Rui Pedro Teixeira da Silva Oliveira
MA HR & Knowledge Management, 2004
Country of origin: Portugal
Employer: Delphi Thermal & Interior, Luxembourg
After spending two years in Germany dealing with numbers at an industrial multinational I felt that I needed to bring a more socially sensitive attitude to my analytical framework. I chose Lancaster University Management School's Department of Organisation, Work & Technology and its MA in HR & Knowledge Management as it is part of a leading management school in the UK and also because it was highly recommended by a professor of mine who had been a student there.
The MA in HR & KM exceeded all my expectations and took me to some unfamiliar places. It challenged my understanding of human activity, society, organisation and technology. Lancaster’s MA in HR & KM is certainly not a vocational or techniques-orientated programme, but instead seeks to promote a more sceptical and comprehensive way of reasoning about so-often fuzzy and diverse organisational processes. It thus encourages us to keep our mind wide open when we come to analyse the complexities of any particular situation we encounter throughout our life. The course provides plenty of scope for pursuing your own individual interests.
Friends? Yes, I had the chance to work in multicultural working groups, to get to know my classmates’ backgrounds and taste lots of different dishes and atmospheres at the international parties formally and informally organised through the year.
Although it is a small city, Lancaster has turned out to be an exciting place where I could sample a bit of everything. I have enjoyed the peacefulness of its striking rural scenery and a city centre where at a stone’s throw I could enjoy a wide range of shops, browse in a bookshop, wander around the historical spots of the city and finish a weekend sipping a coffee at an Italian café or a traditional lager in one of the many pubs. And on campus I could find almost everything I could possibly fancy.
