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Ranked Europe top 10 and global top 20 for Value For Money, FT Global MBA Rankings 2024

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Ranked Europe top 10 and #22nd globally for Career Progress, FT Global MBA Rankings 2024

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Ranked Global top 100, FT Global MBA Rankings 2024

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New international partnership to benefit MBA students

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Cranfield builds careers and people. We think it’s because we genuinely transform lives and the paths our students take. Being a business leader is bigger than just doing business. And we’re more than a business school. Cranfield School of Management proudly puts the emphasis on the word ‘management’, a much more complex, rewarding, and transformative perspective.

The areas we help you manage are broad, diverse, ever-changing, and challenging. The world is going through immense change and uncertainty, and business leaders are more and more looked to as the ones who need to take responsibility. Are you ready to transform?

Overview

  • Start date30 September 2024
  • Duration12 months
  • DeliveryYou will be assessed through a mixture of exams, written projects and presentations.
  • QualificationMBA
  • Study typeFull-time
  • CampusCranfield campus



Inspiring future leaders to transform their world


The Transformation MBA

The Full-time MBA at Cranfield School of Management genuinely transforms lives and the paths they take. It enables our students to remake themselves and their ambitions. Ranked #5 in the world for innovation, the Cranfield MBA helps you develop an instinct for transformation, so you are ready to take your place among the next diverse generation of business leaders.

Be the one everyone looks to in the boardroom.

It’s called The Transformation MBA because Cranfield’s Full-time MBA has never been just about salary uplift or getting hired quicker. We will help you transform your network, your knowledge, and your career. With year-long career and executive coaching, and access to a vast alumni network that’s been ranked #1 in the world for its breadth (The Economist WhichMBA? Full-time MBA Rankings 2021), we help you unlock new connections, new mindsets, and new ambitions.

Our Full-time MBA programme has been redesigned for 2023. It’s now more international, more personal, and even closer to business. It’s a one-year immersive experience that includes opportunities to work with real clients, secure an internship, spend a month abroad, attend networking and speaker events at our dedicated entrepreneurship hub – even host a press conference with real journalists – all as part of a senior peer group that’s one of the most gender diverse cohorts in the world!

Key features of the Transformation MBA at Cranfield

Problem-based and practice-led learning

Everything we do is grounded in practical thinking and experience. Our MBA programme is designed to equip you with the practical skills you need to tackle complex business challenges and increase your exposure to real world problems. We provide opportunities for you to work on real-life projects with respected companies throughout the year:

  • Business Analytics and Consulting Project
  • International Consultancy Project
  • Career Pathway Project

The Business Analytics and Consulting and International Consultancy projects will see you work with a client company on a consulting project. The work involves understanding the problem, gathering evidence and, most importantly, developing a pragmatic, innovative and achievable solution. Examples of companies we have done consulting projects for include:

  • Siemens Gamesa
  • Calvin Klein
  • McDonald’s
  • UK NHS
  • Baringa Consultancy
  • Endangered Brewing
  • Harry Specters

We conclude the year with career pathway projects where you will have the option to  undertake an internshipembark on your entrepreneurship journey or complete an independent project. 

Focus on career outcomes

The new credit-bearing Career Development and Enhancement module will systematically support you in navigating career exploration and development, helping you achieve your post-MBA career aspirations.

Three career pathways– Executive, Entrepreneurial and Independent – will increase your exposure to the world of work and allow you to customise your path, focusing on your personal career needs and aspirations. Each career pathway involves a major project-based module that allows students to pursue a full-time internship, entrepreneurship journey or an independent consultancy project as well as an elective module—enabling you to advance towards the career outcome you want to achieve.

Our career mentoring programme brings bright, enthusiastic students with successful professionals in a mentoring partnership. Mentoring is an opportunity for students to learn from a fellow alumnus, benefitting from their insight and experience and helping them navigate their studies and into their first post-MBA job. 

