SDA Bocconi School of Management

Age: 40

History: Graduate arm of Bocconi, Italy's main business university, which was founded in 1902. The School of Management, created in 1971, offers a range of Masters and executive education.

Address: Downtown Milan. SDA Bocconi School of Management, Masters Division - Via Balilla 18 - Milano, Italy.

Ambience: MBA programmes are housed in a newly refurbished building, a five-minute walk from the main university and School of Management buildings, with their restaurants, café, bar, library and language labs. The MBA building has 12 modern classrooms and 80 well-equipped group work areas. There is no on-campus housing, but a consultancy service is available to help FT MBA students find apartments and room-mates.

Vital statistics: SDA Bocconi is the leading School of Management in Italy and also stands among the top-ranked European Institutions. A top MBA programme, and a Global Executive MBA, both entirely in English, as well as a modular Executive MBA and an Evening Executive MBA in Italian. It also offers many specialised Masters and executive programmes, in English and in Italian, taught by staff with real hands-on management and business experience. The Full-time MBA is 12 months in duration and is a full-time general management course. The Global Executive MBA lasts 20 months, and is structured around 8 highly concentrated one-week on-campus modules + 2 ten-day on-campus modules (the first of each year), combined with distance-learning activities. Both programmes are held entirely in English. The school is accredited by both AMBA and EQUIS.

Added value: Bocconi MBAs are an ambitious undertaking, demanding drive and intelligence. The learning environment is highly intellectual, but also firmly based on teamwork and collaboration. The integrated, innovative SDA Bocconi FT MBA curriculum is based on real-world management knowledge, fully inclusive of the social dimensions of management issues.

Easy to get into? You'll need a degree, at least two or three years' work experience (for the Full-time MBA) or five to six years of professional experience (for the Global Executive MBA). A TOEFL or IELTS qualification, the GMAT and a successful interview are also needed.

Glittering alumni: Alessandro Lamanna, vice president, Nokia Latin America; Andrea Formica, CEO, Toyota Europe; Joerg Asmussen, director general, German Federal Ministry of Finance; Davide Grasso, vice president, Nike Asia Pacific marketing department.

International connections: Students hail from around 40 different countries. The school has MBA exchange arrangements with more than 30 major business schools in North and South America, Australia, China, India, Japan, France, Spain, The Netherlands and the UK. These include Columbia University in the USA; Instituto de Empresa, ESADE and London Business School in Europe. For those on the Global Executive MBA, class modules are available in the USA (at UCLA in Los Angeles) and China (at Fudan University in Shanghai) + exchange programme with partner schools such as London Business School, UCLA, Recanati in Tel Aviv and Rotman in Toronto.

Gurus: Mario Monti, former EU competition commissioner; Francesco Giavazzi, research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London.

Student profile: Average age of Full-time MBA students is 29. Italians make up to 40 per cent. Students on the Global Executive MBA have an average age of 35 and the course has a male to female ratio of 2:1. Italians make up 50 per cent.

Cost: Fees are set at €41,500 for the Full-time MBA (commencing October 2011), and €51,000 for the Global Executive MBA (starting March 2010).

Return on investment: It takes about two years to recover the course costs.

Who's the boss? Alberto Grando.

Prospectus: +39 02 58 36 31 25, www.sdabocconi.it/mba; md@sdabocconi.it