About me

Name: Zahra
Course: E-Business (E-Marketing) MSc
Study mode: Full time
Where I’m from: Azerbaijan

Choosing Newcastle

Newcastle University Business School is among the top business schools in the UK. I also have a lot of friends who studied here and their reviews were amazing. Additionally, the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan has an agreement with Newcastle University and our government provides us with scholarships.

I chose the E-Business (E-Marketing) MSc programme due to the increasing interest in e-business in my home country. Our government has a directive to develop all spheres of internet activity including e-government e-payment and e-business, and I want to be a part of this development

Studying at Newcastle

I have gained great experience from this programme. E-business is the future of commerce and I’ve learned a lot, not only from the theory but also through practice as we had a lot of it, thanks to our professors. Our work and effort always paid off!

For example, during our first semester we had an assignment in the form of a groupwork project, to build a plan for a new e-business. It was quite challenging as we had to think through every detail from generating a unique idea to building the marketing plan. Our group’s idea was to create an online web facility that sells cheap but good quality Chinese products to the mass consumer.

A few of our group members were from China and introduced the other group members to different Chinese products, including mobile phones of superior quality which were much cheaper than other leading world brands. What I liked most about this assignment is that it taught us not just how to build a business and write a strong business plan, but how to make it successful and be able to face challenges and handle them.

Postgraduate community

I enjoyed being a part of Newcastle University and its community. Being a Business School student was a big honour. What I liked the most was the solidarity I experienced, and everyone was very friendly and helpful.

I enjoyed participating in a multinational event in the student union, related to cultural awareness, where groups from different cultures shared dishes from their national cuisine and showed us national dances.

I have befriended a lot of wonderful people from all around the world, learned about their cultures and travelled. Within the UK, I visited London, Leeds, Manchester, Durham, York and Edinburgh. I also went to Portugal and Spain for the summer vacation.

And of course, I studied like I never did before, and enjoyed it very much. I loved the feeling when I left the library after a long period of study, satisfied with the work I'd done.

Top tips for new students

Study, Study, Study! Newcastle University has a wonderful library full of facilities, so don't miss the chance to improve your skills. The library service team members were very helpful when I needed to find books or articles on particular subjects.

Enjoy the environment, participate in University events and befriend the wonderful people studying here.

Don’t be afraid to ask! The University has a number of advisory services who can help you with everything. The student services team helped me with accommodation, visa requirements and assistance with documents. And of course get to know your tutors and keep in touch with them.

Career aspirations

I intend to become a part of the development of e-business within Azerbaijan. The knowledge and skills I obtained through my Masters programme are all useful and will help me a lot. I have already received a few job offers in these areas of e-business and e-marketing.
What I liked most about this programme was the combination of theory and practice. For our consultancy project, we carried out several research tasks and all of those projects were real.

For the project management module, our group, having prepared the groundwork in the university library, went out to explore a list of system providers and what they had to offer. We visited almost all of the system providers in Newcastle, and had email or phone conversations with London-based providers. This was a good experience which helped me to understand the process of project management and timing. The area of project management is very attractive to me and I have received a job offer in this field at one of the leading banks of Azerbaijan. 

Remembering Newcastle

Azerbaijan Day on 28th May in Newcastle was a very remarkable event. We worked a lot to represent our country and had about 100 guests. We organised an informative presentation on Azerbaijani history and culture. Guests were regaled with our national cuisine, savoury foods including dolma and pilaf and sweets such as pakhlava and shekerbura. A group of Azerbaijani students demonstrated our national dances and we played national music. Our guests had so much fun that they didn’t want to leave at the end of the event!