Just the business

Just a stone's throw from busy Keighley Road, the University of Bradford School of Management is an oasis of learning - passing on management and business techniques to some of the world's brightest business brains.

Established in 1963, the School of Management is one of the oldest centres of management scholarship and research in the world and nestles in 13 acres of parkland with stunning views.

Students have their own library, bookshop, language centre, restaurant and bar.

On a more cerebral level, it is also one of the few business schools in the country to offer management education at undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and executive levels.

Right from the beginning it has offered a plethora of options for those seeking to improve their business knowledge and worth.

The undergraduate programme, and what was to become the MBA, were both launched in 1964. And just two years later, executive education was also kick-started, while the first PhD students were admitted in 1969.

The school, which is based in a neo-gothic building off Emm Lane, had its foundations laid in 1874 by Sir Titus Salt, the man who was lauded for his own business acumen.

The glorious building itself was designed by Bradford architects Lockwood and Mawson, who also designed Bradford City Hall, the city's Wool Exchange, and Titus Salt's eponymous Mill.

The building has always been a font of knowledge - it was formerly a training centre for Congregational ministers - and it retains a host of stained glass.

This cathedral of learning is also listed and boasts most of the original interior features.

In 2001, the venue celebrated past achievements and its future with an official change of name - from Bradford Management Centre to Bradford University School of Management.

Professor Arthur Francis, whose specialist subjects are strategic management and industrial competitiveness, is the current dean and director of the school.

And he is driven in his desire to offer the best courses and is proud of how well-regarded the school has become.

He was appointed director in 1998 and became dean, when the School became a faculty of Bradford University, in 2000.

Professor Francis said: "As a full-service business school, providing courses for undergraduates through to executive development, we can offer participants on our programmes the 'Bradford experience' - a unique combination of business-orientated skills development with rigorous teaching of evidence-based management research.

"We have been offering this 'Bradford experience' for nearly 40 years to both individuals and corporate clients around the world.

"And Bradford School of Management remains a 'big hitter' in the increasingly competitive world of business education."

The School prides itself on its international links, and has programmes and collaborations across the globe.

MBA courses are offered through NIMBAS Graduate School of Management, which has centres in the Netherlands and in Germany at Utrecht, Mainz, Bonn and Berlin.

Employees from some of the largest companies in the United Arab Emirates are studying for the Bradford MBA, while Business and Management Studies programmes are undertaken jointly in Singapore with the Management Development Institute of Singapore.

The school is a true league of nations.

In Malaysia, under a joint programme run with Rima College, the school validates academic content of Rima's higher and advanced diplomas.

And in India, the Institute for Integrated Learning offers Bradford Business and Management undergraduate programmes at a number of centres.

The recent launch of distance-learning MBAs in Hong Kong and Singapore has added to the school's global presence.

It also enjoys a reputation for making students from other countries feel welcome - around 30 nationalities are currently studying on the MBA programme.

To meet the need for flexible study programmes, the school offers a number of ways to gain the MBA - full-time, executive part-time, distance learning, executive modular, and action learning (for the engineering industry).

Students of the full or part-time programmes may also elect to focus their studies around e-business by choosing, in the later stages of their course, a number of specialist electives and a specialist project.

The executive modular MBA, which is taught at the executive education facility, at Heaton Mount - a sympathetic mixture of the old and new in buildings - is a new course especially designed for talented, high achievers looking for world-class business education which won't interrupt their high-flying careers.

Aimed at executives who have gained at least five years' management or business experience following their first degree, the course consists of intensive weeks away from work, enabling students to relate learning directly to their companies.

The school has also enjoyed a long and prestigious association with one of Britain's most historic organisations - the BBC.

The Beeb chose the school ten years ago when it decided it wanted its middle managers to understand the commercial practices and pressures of business life.

This relationship has continued to thrive, and since it began, more than 600 MBA and diploma students from the BBC have benefited from the executive courses.

Tailor-made programmes have also been created for other major organisations, including Bass Breweries, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, and Rolls-Royce.

The school can also count big hitters such as Kevin Gaskell, managing director of BMW (GB); Nick Prest, chairman and chief executive of armoured vehicle manufacturer Alvis and Kofi Adu Labi, executive director of Social Security Bank, Ghana, among its alumni.

And the school is not alone in blowing its trumpet.

Today the School found out it had been placed in the top 100 business schools in the world.

The latest Financial Times annual survey on full-time MBAs placed it at number 85. It was also ranked tenth in the UK , and is the only School in the region to have been ranked in the prestigious survey.

The FT has also shown that graduates of the school enjoy a dramatic improvement on their earnings - something prospective students are no doubt delighted to hear.

The results revealed graduates are earning nearly £65,000 per year just three years after gaining their MBA.

This is an increase of a whopping 69 per cent on their salary at the beginning of the course.

And it is also a world leader.

Bradford was placed 46th in the world - stepping up one place from last year - and ninth in the UK.

And the school is also a delight for its students.

Last year, a study revealed Bradford to be the 16th most popular destination in the world for doctoral students in business and management.

The ranking of the world's top 30 schools, measured by the total number of graduates for the previous three years, placed Bradford sixth in Britain - ahead of Manchester, London and City University business schools.

Stuart Benford, 34, began the part-time course but decided to transfer to full-time study as he wanted to gain the MBA qualification as quickly as possible.

He said; "Bradford School of Management was by far the premier choice of business school in the region. It is well established, and the AMBA accreditation

plus the Financial Times rankings makes it a heavyweight.

"And you are also meeting students from all over the world, so you are

learning not only about the subjects, but different cultures and

practices as well."

Everywhere you turn Bradford is winning plaudits.

The doctoral programme also received re-accreditation from the Economic and Social Research Council in 2002 when, for the first time, the organisation was willing to consider Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) programmes for the kitemark.

The school submitted its DBA, and was one of only three in the UK to get accreditation.

The European Foundation for Management Development has awarded the school the coveted European business school quality kite mark under its EQUIS scheme.

The EQUIS auditors praised the "top quality teaching in all the programmes and high involvement of the faculty".

Few business schools worldwide have achieved the EQUIS accolade, and Bradford was only the seventh in Britain to pass the rigorous assessment process performed by an international panel of auditors drawn from European and American business schools and the private sector.

And this no backwater when it comes to its MBAs - Bradford is up there with the best. The school's action learning MBA was the first in the country to gain accreditation from the Association of MBAs (AMBA) - widely recognised as the guardian of MBA quality.

And Bradford's corporate MBAs for the BBC, Ciba and Emirates were the first company -dedicated MBAs in the country to achieve this accreditation.

Professor Francis said: "We have a triple agenda at the school.

"We want to maintain our position as one of Europe's leading business schools, while believing there is something particularly distinctive about Bradford and the school's diversity.

"It's geographically diverse, we have Bradford programmes across the globe, which means all staff have to think on an international and global scale.

"We also have diversity of the range of courses we offer, and we want to maintain this position.

"We also have a wonderfully diverse ethnic and nationality mix of staff, in fact the last few members of staff we recruited came from places such as Japan, China, Egypt, Israel and India.

"Plus we have a fantastic mix in our student body, with students from across the globe studying here.

"We also reflect the ethnic diversity of Bradford and have a lot of local students."

And where it succeeds the whole of Bradford can revel in its achievements, and hopefully, bask in its glory and economic success.