Northumbria graduate wins APM Dissertation prize

A Northumbria Project Management graduate has been awarded the Association for Project Management (APM) North East Dissertation Prize.

Mark Elliott was presented with the prestigious award by Principal Lecturer in Project Management at Northumbria, Dr Allan Osborne, on behalf of the APM NE Branch Committee.

Mark recently completed Northumbria’s Project Management MSc programme, which has been associated with the APM North East Branch for over a decade. His decision to undertake the Masters qualification followed a twenty-year teaching career, during which he worked in a number of different North East secondary schools as an economics teacher and assistant head teacher.

Mark decided to take a career break with a view to pursuing a new challenge and, since graduation, has been appointed as a Capital Development and Project Manager for Northumberland County Council.

His dissertation adopted a case study methodology to explore the relationship between project owner and project culture within one of the UK's largest ship repair and conversion companies. His findings indicated market culture was a predominant factor and the project culture experienced by private and public sector employees is markedly different.

The implications of Mark’s study, for those organisations utilising projects, is that consideration should be given to the ownership and governance of a project. The cultural dimension for projects owned by public sector interests are more likely to experience a stronger association with the hierarchical culture type and, therefore, the adoption of formal rules and procedures and tight scrutiny of projects is an expectation of public-sector project owners.

Dr Allan Osborne said: “Mark was as an exemplary student. He proactively engaged in all aspects of learning and was supportive towards his peers.  My colleagues and I are delighted Mark has graduated and received the APM NE Branch Dissertation Prize, which is well deserved.  We wish him well with his future career in project management.”

To find out more about the Project Management MSc at Northumbria visit https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/study-at-northumbria/courses/project-management-dtdpjm6/ or come along to one of our Masters Open Days https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/study-at-northumbria/postgraduate-study/northumbria-masters-open-day/