Warwick Business School

Age: 46

History: Created as part of the University of Warwick on a greenfield site in the Sixties.

Address: On the Warwick campus, four miles south of Coventry, close to all major road, rail and air links.

Ambience: Students and delegates are taught in purpose-built centres adjacent to the lively, green and spacious central campus. Shops, bars, extensive sports facilities, a buzzing Arts Centre with cinema, concert hall, theatre, restaurant, and one of the largest and liveliest student unions in the UK, all contribute to student life. A £30million five-storey building expansion will begin shortly, bringing all WBS activities under one roof and providing more state-of-the-art flexible teaching space and a large open plan cafeteria.

Vital statistics: One of Europe's biggest business schools, WBS offers the full range of undergraduate, postgraduate, post-experience and doctoral programmes. The Warwick MBA is taught to over 2,300 managers using a range of flexible study modes. Full-time, executive and distance learning are all offered, and a blended learning Global Energy MBA for managers working in and with the energy sector. MBAs graduate with ‘The Warwick MBA’ regardless of the study route taken.

Added value: Behavioural Science is an exciting new area of study, incorporating economics, psychology, statistics, maths and philosophy, and is only taught in Europe at WBS. Careers advice and coaching is embedded as part of the Warwick MBA, and students can switch between the modes of study to suit their circumstances. For graduates lacking the necessary work experience for the MBA and who have not previously studied business, there is a one-year full-time MSc in Management, or the flexible MSc in Business.  

Easy to get into? The ratio of MBA applications to acceptances is 3:1, and you'll need a good first degree and a minimum of three years' relevant work experience. A well-balanced GMAT score of above 650 is required for Full-time MBA applicants.

Glittering alumni: Craig Baker, partner and MD, Boston Consulting Group; Anne Gunther, Director of the Co-operative Banking Group, Bernardo Hees, CEO Heinz; Ken Hickey, SFO, Microsoft Operations at Microsoft; Nick Horler, Chairman, Energy & Natural Resources Advisory Board, KPMG; Pratik Jain, Vice President, HSBC; Paul Kehoe, CEO, Birmingham International Airport; Rajiv Sagar, Vice President, Capgemini; David Smith, former CEO, Jaguar Land Rover.

Gurus: Professor Nick Chater, Head of the Behavioural Science Group at WBS, and advisor to the UK Government and the private sector on behavioural change; James Mitchell, Professor of Economic Modelling and Forecasting; Andrew Sentance, Professor of Sustainable Business and former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee; WBS Dean, Professor Mark P Taylor is former Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund, Washington DC and Managing Director at BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager.

International connections: More than two-thirds of students and over half of academics come from overseas, and there are exchange programmes with institutions in Australia, the USA, Canada, South Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and Europe.

Student profile: Full-time MBAs are between 26 and 35. Distance learners are 25-57. The male to female ratio on the full-time course is 3:1, while on the executive and distance learning it is 4:1.

Cost: The full-time MBA is £31,500; distance learning £6,950 for year one, executive MBA £10,500 for year one, Global Energy MBA £11,000 for year one. The latter three are taken over three years.

Return on investment: Expect a 90 per cent salary increase three years after graduation. WBS is currently ranked third in the world by the Financial Times for return on investment – calculated by comparing salary earned three years post-MBA with the overall cost of taking the Warwick MBA.

Who's the boss? Professor Mark P Taylor.

Prospectus: +44 (0)24 7652 4100; www.wbs.ac.uk; warwickmba@wbs.ac.uk