean at Nottingham Trent University Business School. Over the past twenty years at the University, Melanie has seen the business school's energy, desire and self-belief increase and accelerate to take it to where it is today.

"There's a real belief that what we do here makes a difference to students, business and society," says Melanie.

A leader in student satisfaction

Nottingham Trent University boasts a large and diverse business school - almost 6,000 students. Even with this vast size, it has maintained a national student satisfaction result of 90% with 94% of students recommending the school as a place to study. Melanie thinks this is an exceptional achievement, one that has helped the school become a Top 20 Business School in the Guardian league tables.

"People are really proud of what they have achieved. They’re proud of this School," adds Melanie.

The key to success

For Melanie, this success is about the relationships fostered at Nottingham Trent University, the strong connections between the school's teaching programmes and the research they are doing, and the relevance of the school's work to real societal issues. "We want our professors to tackle what matters most to business and society and we want them to influence and inspire colleagues and students to make a similar impact," explains Melanie.

Giving people the freedom to succeed

However, Melanie has no desire to micro-manage people. She wants to give both students and professors the freedom and support to follow their research passions and produce inspirational work that leads to positive change. Melanie explains that in this way, students learn from the process and the research, and from experiencing both success and failure.

"A lot of my work as Deputy Dean is about rules and protocols. But at the centre of everything I do, driven by the University’s vision, is a desire to make the student experience as fulfilling, rewarding and empowering as it can be," adds Melanie. "The fact that we’ve won many awards and achieved the highest levels of accreditation and recognition tells me that we’re definitely going in the right direction."