Students Allowed to Tailor 40% of MBA Program to Suit Their Needs

The IE Business School’s International MBA is a 1-year full-time program that follows a rolling admission process with intakes in September and January at its campus in Madrid and the languages of instruction being English and Spanish. 

IE claims that the program is designed for those who can think outside the box and allows the students to tailor 40% of the program to fit in with their personal and professional goals. Encouraging participants to challenge conventional thinking, it also aims to increase their competitiveness and helps them act upon their ideas. It also emphasizes important universal skills, such as critical thinking, communication and collaboration.

The current cohort comprises 90% international students representing more than 70 nationalities. The class has 50% students who have neither business nor economics related degrees. The average age is 29 years with an average 5 years work experience.

The School says 90% of students found employment within 3 months after graduation. The more than 50 Company on-campus presentations in a year also help students develop a comprehensive understanding of the current business scenario and connect with prospective employers.

The program also features labs in business impact, start-ups and social impact. During the core period, there are mandatory ‘beyond business’ and entrepreneurial management courses.

The curriculum also includes courses in Innovation and Design, Critical Management Thinking and Entrepreneurship. The Core program has four distinct aspects, the first being developing an entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurial venturing.

The second is Mastering Business Fundamentals comprising Financial Accounting, Managerial Economics, Managerial Decision Making, Managerial Accounting and Corporate Finance.

The third is Integrating general Management Perspectives that has Marketing Management, Leading People & Teams, Strategy and Operations Management.

The fourth aspect, Thinking Beyond Business, comprises Innovation in a Digital World, Critical Management Thinking, Business, Government & Society.

After the Core Period, students could choose one of four options during the Lab Period depending on their professional goals. Some may want to create maximum impact within an existing company or start own business, create social impact or hope to gain work experience that could lead to a career change.

The Lab Period marks a disruptive approach to business education by fostering integrative thinking and experiential, project-based learning. The idea is to enrich the core curriculum with uniquely packaged, relevant and hands-on material not commonly found in an MBA curriculum.

The Business Impact Lab helps students focus on developing their integrative skills and cross-disciplinary management perspective to be ready to create real impact from day one in any organization they join post-MBA.

The lab period involves Corporate Innovation, Digital Transformation, Effective Execution, Critical Management Competencies and Corporate Challenge.

During the Corporate Challenge, you will put into practice the knowledge gained in both the Core Periods and the Lab Period by working with a company on a real-life challenge. Past challenges have focused on ways to innovate Airline Travel, Beer Culture and the Internet of Things.

In the Start-up Lab, students will be immersed in an incubator-like atmosphere together with other peers who want to start their own venture. In the Social Impact Lab, they will gain hands-on international consulting experience while also developing personal and professional leadership skills. In the IMBA in Practice, they will have the opportunity to participate in a minimum 7-week internship.

Among other options for students are dual degree programs, consulting projects, as many as150 electives to chose from, international exchanges, IE Venture Lab and language classes.

The School says 90% of students found employment within 3 months after graduation. The more than 50 Company on-campus presentations in a year also help students develop a comprehensive understanding of the current business scenario and connect with prospective employers. In addition, the students could get career advice from industry-specific advisors.

Funding to the tune of €4million is available for IE scholarship and fellowship awards. Almost 40% of applicants receive financial assistance.