A word about Syndicates

Study at Melbourne Business School revolves around small group of people known as a "syndicate." Business is all about working in teams to achieve common goals. The theory at MBS is that if business is about teams, then business school should be as well. As such, for every subject that we do, we are assigned to a small team of around six people called a syndicate. We have no choice about who gets to be in our syndicate, but together we must work on assignments and other deliverables and share the marks equally. In the first term of the program, most of the first year students are doing the same five core subjects (Organisations, Managerial Economics, Financial Accounting, Quantitative Analysis, and Marketing). Since our subjects are in common, our syndicates are also set up that way.

As such, I'm now part of a team of five people, meeting several times a week, and hopefully heading in the same direction. There are two Aussies, one from Indonesia, one from Malaysia, and one from China. Four guys, one girl. A fair mixture of "poets" and "engineers" (MBS broadly fits people into these two categories --- if you prefer, treat these as "right-brained" and "left-brained"). We've completed our first assignment, and we're roaring ahead on the study front as well - regularly meeting to discuss our progress with each subject.

So far, the system is working well. It will be interesting to see how it develops as the workload picks up, and the individual assignments and exams come along. A second year student gave me some sound advice regarding syndicate relationships - "as soon as you know who's in your sydnicate, go out and get drunk together. It'll make the conflict in your formal meetings much easier to handle." Alas, I haven't heeded her advice yet, but at the first sign of trouble, I'll be sure to take them all down to the pub.