Focus on leadership development

We’re a School of Management (not business) for a reason. Our 50+ year focus on leadership ensures you gain the skills and awareness to become an influencer in the boardroom. You’ll have dedicated coaching throughout the year, access to an Executive in Residence, and of course, plenty of ‘deep-dive’ analysis into your strengths and weaknesses to establish your own brand of responsible leadership.

Some key features include:

  • One to One Executive Coaching
  • Leadership Week
  • Personal Development Workshops:
    • Designing how to work together: Psychological safety and team chartering
    • On becoming a critically reflective practitioner
    • How to resolve team conflicts
    • Effective cross-cultural management

Extensive international experience

Cranfield Full-time MBA (The Transformation MBA) students can spend a month at the ESCP campuses in Madrid or Turin, expanding their knowledge of global business practices. They'll complete two weeks of credit-bearing study as well as a two-week consultancy project competition. Consultancy, fintech innovation, and luxury management are the specialisations available this year. They will collaborate with ESCP students, exchange ideas and knowledge, and make new connections during their time abroad. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students' personal and professional development, as well as support for international mobility and the establishment of a global network.

The Cranfield experience

We’re the only dedicated postgraduate university in the UK. which 70% of our faculty are still active in real business and industry today. Our unique faculty infuse their own unique expertise into the MBA, which means you’ll experience press conference training with real journalists in a tv studio and get to participate in the global Venture Capital Investment Competition under the expertise of our dedicated hub for entrepreneurial excellence, the Bettany Centre. (Cranfield won the Southern European Finals for both 2021 and 2022, and was the only non-US-based school among the six Global Finalists for 2022!)

We’re also pretty sure we’re the only business school with its own airport!

Why do the Transformation MBA at Cranfield?

With so much choice, we know choosing where to study is not an easy decision! At Cranfield School of Management, we truly believe that unlocking a transformation, unique to each individual, actually influences the course of your life. We have lost count of the number of CEOs, COOs and CFOs we have put into Fortune 500 companies.

A globally recognised MBA programme…

  • UK Top Five for sector diversity in the classroom (FT Global MBA Ranking 2024)
  • Top 10 in Europe and global Top 20 for Value for Money (FT Global MBA Ranking 2024)
  • Top 10 in Europe and #22 globally for Career Progress (FT Global MBA Ranking 2024)
  • #3 in UK for the percentage of female faculty and Top 5 for the percentage of female students (FT Global MBA Ranking 2024)
  • #12 in Europe and 4th in the UK (Bloomberg Businessweek Best B-Schools List 2023-24)
  • #1 in Europe and in the UK for Entrepreneurship and for Learning (Bloomberg Businessweek Best B-Schools List 2023-24)
  • No. 1 in the world for the breadth and effectiveness of the alumni network (The Economist Which MBA? 2021)
  • No. 6 in the world for teaching influence (Business School Teaching Power Rankings 2021 compiled for the Financial Times)
  • Top 5 in the world for innovation and entrepreneurship (América Economia Global MBA Rankings 2022)
  • Top 3 in Europe for entrepreneurial education (Bloomberg Best European Business Schools 2021/22)
  • Top 19% globally for speed to ROI (QS 2022 Global Rankings)
  • Top 5 in the UK for salary outcomes (QS Global MBA Rankings 2023)
  • Top 20 worldwide for diversity of recruiters (The Economist Which MBA? 2022)
  • We’re quintuple-accredited for quality. Only 1% of business schools worldwide hold a triple-accreditation, but we go two further. We’re accredited not just with AACSB, EQUIS, CMI and AMBA, but also The Small Business Charter.
  • Furthermore the Cranfield MBA is a Chartered Management Institute (CMI) dual accreditation degree. This provides the opportunity to stand out from other MBA graduates by achieving the CMI’s professional management qualification alongside your Cranfield degree. 

Course details

The Transformation MBA by Cranfield focuses on career outcomes and puts project work at the forefront of the curriculum. The customisable programme is structured in four parts.

