Member News

1 August 2018 (Dubai – United Arab Emirates): The appeal of the MBA continues in the region - more than 80 senior business people have joined The University of Manchester’s Global Part-time MBA programme in the latest (July) 2018 student intake. All the new students are experienced senior business people working in leading companies across a range of key industry sectors across the region. Over the two student intakes in 2018 (January and July) the university’s Middle East Centre in Dubai has now enrolled over 160 new MBA students. The new cohort began its MBA journey recently with an induction session at the centre in Dubai Knowledge Park.

The new students represent 29 different nationalities residing in countries across the region, with around 80% based in the GCC. More than 20% of the new students are women and more than 10% are already educated to postgraduate level. 

Almost half the new intake has 6-10 years of experience working in a range of industries including retail, healthcare, energy, transport and logistics, banking and financial services, construction and real estate, ICT, and management consulting.

The job titles indicate the experience and seniority of the new students, many of whom are already in senior management or specialist roles, from CEO to Managing Director and General Manager, Chief Solutions Officer to Chief Nursing Officer, Partner to Senior Consultant, Enterprise Architect Director, Head of Finance to Head of Sales, and a range of senior engineer positions, among others.     

Randa Bessiso, Director – Middle East at The University of Manchester, comments: “Despits all the uncertainty around the global economy, digital disruption and the impact of automation and AI on career opportunities, experienced business people continue to develop their skills further and accelerate their careers faster, or even switch careers, with the help of an MBA. This has resulted in one of the largest July intakes of new MBA students in the Middle East since 2014. Experienced executives are looking for an MBA with demanding content and a practical learning experience, but also networking opportunities and the support of a dedicated careers service.”

The University of Manchester’s Global Part-time MBA is a two-year programme with options to accelerate study further, with as much face-to-face time with faculty as most full-time programmes. The programme is structured around four practical themes - Management in Practice; Value Creation in Business; Tailoring Your Journey; Professional Skills for Business; and with options to tailor further. An accelerated study route allows senior managers to complete the programme in 18 months. There is an 18-month Accelerated Finance Pathway option for candidates with professional accountancy qualifications.

The University of Manchester is continuing to strengthen UAE-UK relationships through research, innovation and commercialisation. In addition to the highly regarded Manchester Global Part-time MBA and existing suite of Executive Education programmes, the University has introduced additional industry-led Masters programmes to the region. The first of these are the MSc Reliability Engineering and Asset Management and MSc International Healthcare Leadership. The Kelley-Manchester Global MBA is an innovative dual MBA programme introduced in 2018.

The Middle East Centre has developed into the largest and fastest-growing centre in the University’s international network comprising six hubs in key business cities around the world. The centre has supported more than 2,300 part-time MBA students based in the region and has graduated more than 1,300 MBA students since opening in 2006.