The Challenges of Event Management Education in a Regional Business School: An Autoethnographic Perspective

The higher education (HE) landscape in the UK has experienced a transformation since the introduction of fees. This is particularly true for Business Schools which now operate under the premise of commercialisation, commoditisation, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Undergraduates bring a consumerists’ ethos to their higher education institutions that is concerned about the quality and value of their degree vis-à-vis the fees paid. They demand more value from higher education than ever before, particularly as it relates to opportunities to gain hands-on work experience (Kandiko and Mawer, Student expectations and perceptions of higher education, 1–82, 2013; Tomlinson, The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners, 2014). This new dispensation affects how Business Schools are managed and how decisions are made. This chapter visits the tensions, conflicts and consequent bad relations between the Business School and its stakeholders in learning and teaching activity concerning event management pedagogy. This is a longitudinal, enhanced autoethnography (Humphreys and Watson, Organizational ethnography: Studying the complexities of everyday life, 40–55, 2009), and is my personal narrative, on the power relations and the anxiety, confusion, tensions, conflicts and emotions between students, tutors and event organisations in the teaching and learning initiatives of event management education. The story is told from the tutor’s perspective, and it outlines ways in which these initiatives and relationships have been subsequently managed and how management strategies have impacted student learning.