Specialisms and an international outlook are helping European business schools stay ahead of their rivals

By James Morrison

Published: 14 June 2007

Choices, choices: how did selecting an MBA school manage to become so complicated? Time was when the vast majority of programmes were confined to North America and the UK. Today they're everywhere.

From the booming markets of China and India - which, between them, boast more than twice as many providers as the United States - to Jordan, Kuwait and even Iran, the proliferation of courses has never been greater. Then there's mainland Europe.

In the past decade, the number of MBA schools on the continent has grown exponentially. There are now at least 500, though barely a third currently have the sector's gold standard seal of approval - accreditation by Britain's Association of MBAs (AMBA).

So, given the prospect of paying £20,000-plus for a one-year full-time, or two-year part-time programme, what unique selling-points can aspiring executive hotshots expect from the "European MBA experience"? And how can they hope to rationalise the baffling array of options available to them?

For Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of AMBA, the most credible European business schools are those with two key strengths: a resolutely international outlook, allied to a degree of specialisation - often linked to the industrial strengths of the localities in which they are based.

"To gain AMBA accreditation, schools must be established, which means they've run for at least two or three years and demonstrated success in terms of students going on to decent jobs," she says. "All MBA students should have at least three years' workplace experience, and the absolute bottom line is that teaching needs to have a global focus.

"Specialisation is also an increasing selling-point. Things are so competitive that schools are having to differentiate themselves. If you're a truly leading international school, like London Business School, you don't need to, but if you're smaller and newer, like Monaco, you have to find something to distinguish you from the rest."

That's precisely what the International University of Monaco has been doing in the 21 years since launching its maiden programme. The school - whose 100 per cent foreign intake has earned it a number one global ranking for student diversity in The Economist - steers candidates into one of three pathways. Its entrepreneurship strand seeks to tap into the wave of innovation fostered by the multimedia and telecoms booms. The others will be no surprise to those familiar with the image of Europe's smallest sovereign state as a Mecca for fashionistas and playboys - luxury goods and services, and wealth and asset management.

"The more MBAs are linked to their local communities, the more successful they'll be," declares associate dean of graduate programmes Boris Porkovich. "Our specialisms are closely related to what people associate with Monaco."

Luxury brand management is also the subject of one of two specialist MBAs offered by Paris's ESSEC Business School (the other is hospitality). Twenty years after its launch, this programme attracts 100 per cent of its intake from overseas.

Other schools playing to the strengths and demands of industry in the locales where they are based include the continent-spanning European University Centre for Management Studies, which boasts a number of sector-specific courses - including MBAs in sports management and leisure and tourism. Bordeaux Business School, meanwhile, offers the appetising prospect of an MBA in managing winemaking.

Another tactic used to ensnare prospective MBA students is novelty. At Rotterdam Business School, the lesser known of the Dutch city's MBA providers (the other being RSM Erasmus University), each student is allocated a "personal coach" to guide them in their development - both academic and social. There's also a course psychiatrist, whose meetings with the students are subject to formal assessment in the run-up to final exams.

The other attraction of certain courses, particularly for those seeking to continue in employment while studying for their MBAs, or to weave in periods of study in countries other than those where their programmes are based, is flexible delivery. Milan's SDA Bocconi, whose full-time programme is currently rated 15th in Europe and 42nd in the world by the Financial Times, offers four MBA options, including part-time evening and executive MBA courses, for those already working in senior positions, and a Masters in international management. The latter's focus on the business challenges presented by globalisation means at least 90 per cent of applicants now tend to come from outside Italy.

Flexibility is also promoted at Audencia Nantes School of Management. Here 120 students are spread across four programmes, including an "end of week" part-time EMBA and a popular distance learning option which accounts for half the school's total annual intake. It boasts 80 partnerships with foreign providers across America, Europe and Asia, and each student spends at least one semester abroad.

