Cranfield School of Management

The Cranfield Capstone Conference is a major event that marks the end of your course. It is an opportunity for you to discuss and debate a topical issue, and to showcase your to alumni and industry leaders. The full-time MBA conference takes place at the beginning of September and is organised by students.

You will receive extensive career development support and access to job opportunities through our close relationships with leading MBA recruiters. Top recruiters of Cranfield MBA students in recent years have included: Accenture, AT Kearney, BNP Paribas, BP, Emerson, Jaguar Land Rover and Saint-Gobain.

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A large proportion of learning on the full-time MBA is centred on case studies of real business challenges, which not only encourage critical and creative thinking, but also help to develop your ability to think strategically.

Working in small groups, you will apply what you have learnt in your core and elective modules to a consultancy project. You will help an organisation to tackle a contemporary challenge, researching the problem, analysing data and making recommendations for action.

The crisis management press conference simulation prepares you to deal with a crisis. Each MBA team receives a case study detailing a crisis situation and has an hour to allocate roles and prepare a response, including a two-minute statement to TV cameras, followed by 15 minutes of questioning from journalists drawn from national media. The team's performance is videoed and analysed.

You will be able to put your learning into practice by participating in the European Business Plan of the Year Competition, Europe's longest running business plan competition, which was hosted by Cranfield's Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship in 2011. The competition asks participants to present a business plan to private investors and venture capitalist and is designed to encourage entrepreneurship and new business creation among MBA students.

As part of the full-time MBA programme, you will undertake an International Business Assignment, either attending lectures at a partner business school and carrying out local company visits with a view to completing an independent assignment, or consulting for a non-profit organisation in a developing country with our partner, Challenges Worldwide. This International Business Experience gives you the opportunity to apply your learning in an international context.

In 2011 our students visited more countries (15 in total) and visited more organisations (well over 100), than ever before. In addition to the IBEs to Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Ghana, Japan, South Africa, USA and Vietnam, this year our students also embarked on a series of pioneering projects in Cambodia, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

This was made possible by working with Challenges Worldwide, an organisation that specialises in providing know-how, impact investment and business support for low-income countries.