Using Student Consultancy Projects in Enterprise and Marketing Programmes: Some Reflections

Active learning has attracted considerable attention in higher education and consultancy projects is a popular active learning method in business and management education. By giving students the opportunity to apply management learning in practice, valuable experiences are gained. This paper aims to share some practical insights and experiences from a consultancy project carried out with twenty-two undergraduate students during the academic year 2021–2022. The main objective of the module was to engage students in experiential learning through practical, consulting projects for a real-life business scenario. The projects lasted 12 weeks and involved six participating businesses. These were a mixture of established SMEs and early-stage entrepreneurs. At the end of the module, reports were provided to participating clients, who attended student presentations for feedback and discussion. In addition, students were asked to provide an individual reflection on the project overall and participating businesses provided feedback on their experiences. This type of experiential learning is very demanding in terms of organisation, delivery and follow-up; however, it is also quite effective. The results were extremely positive with student engagement and learning viewed highly and feedback from participating clients stating the positive benefits of industry participation in student-led projects. Success of the module is dependent on the role of the academic, acquiring meaningful projects, establishment of the client problem, managing expectations and effective communication. By sharing these experiences, it is hoped to provide helpful insights into the adoption of this approach by others.