Fulbright students at Strathclyde

Ten American undergraduates travelled to Scotland for the five-week Fulbright Summer Institute 2015. Now in its third year, the Institute is a unique partnership between the University of Strathclyde, University of Dundee, and the US-UK Fulbright Commission with support from The Scottish Government and civic partners.

The students, who come from across the United States, spent five weeks (July 5-August 8) enjoying a packed programme of lectures, seminars and study visits on the theme ‘Scotland: Identity, Culture and Innovation’.

They met academic, political and cultural leaders over the course of their stay, exploring Scotland’s place in the modern world and how it came to its current position. They spent an afternoon at BBC Scotland, as well as being given tours of Scottish Parliament, the National Museum of Scotland, Holyrood House and Glasgow’s Merchant City.

They attended Strathclyde from July 22 to August 8 and were given a presentation on Strathclyde’s new Technology and Innovation Centre. Strathclyde Business School organised two events for them - a workshop on Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship hosted by Dr Niall Mackenzie of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship and Mr Bernd Wurth, and a meeting with Jonathan Kemp, Commercial Director at A.G. Barr. The latter focused on Irn-Bru’s marketing strategy along with a tour of the Irn-Bru factory.

Student Matthew Breen said, “The Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship workshop was informative, focusing on the idea creation process and involving a competition with a fantastic prize. Dr. Mackenzie introduced us to the notion that the way to come up with the best idea is to first come up with as many as possible. By considering different perspectives and stakeholder needs, Dr. Mackenzie helped us to, on average, double our idea output during the span of one minute. For the competition we divided up into teams and, applying this approach, created a new business idea which we then pitched. When my team won, we received a bottle of whisky, with which we made even more fantastic memories to add to our Scottish experience.

"Irn-Bru’s story completely overturned my assumptions surrounding branding. I was amazed to hear that Scotland is the only country in the world in which Coca-Cola is not the predominately consumed soft drink – it is consistently beaten by Irn-Bru. The fact that an innovative marketing strategy allows A.G. Barr to outsell the world’s most well-known brand is truly amazing programme.

Jael Whitney added, “Before the Social Enterprise session, I didn’t even know what social enterprise was, but through the process of coming up with our own socially innovative company as a team, I came out of the lecture with an entirely new idea of how to do business.

The other session we had that provided me with a new way of thinking about Scotland and business was our tour to the Irn-Bru factory with Dr Alex Dickson, professor of Economics and Johnathan Kemp, Commercial Director of AG Barr PLC. Not only did I gain a better insight into Scottish culture from the advertisements that we watched, but I also learned about the unique branding techniques that Irn-Bru uses to keep itself number one in the market of Scotland, even above the world-leading Coca-Cola. I am very fortunate to have had this opportunity to see Scotland and global business in a new light.”

Michael Beckwith commented, “Strathclyde reminded me quite a lot of my home university. Both research universities set in large urban cities, I was surprised how at home I felt. The mission statement of Strathclyde, “The Place of Useful Learning,” was confirmed from the lectures I received. I was given a broad set of lectures that covered various topics, most not within my field of study. However, I was continually captivated by the professors who were able to open the learning to all backgrounds of knowledge.

“There were two events during our time in Glasgow that were run by the Strathclyde business school. The first lecture was held in the Technology and Innovation Centre and was given by Dr. Niall MacKenzie on the subject of Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. This lecture especially resonated with me because of how similar it was to my studies back home. I am in a program at Ohio State for innovation and entrepreneurship that teaches the same ideas we were taught in Strathclyde on idea generation. Our group created two socially responsible business ideas, in only one hour. This proved the point that entrepreneurship is open to every background.

“One place of business where my perception was changed was the marketing from A.G. Barr. Coming from a field of accounting and finance, I mainly study the numbers, but seeing branding and advertisement from a real company showed the importance and relevance of marketing.”

The Fulbright Program is the flagship educational and cultural exchange programme of the US Department of State which promotes mutual understanding between the people of the USA and more than 155 countries.

The students attending the 2015 Institute were:

Some of the students wrote posts for the Strathclyde Business School blog and they can be read in full here.