Our EMBA London programme recently wrapped up the admissions process for our January 2024 intake. This year was especially worth celebrating after we recruited one of our most senior cohorts with an average of 15 years of experience.
This made me think back to all the intakes we have recruited since I joined the team in 2015. Whilst we have seen some of the obvious changes in the cohorts such as class size and the programmes offered, there have been some major shifts within each intake quality makeup too.
One of the primary changes has been the diversity of industries present in the classroom. Often when applying to a programme at LBS some candidates assume that the school or the programme is more for candidates from a finance background. However, this couldn’t be far from the truth! Over the years I have had the opportunity to interview and speak to numerous applicants (now students) from not only the finance sector but other completely diverse sectors. To name a few that come to mind we have had, luxury fashion, healthcare, research/academia, media, law and many more. This really speaks to the classroom learning factor present in the classroom and in each of the study groups we build for our cohorts.
Here is a great example of one of the study groups we have recently created:
| Charities/Not for Profit | Director | UNICEF |
| Education | Vice-chair And Director-operations | Shining Star International School |
| IT – Software | Chief Technology Officer | Bentley Systems |
| Upstream Oil/Gas | Business Development Manager | NOV (National Oilwell Varco) |
| Payment Processing | Head Of Engineering | Dojo |
| Construction/Building Materials | Director Of Strategy & Preconstruction | multiplex |
The level of seniority in the class has also been at a steady increase. Since 2016 the average years of experience has been increasing from 12 to 13, sometimes even more than that. Having said that, it doesn’t mean that our range of experience has shifted. There is still a great range of students from 6 years of experience all the way to 22-25 years of experience. All the fresh knowledge that someone new in the industry can share with someone who has been working for a few years is great.
The global presence within the class is also changing every year. Whilst we have and will always get our amazing candidates from the EU region. We are also starting to see a handful of applications from different parts of the world and nationalities. This really adds to the wealth of global knowledge present within the EMBA London classroom.
Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Lebanon, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Core d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Argentina, Egypt, Togo, Georgia, Congo Drc, Japan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Latvia, Malta, Mozambique, Sudan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, UAE,
So you could be taking one of your classes on our London campus, but be sitting next to someone from Togo on one side and someone from Turkey on the other. Chances are their way of doing business differs from what you may be used to and the market knowledge that they have may be a new area for you too.
As always one of our key focuses for diversity remains to increase the female percentage. Still, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also focus on other diversity factors present within the classroom. Especially, since it all contributes to the learning that happens whilst you are on the programme.
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