Amanda Kindness

Amanda Kindness was the recipient of the OU’s Future Leader Fund Scholarship for 2021. The OU Business School Scholarship – available thanks to the generosity of our alumni – gives one candidate with the potential to be a future leader the opportunity to complete the first two modules of the OU MBA. We caught up with Amanda about how her triple-accredited Master of Business Administration is going.

“I’ve really enjoyed the two modules I’ve taken in connection with the OU’s Future Leaders Scholarship.

“I applied for the Future Leader Fund because I love learning and many of the MBA modules offered by the OU piqued my interest. It's a world-class course with triple accreditation, meaning it's high-quality and proven to add value – I’m always conscious of the need to spend my professional development time wisely!

“I was also attracted to the OU MBA because the course is largely delivered via distance learning, and yet has opportunities to share the experience with fellow students. I’ve especially enjoyed connecting with others through online forums, day schools and longer virtual residentials.

“It’s been very beneficial to be studying and working at the same time. I’ve found I’ve been able to really make connections between what I’ve been learning about and my day job as a Senior Policy Analysis Officer with the Scottish Funding Council, especially for the first module: ‘Managing in a changing world’.

“Some of the assignments have even involved thinking about the module content from the perspective of my own organisation, which has given me lots of useful opportunities to reflect and to apply principles and theory in my professional context. I find myself understanding the ways organisations operate with a lot more insight and that’s been very beneficial.

“The content of the modules themselves has been hugely relevant for my career and it has supported me in thinking about work problems in different ways. I particularly appreciated the module themes of the first module ‘Managing in a changing world’. These were about encouraging aspiring leaders to think about different perspectives with pluralism rather than unitarism, considering the boundaries between traditional and contemporary workplace approaches and challenging whether the literature’s representations of business issues truly reflect reality. It’s all been greatly insightful and I find myself reflecting upon these themes quite often, certainly much more than I would have done without this course.

The best thing about my studies with the OU has been the ability to study online with flexibility and fitting module content around my employment. There are very few elements of modules organised at set times and there is always a good choice of possible tutorials and day school dates meaning I’ve been really easily able to fit the modules around my busy work and home life.

“The OU MBA is very well regarded as an excellent and rigorous course for any aspiring business leaders and managers. People are always quite impressed to hear that you are balancing work and an MBA at the same time, and there is definitely an added value that comes from that.

“I was so surprised to be awarded the Future Leader Fund Scholarship from the Open University but it has been an extremely worthwhile experience and I am truly grateful. I’d encourage anyone interested in the Scholarship, and the two modules that you get to study as a result, to seriously consider applying. 

“I was delighted to receive a distinction within the first module I completed and I am keenly awaiting the results of the second module. Once I have those, my plan is to spend a little while consolidating and putting all of my learning into practice before considering next steps. Some of the future MBA modules look really fascinating so that is definitely a possibility! It’s great that you have seven years to complete the full programme, which means you can take a modular approach and adapt the pace of your progression through the course depending on your work and life commitments. 

“I am so grateful to the OU alumni who donated to this fund and enabled this scholarship for me. At this point in my career, I wouldn’t have been able to take these two modules without the scholarship support and everything about the OU has been fantastic. I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity!”