Chillin’ with Francis Mwaura and learning about UNE. Great model and love his work!
It was last week I was very lucky to sit down and spend some time with Francis Mwaura from the University of New England (‘UNE’). He is this very savvy man who is originally from Kenya and has travelled the world with an amazing career.
We met at a Parramatta Chamber event and really clicked and as we spoke (he even worked for a few years in Dubai).
Francis is an ‘International Marketer’ which is exactly that – his role is to market UNE to students from key countries across the world.
As an Entrepreneur who is Australia / UK / USA focused; it was great hearing stories and cultural styles from the Middle East and Africa. Furthermore, it was fascinating learning about how UNE educates it students.
Francis is amazing and spent lots of time educating me as to how UNE works, it’s point of difference and what he has learned / achieved in his role there.
In my original university studies some years ago; ‘Online Study’ was just coming in. I actually did some of my subjects from my Post Graduate in Marketing (from Monash) online, but the majority of it was after hours face to face study. What really opened my mind about UNE was how they don’t really teach classes on campus.
In fact; their campus you see in Parramatta isn’t a ‘campus’ as I would know it or in the conventional university sense. It’s a support and collaboration hub to support their online students. In fact, UNE is actually an ‘Online University’ with a penchant for more rarer and unknown courses.
I have visited there many times and they have great people, happy students and it’s a totally different way of delivering education compared to what I have known and personally experienced.
My advice and thinking? If you are keen on further education check out UNE and be open to doing differently to the way I did it. With online you can get serious education everywhere which is great. Also too, connect with Francis Mwaura on LinkedIn (great guy and love his work).
Digital innovation is everywhere friends, especially in education. It’s also a sage reminder to think carefully about our own businesses in terms of how we can get even more powerful online.
Thanks for the read, thank you UNE and appreciate your time and kindness Francis!
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