Such expansionist tendencies contrast with the approach of smaller providers like Rotterdam, which runs just one programme, a part-time option spread over two years. Its combination of modest fee (£10,000); small class sizes (capped at 15); and an emphasis on easy access to all aspects of delivery (no foreign campuses or exchanges) is designed to appeal to local people with day jobs. Predictably, eight out of 10 of its students hail from the Netherlands.

The European MBA's biggest growth area, geographically speaking, is in the former Eastern Bloc. Of the dozens of new schools to have emerged in countries like Slovenia, the Ukraine and Russia, only a handful currently meet AMBA criteria. But six of these are in Moscow - making it the world's most AMBA-accredited city outside London.

"Eastern European schools tend to be quite traditional in outlook, because there's still a lot of state regulation of their countries' economies," explains AMBA accreditation projects manager Mark Stoddard. "That said, the idea of studying management is very relevant there for the very reason that this regulation is in the process of ending."

Another emerging pattern is the growing appetite among graduates for careers in socially responsible fields like sustainable development - a trend imported from the US, where more and more students are turning their backs on straight financial professions like banking and accountancy.

Profile Rotterdam RSM Erasmus University

If the internationally acclaimed MBA school at Rotterdam's RSM Erasmus University has one overriding selling-point it is its enthusiastic embrace of an indigenous business ethos which is fast transforming the Netherlands into a melting-pot for global enterprise.

The school's campus is located in the heart of a "corporate corridor" south of Amsterdam, where the European headquarters of some of the world's biggest multinationals jostle for space, lured by the Dutch government's generous tax breaks. As a result, its students are ideally placed to schmooze with big-hitters in these powerful corporations.

"We do lots of professional networking training," explains Rick Rudolph, senior marketing and admissions manager for the MBA courses. "Every Friday a different corporation will come in to meet the students, and there's a summer internship half-way through the full-time course. Many students find jobs through connections they make in these ways."

RSM, which boasts partnerships with some 40 other schools, from the United States to Australia, runs two signature programmes: a full-time MBA, whose candidates must have three years' business employment behind them, and a part-time executive MBA aimed at people with at least five years' experience, preferably at management level. The full-time option is delivered over 15 months, rather than a year, to allow scope for the three-month internship.

Uniquely, formal assessment of candidates' performance as "living management consultants" is undertaken by the companies for which they work, with minimal input from tutors. One recent project saw student superheroes come to the rescue of Marvel Inc - creator of Spiderman.

The more international its outlook, the more cosmopolitan a school's intake, and this is certainly the case with RSM. Some 50 nationalities are represented among the 120 postgraduates currently on the £25,000 full-time MBA, with 118 students from 30 countries on the £29,000 EMBA. This year has seen a notable increase in diversity, with a record number of applicants from India (more than 100), and individual applications from Panama, Jamaica, Mongolia, Bhutan and St Vincent.

The school is also increasingly popular with North Americans, despite the plethora of Ivy League MBA institutions on their doorsteps. Alumni include Dave Lipp, now business development manager for Sony UK, and Olivier Fontana, group product manager for Microsoft in Seattle.

Unsurprisingly, 28 per cent of RSM's outgoing students choose to stay in the Netherlands - even though 96 per cent of them are foreign. This isn't just down to employment opportunities, though: a canny Dutch tax break, "the 30 per cent rule", gives recognised ex-pats an income tax discount equivalent to 30 cents in the Euro for up to 10 years of residency.

A recent alumnus who's resisting the temptation to stay put is Elizabeth Hill. The 29-year-old, who spent four years working for the National Football League in her native US before taking her full-time MBA, confidently expects to earn twice her previous salary in her next job. But she's keen to stress it's not all about making herself rich.

"Having an MBA means I should be able to read a company's annual report and finally understand what it means," she laughs. "Jokes aside, it makes me a more well-rounded businessperson and gives me an extra level of confidence to face difficult decisions in future."

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