The Full-Time Durham MBA is an academically rigorous and demanding programme that requires commitment and dedication. We recognise the importance of offering you the opportunity to develop a portfolio of intellectual skills and competences necessary for success, whilst also developing the "soft skills" that employers require.

This twelve-month MBA programme begins in mid-September with an intensive two-week induction designed to introduce you to the Business School, the MBA team and your fellow students. You will revise your research and study skills and start some of the integral components of the programme, including the foreign language course and the Continual Professional Development (CPD) programme that run throughout the year. These will help you analyse your approach to learning and identify those areas where you will most benefit from improving existing skills and developing new ones.

The programme participants are one of the great strengths of the Durham MBA programme: a central theme to our recruiting is welcoming experience and encouraging diversity within the study body. Over the last three years, on average, 88% of each MBA cohort came from outside the UK, covering 25 nationalities. Our students have an unusually broad range of professional experiences prior to joining the programme, and include an above average number of women managers.

The Durham MBA is structured into three consecutive stages:

• Seven core modules which provide a foundation of managerial knowledge: Managing People; Managing in the Competitive Environment; Managing in the Global Environment; Managing Finance; Managing People; Modelling and Analysis for Management; Strategic Management; and Methods of Inquiry
• Five electives chosen from a wide selection, which allow you to either tailor your MBA to a particular specialism or take a more generalist route. For a list of electives currently on offer, please visit www.dur.ac.uk/dbs
• 15,000 word dissertation or business project, which provides an opportunity to work on a management topic of personal interest, utilising knowledge and theory acquired throughout the programme.

In addition to excellent academic teaching, Durham provides you with additional activities that add value to the experience and to your MBA:

The Continual Professional Development (CPD) Programme runs alongside the taught academic programme and ensures that Durham MBA graduates possess the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to excel in the academic and the business world. It is modelled upon those skills sought by leading MBA recruiters.

A key part of the core programme is the Boardroom Activity, an experience unique to the Durham MBA programme and linked to CPD activity, which integrates academic learning from the core modules into a live boardroom situation.

The Business Project allows you to apply the learning of the MBA in a practical context, putting new skills into practice in the real world and influencing real life business issues. You can either source your own project or choose from a range of regional, national and international organisations of different sizes and in different sectors compiled by the Business School.

Included in the cost of the programme is an international study experience of around a week. The experience will include a mixture of company and organisation visits, lectures and cultural events, providing you with the opportunity to learn about, and immerse yourself in, the business environment of another country.

As part of the Durham MBA's focus on developing global managers, students on the Full-Time MBA study a new language, timetabled for two hours each week over the teaching year, and run in the Business School by Durham University's English Language Centre.

To balance theory and practice, Durham Business School offers an extensive schedule of guest speakers and guest seminars. The speakers, all pre-eminent in their fields, include senior executives from regional, national and international businesses.

Enhancing career prospects and broadening career options are important considerations for many MBA students, particularly on the Full-Time programme, and here at Durham we regard careers support as an integral element of our MBA programmes. Whatever your individual needs we work with you to help you identify your career aspirations and give you the opportunity to develop the skills that will help maximise your chances of achieving these.

Durham Business School