Kingston Business School

Age: 44

History: The Kingston MBA was founded in 1984 and has had continuous AMBA accreditation since 1989.

Address: On Kingston University's Kingston Hill campus, close to Richmond Park and Hampton Court Palace.

Ambience: Located on a wooded campus with a mixture of architectural styles and new buildings, including a new learning resource centre.

Vital statistics: Offers a one year full-time and two-year executive MBA, as well as a range of specialist postgraduate courses across all the main business disciplines. It was one of the first business schools in the UK to offer the DBA (Doctorate in business administration), which is also AMBA-accredited.

Added value: Offers many of the features of programmes at other more expensive business schools, but at lower cost.

Easy to get into? The full-time MBA normally requires a minimum of three years' management experience and a degree or equivalent. Successful applicants for the executive MBA, normally require five years' management experience and a degree or equivalent. The average management experience on the full-time MBA is five years and for the executive MBA it is over 10 years.

Glittering alumni: Mike Adamson, head of corporate strategy, the Red Cross; Professor Elaine Harris, head of postgraduate studies, Leicester Business School.

International connections: The Kingston MBA is run in Russia, Cyprus and Greece, and was the first AMBA-accredited MBA to be offered in these countries. In Russia, the Kingston MBA programme is run at the Academy of National Economy in Moscow, and was recently named as the best business school in Russia in a prestigious league table.

Student profile: Kingston MBA students come from a wide variety of professional and educational backgrounds. They come from commercial organisations, from the public sector and from the not-for-profit or third sector. Their first degree might be in a business, technical, social or arts subject. They are also from a wide age range, from 24 to 54.

Cost: £18,000

Return on investment: Almost without exception Kingston MBAs see a "significant rise" in their salaries after graduating. Many have gone on to senior positions of large blue-chip organisations and SMEs, or to lead their own companies.

Who's the boss? Professor Jean-Noël Ezingeard is dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, which incorporates Kingston Business School.

Prospectus: +44 (0)20 8417 5343; www.kingston.ac.uk/mba; mba@kingston.ac.uk