Moscow International Higher Business School MIRBIS

Age: 23

History: MIRBIS was founded by the Plekhanov Academy of Economics (Russia) and the Economic Research Society NOMISMA (Italy) in 1988, on the basis of an inter-governmental agreement between the two countries to create one of the first business schools in the Soviet Union. Now MIRBIS is recognized to be a top private business school in Russia.

Address: Marksistskaya street, 34, building 7, Moscow, Russia.

Ambience: Located in the heart of Moscow, only a 20-minute walk from the Kremlin. The Russian capital is also the nation's political, business, industrial and cultural centre. The school has four more campuses located in the nicest parts of Moscow, and the Central campus opened in September 2007. A new set of lecture theatres and seminar rooms was added in September 2008.

Vital statistics: MIRBIS provides a full range of life-long learning business education and executive development programmes, research and consultancy services. The school offers undergraduate, postgraduate, Masters, doctoral and executive development programmes, both national and in partnership with British and European Universities. There are 394 courses in total delivered for over 6000 students.

Added value: The school is one of the leaders in Russia for postgraduate and executive business education. It is renowned for its strong links with the corporate world and a robust alumni association.

International connections: The school has faculty and student exchange programmes with 65 universities and business schools worldwide, and it was one of the first educational institutions in Russia to allow its students to study abroad by arranging in-company training and study courses for Russian executives wishing to experience western work and management. More than 2200 students have completed short-term executive development courses in top business training centres and companies all over the world. In the last two years MIRBIS has become a partner of business schools in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany for arranging residential field study courses for their students in Moscow.

Glittering alumni: Olga Zueva, HR director, Biocad Co.; Pavel Sidorov, finance director, Severstal JSC,

Gurus: Eugeniy Boichenko, Marketing; Alexander Sazanovitch, Strategic Management, Alexander Sergeev, Organisational Behaviour; Vladimir Polkovnikov, Internaitonal Projects Management; Ekaterina Lisitsyna, Finance and Banking, Juriy Tchebotar’, Organizations management.

Student profile: Age range on both the executive and MBA programmes is 30-34, with a male to female ratio of 65:35.

Cost: Executive MBA costs £9,000; the regular MBA costs £8,810. Executive development short-term courses range from £800 to £1,800, depending on the type of the course and its duration.

Return on investment: It takes a year for MBA graduates to recover the course costs.

Who's the boss? The rector is Professor Stanislav Savin.

Prospectus: +7 495 921 41 88; rector@mirbis.ru; www.mirbis.ru