MBAs Guide

Last year's finalists: Tony Sadownichik, Kagisho Mahura, Gajenda Sharma, and Matma Singhal (left to right). The award was won by Sharma in 2008

Amba Student Of The Year Award: Students from Africa, South America and the USA are nominated this year

Together the finalists for the Student of the Year award, run jointly by The Independent and the Association of MBAs (Amba), illustrate the internationalism of today's scholars. Although they are pursuing very different careers, have very different life stories and hold varied ambitions, their reasons for studying are very similar – they all see the MBA qualification as the means to gain the skills and confidence to take them in new directions and advance their careers.

Inside MBAs Guide

Can the MBA boom last?

Thursday, 1 October 2009

Despite the recession, the numbers taking MBA courses are increasing – but some think the peak could have been reached.

Blowin' in the wind: How business schools are discovering climate change

Thursday, 1 October 2009

Climate change is on everyone's lips right now and business schools are no exception. It's no surprise that an issue with such sweeping ramifications for the economy is turning up in MBA courses, but the way in which the schools are approaching the issue varies widely, from treating it as just another problem confronting managers, through lumping it in with corporate and social responsibility, to regarding it as so important that it requires a degree of its own.

Why aren't students learning Chinese?

Thursday, 1 October 2009

This month, a group of prospective students are due to arrive at a test centre in San Diego, California, where they will have their palms scanned and IDs checked. They will take a cubicle seat in front of a computer, monitored by CCTV cameras, with earphones on, for a test that might change their lives. These guinea pigs will be taking the first paid-for Pearson Test of English (PTE), which examines a candidate's reading, writing, listening and speaking ability, entirely by computer.

Stefano Harney: 'For most people, the crisis has only just begun'

Thursday, 1 October 2009

What should an MBA look like after the crisis? The very question resonates with everything that is wrong with the qualification – indeed everything that is wrong with business education in general. Because only from the very particular position of "business leadership" could someone even remotely begin to talk about life after the economic crisis. And it's this very particular position of leadership that business students are being invited to inhabit, especially in the MBA.

Turn on your iPod and learn

Thursday, 1 October 2009

Anywhere can be a classroom when you download the lessons to a media player.

Sign on the dotted line: Students are promising to act honestly by pledging themselves to a new oath

Thursday, 1 October 2009

In the past, MBA graduates went out into the world vowing to do whatever was necessary to claw their way to the top. Now they are pledging to work for "sustainable prosperity" and promising never to put their own ambitions ahead of those of their companies.

A shock to the system: Can you learn the principles of business management in only 80 minutes?

Thursday, 1 October 2009

It's slick, short, funny and focused. And, at just £10.99, it's more than 4,000 times cheaper than an MBA from a top UK business school. But does The 80 Minute MBA deliver? This pop paperback, which has shot to the top of the business book lists and been snapped up by people worldwide, aims to give its readers an MBA overview in less time than it takes to travel by train from London to Manchester. But how well does it succeed?

Hilary Wilce: 'It's the UK's first MBA delivered entirely by a private organisation'

Thursday, 1 October 2009

This autumn saw the launch of a new MBA from the London-based BPP Business School, and with it what could turn into a sea change in how business education is offered.

Feminine mystique: Why more women are applying for MBAs

Thursday, 1 October 2009

When Susan Miller did her MBA at Bradford in the 1980s, there was a hard-nosed emphasis on finance, economics and marketing. Since then the world has changed, she says.

From Russia with love: Meet the first MBA graduates from a school backed by Roman Abramovich and the Russian President

Thursday, 1 October 2009

Afew weeks ago, Anton Saraykin had an ordinary job as the head of media relations for a Japanese tobacco company. Now a giant hot air balloon is taking to the sky and the President of Russia is draping a bright orange scarf round his neck. It's not every day that Russians get to meet Dmitry Medvedev, their head of state, let alone shake his hand. So what has Saraykin, 28, a journalist from Siberia, done to earn such an honour? He has taken unpaid leave from his job after winning a scholarship to become one of the first 40 MBA students at Skolkovo, the Moscow School of Management and Russia's newest and glitziest business management college. Only three weeks into the 16-month course, the class of 2009 is already making history as their necks are draped in the scarves to mark their enrolment at the school.

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