Programme structure

Part one: Following an immersive Orientation Week, you will complete ten core modules and the first part of the Business Analytics and Consulting module. You will also begin the Executive Coaching sessions and Career Development and Enhancement module designed to support you in achieving your post-MBA career goals. This executive and career coaching will run throughout the programme.

Part two: During the second segment, you will complete three elective modules of your choice, enabling you to bespoke your MBA experience with Cranfield. During this time, you will also achieve the second part of the Business Analytics and Consulting and Career Development and Enhancement modules.

Part three: In June, you will complete a truly exciting month-long international experience, allowing you to study abroad at ESCP Europe Milan or Turin campuses; you will take elective modules delivered by our educational partner and complete an exciting international consultancy project.

Part four: The final part of the programme will allow you to customise your Cranfield MBA further to suit your specific career aspirations. Select one of our three distinct career pathways: Executive Career, Entrepreneurial Career, or Independent Career. Finally, your executive and career coaching will conclude.

Course delivery

You will be assessed through a mixture of exams, written projects and presentations.

Group Project and Individual Project

Group project

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

Individual project

Internships and company-based projects allow you to apply your learning in a real business environment, get experience in a sector of interest, gain international exposure and can support your career progression. You can source an internship or project yourself, or use the School's alumni network or dedicated Careers and Employability Service to help you find the right organisation.

Modules

Compulsory modules

  • Applied Organisational Behaviour
  • Accounting
  • Strategic Operations Management
  • Strategic Marketing
  • Economics of Organisations and Strategy
  • Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation
  • Financial Management
  • Strategic Management
  • Project Management Introduction
  • Global Macroeconomics and Business Environment
  • Entrepreneurial Finance
  • Challenges for Leaders: Managing People and Change
  • Data Analytics and Decision Making
  • Leadership in Action
  • Leading Sustainable Business

Elective modules

Finance

  • Corporate Financial Strategy
  • Investment and Risk Management
  • Managing International Mergers and Acquisitions

Entrepreneurship

  • Leading and Managing the Family Enterprise

Strategy

  • International Strategy
  • Strategising in Challenging Contexts
  • Strategic Human Resource Management in the 21st Century
  • Driving Value Through the Supply Chain

Leadership

  • Leaders as Thinkers: Leadership through Philosophy
  • Negotiating in Business and Organisations
  • Leading Sales and Customer Management Organisations
  • Business Law

Strategy and Leadership

  • Managing Strategic Innovation
  • International Strategy

Projects

  • Independent Project

Teaching team

Our faculty are passionately committed to improving the practice of management. As leaders in their field with hands-on business experience, they understand the challenges of putting theory into practice.  Their experience is reinforced by close links with organisations through consultancy projects, teaching on executive development programmes and sponsored research. This ensures that what you learn at Cranfield is always current and cutting edge. You can find out more about our faculty in the news section of our website. The Programme Director is Dr Leila Alinaghian.



Accreditation

Our consistent presence in world rankings and our triple accreditation put us in the elite 1% of schools worldwide. We are accredited by:

Triple Accreditation

Cranfield School of Management is a proud member of GMAC.

Our MBA programme has received Chartered Management Institute Accreditation, recognising Cranfield's commitment to providing management development programmes of the rigorous quality required by the CMI.

CMI logo


How to apply

To apply you will need to register to use our online system. Once you have set up an account you will be able to create, save and amend your application form before submitting it.

Once your online application has been submitted together with your supporting documentation, it will be processed by our admissions team. You will then be advised by email if you are successful, unsuccessful, or whether the course director would like to interview you before a decision is made. Applicants based outside of the UK may be interviewed either by telephone or video conference.

Useful links

Alumni discounts   Application process guide   FAQs


Application deadlines

  • 26 October 2023
  • 30 November 2023
  • 18 January 2024
  • 7 March 2024
  • 9 May 2024
  • 11 July 2024

Ready to influence, inspire and lead?