Alumni Archive

The Publishing Studies course at the University of Stirling has now been established for well over 25 years. As one its earliest graduates I can vouch for the fact that it was of great assistance in illuminating all the myriad roles within publishing and demonstrating how they fit together. The course at Stirling will not only provide a background to the historical development of publishing as an international business, it will inform you about current practice and will also provide you within an insight to the debates and trends that will shape the industry’s future development.

Christoph is currently Group Sales Director of Taylor & Francis Group and President, Asia Region. He is also Honorary Professor of Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling, and Chair of our Industry Advisory Board.

I had been working in publishing area over 7 years before I came to University of Stirling.

When I arrived I realized how wise I made my decision to study here. It is such a large campus with wonderful scenery, also with brand-new study facilities and professional and kind tutors. The most obvious difference between Chinese education and British education is I only have 10 classmates in my MSc class while it would be over 100 in Chinese universities. The tutors knew every students’ name and cared about us in each class, they explained everything we didn’t understand with huge patience. It’s my fortune to have learnt the modes of thinking more than the result of answering; the disciplines of market more than the statistics of profit; the methods of development more than the compulsion of management.

The other significant characteristic of the MSc studying which impressed me is its utility. All the case studies all based on real models especially the final dissertation. I researched my own publishing company, discussed all its advantages and weakness and focused on marketing. I gave lots of recommendations to the marketing department and showed all these to my boss. He thought my advice about the budget and marketing research was good and added them to the companies’ strategies. It’s so encouraging that my dissertation could be identified by some of my colleagues and really helped the development of my company.

My mum passed away at my summer vacation, I wish she could see me getting a distinction of my dissertation and be proud of me. I so appreciate my tutors who gave me care and encouragement to help me finish my study. They have taught me much, not only of my specialist courses but also of my lifestyle. I hope more and more students could have the luck like me, learn and grow a lot from th

My name is Gao Hui (Caroline), I graduated from the MSc in International Publishing Management subject in January 2011, and then came back to China to find a new job. When I started job hunting, I was full of power, and I could stay in front of my computer all day long, and send hundreds of CV to any publishing related company. I was excited at the very beginning, but after two weeks without receiving any interviews, I lost my confidence and decided to rewrite my CV and optimize it.

Then I got some job interviews, but no offer.

At the beginning of the fourth week of  job hunting, I start to visit some publishing companies with my CV, to introduce myself to the HR manager and some department managers. Finally, I got a position as a web editor in the digital publishing department of China Social Sciences Press.

The technological part of digital publishing is a brand new sector for me, but I’m very interested in digital publications, and also have passion for this rising area of the global publishing industry. Besides, I’ve learned a lot of cutting edge knowledge from the course at the University of Stirling. I will make effort in this career, and enjoy the happiness of this new adventure!

Studying at Stirling gave me a solid foundation in all the elements I needed to succeed in my first job at a small publishing house: editing, design, production, sales and marketing and an understanding of the publishing process as a whole. The business elements of the course are invaluable and the method of working in groups for extended periods of time allowed me and my colleagues to experience working as part of a publishing team before we started our careers. Students were encouraged to learn outside of the course through work placements, peer to peer learning and discussion of major industry news in order to engage with the real world of publishing as opposed to just studying it.

Elaina O’Neill is currently Managing Editor at Little Island

I always remember the first day when I entered Stirling. “Although the degree you will get is called an MSc in International Publishing Management (IPM), not MBA, it’s actually very much like a MBA, because we are training you in management.”

And thanks to this intensive one year training by Stirling, with another year’s working experience via the IPM program, I co-founded a media company after going back to China. Soon after, we brought in the world’s first technology magazine – MIT’s Technology Review. Now I’m also working in the ecommerce business, serving as Operational Director for Xiu.com, the no.1 fashion ecommerce company in China. No matter whether dealing with traditional media like Newsweek and the New York Times, or with new media like social networking sites and Twitter, I always find the knowledge and thinking prompted by Stirling’s program is very helpful to me.

Stirling has not only taught me about publishing, media and communications, but more a whole new perspective of looking at the business world.

Studying at the University of Stirling is an eye-opening experience. The core constituent of the International Publishing Management course is to learn how to address the problems common to every publisher, cope with the changes that the publishing industry is undergoing and most important of all, seek new areas of growth. Finally each course member is required to focus their thesis on a publisher: apply what they have learnt in class to resolve the problems the publisher is faced with and give recommendations on how to achieve sustainable growth.

My focus is on Basic Education Publishing (BEP，part of Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press based in Beijing), the publishing company I’m working for. “Write about your own company, and it will be good for you once your recommendations are adopted.” This is great advice from our teachers at the University of Stirling, which my later experience bears out. I knew the problems with our company, applied my knowledge gained in the course and then put all my ideas into the thesis.

Two weeks after I came back, the publishing strategy of BEP was forwarded to me. I revised and even rewrote some parts of it according to my thesis. My boss has been really happy with the fresh perspective I brought back. As a result, a new list has been built and the first batch, which includes twelve books, will be published in the summer of 2010. More of my ideas are now being used and tested. Due of my input, I have been admitted to the publishing committee, the decision-making body of our company.

Looking back, the publishing course has familiarised me with the norms in international publishing and helped to train me to think and work more professionally. I’m always grateful to the course as it has paved the way for my further professional development.

I cannot say that the Publishing course at the University of Stirling was the only reason for my success, but it has been a great help. I began work with Pearson Education in New York as a Production Assistant and after 18 months I had been promoted to Production Editor. What the course gave me was a number of significant advantages and insights.

First, the practical knowledge I gained of editing, production, marketing and the whole business of books gave me a clear idea of where I wanted to go in the industry. Secondly, because I had gone on the course, I had marketable skills which I found publishing houses were eager to use.

The Stirling course provides a sound training for the real world of publishing. The staff are experienced, knowledgeable, and highly approachable. The laboratory facilities are state of the art and the course content is relevant and highly practical.

If you want a career in publishing, there is no better place to start than Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling. Years after graduating I am still using the knowledge and skills I learned at Stirling.