Why I chose the MSc in Strategic Marketing at Cranfield

A year ago I was making the decision that changed my life: I decided to join Cranfield University for the MSc in Strategic Marketing. The photo on the left shows the first time I visited campus before making my final decision in March 2017.

As I am almost half way through my degree completion, I would like to share with future marketers the reasons why I chose this university and what it has meant to me.

I hope it helps you in making your MSc choice and helps you to decide if Cranfield is for you.

The course structure

I chose Cranfield because of its course offering. I wanted to learn more about digital marketing, customer experience and improve in marketing analytics because those were the modules I wanted to focus on.

After digging deeply into the course offerings in different universities, I asked further questions about the lecture structure at Cranfield to the course director as well as to past students at Cranfield (If you are unsure about the right choice to make and want to have an insight of the university, contact current students!)

The MSc at Cranfield covers all the most current topics in the market so students can leave the university with a better understanding on what to expect from the future career. Here you can find the course structure.

The faculty (professionals, relatable, available, consultants)

The lecturers are passionate about the modules they teach and also extremely professional. Every module is taught from professors who publish books and articles on the topics they teach; this gives us the opportunity to be always up to date on the current issues.

At the same time, those same lecturers are available for any questions we may have and help to us in every possible way. They want to challenge us as students, but they are also understanding and relatable.

I never experienced a problem that was not addressed by my professor in the best of its possibility. As an Italian student coming from an Italian university, I value this approach and the relationship that I create with my professors. I feel really lucky to educate myself in this environment.

The internationality

At Cranfield, I have found myself in an international environment, not only with classmates from all over the world, but also faculty members. I get to experience this journey with people really different from me, which is challenging and exciting at the same time. I am not only learning about marketing here, I am learning about life and cultures outside my own.

MSc in Strategic Marketing 2017/18 – group photo

Follow us on Instagram if you want to see more of what we do. 

The practical approach

This point is the most important one for me. Every day in class, I have a deep connection between the theory and the practice, I have never experienced anything like this before! We not only learn how a marketing plan is done, we develop one in teams, we get feedbacks for it by the professor and then we are evaluated on a new, individually developed one.

Furthermore, we don’t just learn to see and analyse data, we are taught how to use it, how to see through it and to ask questions to develop a strategy for it.

Lastly, the modules end up with a Consultancy Project to be delivered to a real client, with real marketing questions. Here, we are asked to act as consultants to the company and use the skills and knowledge we acquired to help our client. I think it is the most challenging and exciting thing I have ever done in my career life.

As a student, I feel this is the best I could have ever asked for because I am taught the tools I will need for my future in the real world. This does not mean I will enter my future career with all the answers, but I am acquiring a critical thinking and the learn-by-doing skill.

These are the three main reasons why I chose Cranfield and why I would choose it all over again if I had to. This academic path has taught me so much and I wanted to share it with you in the hope it helps with your choice.

Thank you for reading this and don’t hesitate to contact currently enrolled students to ask as many questions as you want!