Welcome to our brand new blog..
I am Nicolas Forsans, programme director of our award-winning One Planet MBA at the University of Exeter Business School, a fast growing, internationally recognised and AMBA and EQUIS accredited business school located in the lovely city of Exeter in the South West of England. Through this blog we aim to give you a taste of what it is like to be an MBA student with us. Every week, myself and my MBA colleagues, our MBA students, alumni and corporate partners involved in the delivery of the programme will blog about their experiences. We hope you find this blog enjoyable.
25 years of excellence
Our MBA is a quarter of a century old, and this has given us a track record in delivering excellence. We tirelessly develop and improve our programme year after year and ensure its relevance to the changing global environment in which all firms, big and small operate.
In 2011, we took the brave (and highly successful!) decision to redefine what an MBA should stand for, in light of global increasing awareness of significant challenges that will affect business in the 21st century.
Some of those challenges are environmental, as all businesses are now constrained to do more with less in light of limited, and increasingly expensive natural resources at our disposal.
Others are economic and financial – we live in a post- global financial crisis era which has tremendously impacted on public opinions of business and capitalism. Businesses are agents of change – they impact on communities all around the world and demands for accountability and responsible management are now faced daily by global firms.
It is the ability to anticipate and act on those challenges that will determine the sustainability of organisations over the longer term. This is what our One Planet MBA is all about:
“to develop a new generation of business leaders capable of developing and leading profitable businesses in such a complex and rapidly changing global environment”
Our corporate partners
Our unique partnership with the highly trusted WWF International and a close knit network of global corporate partners including IBM, Coca Cola Enterprises, Lafarge, Canon and others gives us our credentials. Over the past three years, our MBA has gained worldwide recognition from all quarters, and we are very proud of our achievement:
- In 2011, the Association of MBAs (AMBA) gave us a “Highly Commended Award for Innovation”, recognising our MBA at the forefront of thinking
- A year later, the Washington-based Aspen Institute ranked our MBA among the top MBA programmes in the world, a performance that we achieved again in 2013 .
- Canada-based Corporate Knights, the “company for Clean Capitalism” ranked our MBA 3rd in the world and 1st in the UK while praising the forward-thinking feature of our MBA graduates. In the small programme category (fewer than 100 students) they even ranked us 1st in the world.
These are fantastic achievements that reflect well on the relevance of our programme and the quality of our graduates and alumni.
In the next few weeks I will tell you much more about what it is like to be a student on the programme. Our award-winning and highly praised MBA facilities will be the subject of my next post when I will give you a guided tour. Make sure you don’t miss out – you can subscribe to this blog using our RSS feed or you can join us on twitter, facebook and LinkedIn.
Until next time….