The Head of Commercial Services, Estates and Facilities Division (EFD), has been informed
that the students of the MSc Management 2019-20 are studying a module on Business
Analysis and Consulting during the second term of the academic year. She contacted the
module teaching team expressing interest in the learning outcomes of this module and
asked whether the class would be willing to support her team in gathering useful
information on two important projects the Estates and Facilities Division is implementing.
The teams achieving the best results will have the opportunity to present their proposals
to the EFD top management.
The teaching team seized the opportunity for students to be involved in preparing a
project and deliver a consultancy report to our University Professional Services.
Please find below the questions proposed:
Q1 – Our student population at Sussex is diverse and multi-national. How do our
catering services need to evolve to ensure we meet the needs of our International
students?
What do students want to see from the catering offer at Sussex and how can
students continually engage with our catering services provider to ensure they
meet their future needs?
Which should be the balance of High Street brands versus local operators on site?
How can offers be agile to meet changing student needs, current and future food
trends?
How do we underpin these requirements with a sound Commercial approach?
Q2 – The West Slope development will deliver a significantly larger supermarket than
the current Coop. What should this new space provide to ensure we meet student
expectations in terms of quality, value and choice?
How must product ranges be agile to meet changing student needs whilst
providing core basics ranges?
How might a significantly larger supermarket impact on our catering strategy
elsewhere on campus?
How do you measure value for money, from a student perspective, of an onsite
supermarket?
How do we underpin these requirements with a sound Commercial approach?
Before starting the organisation of their work in teams, students are encouraged to read
the Sussex 2025 Strategic Framework (https://www.sussex.ac.uk/strategy/), to achieve a
better understanding of the values underpinning any activity organised for and lead by
our community on campus.
2
Instructions for Assessment 1 [2,000 words]
The consultancy Report has to address ONE of the questions proposed by our University’s
Commercial Services, Estates and Facility Division (please see above). In order to address
this problem you will work in small groups to collect data, analyse them and present your
proposals in a consultancy report.
Content
This assessment is weighted at 50% of your final mark for this module and is formed of
two parts: A. the report and B. the reflective essay. Part A contributes 75% towards the
mark, while part B contributes 25%.
Part A: the report in which you will present your proposals and supporting
arguments (1,500 words). This is a collective output and all members of the
groups should contribute to the creation of this report in its various forms (data
collection, data analysis, report writing etc.). Students will manage the work
distribution within the groups independently. Please make sure that every
member of the groups contributes to the final output.
Part B: a short reflective essay (500 words) which you will write individually. In
this essay you should present a brief analysis of the consultancy process focusing
on the strategies implemented by your group in order to respect the engagement
(for example, how decisions were made, difficulties encountered working on this
problem, strategies adopted to overcome them etc.). Please note the reflective
element is important, so in this short essay you should present your opinions
independently.
Format
This report should be written in a style suitable for business consulting. You must not use
Harvard style referring. You can use footnotes. Please use font Arial 12, line spacing 1.5.
The supporting material must be included in the appendices. Footnotes and appendices
are not counted in the word count, but please be aware that if any supporting material is
not self-explanatory, and you should analyse it in the report.
Marking criteria
The following three marking criteria are used to assess Part A:
1. Quality of data collected
2. Feasibility of the proposal made to the client
3. Structure of the narrative and quality of writing
The following two marking criteria are used to assess Part B:
1. Engagement with concepts useful to analyse the management of the consultancy
project
2. Quality and level of engagement shown in self-reflection
