A Bucks New University graduate has won a year’s membership with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) as part of an award for the best dissertation on his degree.

Stephen Heath, 27, gained a first-class in BA (Hons) Marketing at the University’s Buckinghamshire Business School and was presented with his award by Francesca Monaco, vice-chair of the South-East Board of the CIM.

“I felt very humbled to win the award,” said Stephen, an events and marketing manager at South African restaurant group Fego UK.

“It was a great honour and I was pleased to make my tutors proud after all the support, advice, and guidance they gave me during my three years of study.

“I was surrounded by plenty of outstanding students so to win the award for the best dissertation felt like a great achievement.

“I am moving to London in the coming weeks and intend to use the CIM Award and membership to attend industry talks and utilise networking opportunities, ideally with London-based agencies to find an ideal role with progression and travel opportunities.”

Speaking about his job, Stephen said: “My role to date has centred around building omnichannel strategies and implementing concepts while aiding the group rebranding and remodelling from Fego Caffe to Fego.

“I split my time between serving as their marketing manager, largely working remotely, while overseeing the marketing and ecommerce store for a family start-up business based in Malta, an art and print shop called House of Gozo.”

Stephen’s dissertation was called ‘Could convergence theory assist the traditional print publications industry to adapt to compete and subsidise quality investigative journalism whilst retaining profitability in an informed and digital age?’

John Hathaway, senior lecturer in strategy and human resource management, said: “We are delighted for Stephen.”