Ask Yannis Samaras to describe his best memory of WMG, and he won’t talk about the facilities, the campus or the quality of teaching. He won’t even say it was gaining his MSC in Engineering Business Management. He’ll tell you “It was the moment when I met my future wife”!

So naturally, Yannis is eager to describe the social aspects of life at Warwick: “I met so many people who became great friends to both myself and my wife. People from right across the world. I consider myself really lucky to have had such an amazing experience. I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

So to say that Yannis enjoyed his time here would clearly be an understatement. But did the course match his expectations too?

“It exceeded them in every possible way,” he said. “When I arrived from Greece, I wanted to build on the knowledge I’d gained from my degree in Production Engineering and Management. WMG didn’t disappoint. All the modules I studied were 100% relevant to today’s industry - and real business case studies brought the theory to life.”

Yannis was also quick to mention the support he received from his tutors. “They have experience of industry,” he said “And they always encouraged me to think in a broad way about each subject, relating it to the reality of the commercial world. For example, as part of one module, I created and wrote a manufacturing strategy for a business. That was really eye-opening and thoroughly enjoyable too.”

For his dissertation, Yannis chose to focus on the impact of sound quality on potential customers within the automotive industry.

“It was about how people perceive engine sounds and the effect those sounds have on their buying decision,” he described. “So I recorded a range of sounds and researched how people felt about them; what sound they would perceive as being from the most powerful engine for example.”

As Yannis is keen to stress, this again took his thinking beyond the theory to practical application that could have a positive impact on a business. For Yannis, this was a recurring theme throughout his 12 months at Warwick.

Looking back on his year, he also pointed out how projects and exercises were geared towards his own particular areas of interest. “All of the students said how important this was,” he said.  “It made everything we worked on exciting – and helped us to think innovatively to develop genuinely effective solutions.”

Yannis didn’t waste any time in looking for a job. In fact, he began searching for a career opportunity while he was still at Warwick. “The university’s staff gave me a lot of help,” he said. “They supported me in researching the market and discovering what kind of roles would be right for me.”

Before he even gained his MSc, Yannis was offered a position as a Manufacturing Engineer with Rolls Royce. He joined the business in September 2007.

“Studying at WMG was definitely a huge help to me,” he said. “I’ve discovered that WMG has an outstanding reputation with Rolls Royce and other major engineering companies. They look to Warwick for the best people, so having a qualification from here is definitely a big advantage.”