Dear Gown,

I wanted to bring to your attention the fact that the highly successful New Venture Creation (NVC) MSc run by the Management School has been cancelled for next academic year (2010-2011).

This is the same MSc New Venture Creation programme that won postgradireland’s Postgraduate course of the year in business just last Thursday. The same MSc which the Management School was ‘supposedly’ delighted to have won an award for, and which an independent panel of industry experts had judged to be outstanding in its class amongst the other high impact programmes.

I was personally interested in applying for this course, so that I could start up a new business in the coming year. I had researched the course (it was an incredible opportunity for enterprising students), talked to current participants (all of whom have praised the support and resources it offers the entrepreneurial Queen’s graduate, particularly in the current economic climate), and had attended a pre-application information session (just two weeks ago). This was my future plan for next year, and would possibly set me up for a future in business.

It was only by chance that I heard the course would not be going ahead -  Through a friend whose friend had telephoned the Management School post-grad office so he could get more information on what details were required for the obligatory application process, which includes a business Feasibility Plan. He was simply told the course had been cancelled. When I found out, I too went into the office wanting to find out if what I heard was true, only to be told the course had been cancelled.

Not only has this resulted in me now not knowing what I do after graduation, I’m sure there are many more students who have no idea this course is not running next year and is no longer an option for them. I personally know of three students (all of which I informed) who are now completely at a loss of what to do with themselves next year, and all of which are annoyed at finding out about the cancellation at such a late stage. Many of these interested students, myself included, have already put a lot of time and effort into preparing our applications.

While I do recognise that acceptance onto the programme was to be only after an evaluation of applicants based upon business ideas and personal attributes, with a decision in July, I have to query the reasoning (of which I am completely uninformed) behind cancelling a programme that has been critically acclaimed, has been of enormous benefit to enterprising graduates, and which ‘had’ funding in place less than two weeks ago.

How can the university allow the cancellation of a course for which funding is available, students are interested, and at a time when many of its graduates are struggling to find jobs?

How can the university drop the country’s most applauded award winning enterprise course, in the areas of business creation and entrepreneurship, at a time when this country’s economy needs graduates with these skills the most?

How can a university that has been awarded the title of ‘Entrepreneurial University of the Year’ 2009, shamelessly cancel its flagship entrepreneur MSc for no apparent reason the following year?

I hope that the Gown might be able to get some response to these questions, because so far I have been unable to get any.

Dismayed & Angry,

James McKevitt

QUB Business Club President, QUB Student & NVC MSc Applicant.