Smart Moves: The A-Z of Business Schools - Middlesex University Business School

Age: 26

History: First incarnation in 1973 as faculty of business management when Middlesex was a poly. Became a business school later. MBA began in 1980 - claimed to be the first part-time evening MBA in the country.

Address: Hendon: one of seven campuses of the University of Middlesex which sprawls around the northern edge of London. Seven miles from the West End.

Ambience: Self-contained urban campus containing brand new three-storey graduate centre built for pounds 2.7 million and opened by Education minister Kim Howells last summer. Spanking new sports centre on the business school site also unveiled last year. You can sweat over your computer and then sweat on a treadmill without having to move far.

Vital statistics: One of the largest business schools in London with 5,500 students studying anything from diplomas to PhDs. There are 50 full- time and 50 part-time MBA students. Around one-fifth of the total are postgraduates. Has good business links and international contacts.

Added value: Has just reviewed all MBA programmes. Asked focus groups drawn from commerce and industry what they wanted. Surveyed businessmen and alumni to identify gaps. Conducted a benchmarking study which looked at 12 American business schools and the changes they had made. As a result MBA has been redesigned: relaunch scheduled for September 1999. It will be more integrated with course divided into four six-week periods and five integrated learning experience weeks. After the first six weeks students will spend one day a week for 12 weeks in a small/medium-sized enterprise solving real problems. Distance learning MBA will be added to full-time and executive (part-time) courses.

Easy to get into? You need a 2:1 degree and three years' work experience.

Association of MBA's accreditation: Yes, for full-time and executive.

Glittering alumni: Malcolm Allison, director and vice president, strategic product development, Smithkline Beecham, Philadelphia; Dilraj Sidhu, executive consultant, KPMG; James Juffs, policy adviser and press officer, now on secondment from the Bank of England; Mohamed Nathani, proprietor, Tanzanian Experience.

International connections: On full-time MBA 60-65 per cent of students are from overseas, eg Europe (EU and non-EU), Malaysia, Israel and Brazil. Has links with other schools in Hungary, Poland, Russia, US, Europe, Brazil, Far East and China.

Gurus: Paul Dunne, professor of peace studies.

Visiting professors: Bernard Ingham, Baroness Thatcher's former spin doctor; Sir Michael Patridge, former permanent secretary at Department of Social Security.

Research: Achieved a grade 2 in business and management (top grade is 5) and a 3b in accounting and finance.

Teaching: Rated satisfactory by the higher education funding council people.

Student profile: Average age on full-time MBA is 28; on executive MBA is 35. Male/female ratio on full-time is 28:72; on executive 35:65

Cost: pounds 8,000 for the full-time (takes 18 months) and same for the executive (takes 30 months).

Return on investment: Salary hike, you hope.

Who's the boss? David Kirby, professor of entrepreneurship who came from Durham business school and sports Man United ties.

Next week: University of Newcastle School of Management.