Vita Kadile

What made you choose this course?

After my undergraduate degree I had a 2-year gap. During that time I worked as a marketing and sales manager in 4 Star Hotel, located in Riga, Latvia, After the first year I was transferred to the restaurant department to take care of 3 restaurants of the hotel and develop their marketing activities which is where my passion for the subject of marketing developed.

And why Leeds?

I had heard a lot of good things about the University of Leeds and when I moved to live in UK, I decided that Leeds was definitely the best option as one of the best universities in the UK and Europe.

Tell us about the course

The course duration is 1 year, which is very convenient, though quite an intensive programme. It comprises of ten modules as well as a dissertation/project. It involves a lot of group work and it is essential to be a part of a team. This also helps to find new friends and support during the studies. The modules included in the first semester are International marketing, Marketing strategy, Consumer Behaviour, Marketing communications and Marketing Research. These modules introduced us to strategic and cultural aspects of marketing, market research and consumer profile, as well as communication tools. Both exams and assignments are assessments. There is a lot of additional literature available in university libraries apart from modules core texts.

The course is built to develop step-by-step understanding of marketing methods and their application/usage in real life. During the second semester we had International distribution strategy, Internet marketing, Relationship and direct marketing, International services marketing and Multidisciplinary marketing project, where we had to use all knowledge gained during studies on this course. These modules looked particularly at such areas as distribution, internet, and services marketing and provided significant understanding of certain marketing strategies applied to these areas, the group work went much easier in the second semester, as we were able to choose group members ourselves.

I am writing my dissertation with my colleague from the course and the title is: “Educational Institutions Corporate Image as a Key Success Factor in Targeting Customers.” It is very interesting to write about your own university in terms of its marketing strategy and activities.

What have you enjoyed about your course and studying here?

During the course I have made new friends and met so many people from all around the world. This experience has been amazing as I really love communicating and socialising. I have found lecturers and tutors of high level, contributing a lot to their modules and work. In fact, all the staff have been very helpful and friendly to everyone. The students on this course are from all around the world and it has been great to get to know many of them. I’ve found some really good friends!

The Career Wise Programme is very helpful, especially for those students who have never worked before. It provides with all the necessary guidelines of where and how to apply for jobs, prepare for job interviews. Another important fact is that there are many printed materials provided and they are useful for all those in search of job.

Overall how would you sum up your time here?

I have enjoyed several highlights of my time in Leeds: exciting studies, wonderful people, lively atmosphere, countless opportunities for socialising and networking, computer cluster as a second home during assignments and dissertation, winning of Leeds for Life project etc, etc... I already miss it!"