Students jet in as Tanaka Business School's Weekend Executive MBA gets off to a flying start!

Designed with the time-constraints of busy executives in mind, Imperial's Tanaka Business School opened its new Weekend Executive MBA last week, with a small but significant group of students flying in from abroad.

Representing 18 different nationalities, the 58-strong inaugural cohort swapped career and travel advice as they settled in for their first weekend long module. In addition to the UK residents attending the programme are students travelling in from as far afield as Switzerland, Gibraltar, Italy, Germany and Oman.

This new addition to the Business School's top ranking Executive MBA programme was created in order to give executives, both in the UK and abroad, the possibility of having an intensive experience without encroaching on their work schedules. Over the first year, from April to the following January, students follow monthly modules that start on Thursday afternoon and that run through the weekend to Sunday. One of the key factors in the programme's appeal is its incorporation of e-learning into every facet of the curriculum allowing students to cover the basic theories, supervised by a tutor, in advance of modules. This gives the students much more time for interaction with their fellow students when they physically meet up and maximises contact with professors and tutors. Students bring each module to a close by applying in their workplace the knowledge they have acquired, using innovative collaborative workshops to discuss their findings and work with other students.

Ebrahim Mohamed

"Our Executive MBA programme has proved attractive to a wide variety of profiles, and I'm delighted to see that out of 58 students, we have six students coming from the Banking and Finance sector, two from Construction, four from Health, eight from the IT sector, five from Marketing, ten from Telecoms and five engineers. This kind of diversity, when experienced in a learning environment, greatly enhances students' experience and allows them to acquire real insights into each other's careers and exchange best practice" says Ebrahim Mohamed, Executive MBA Director.

Another element that students have found highly attractive in the Executive MBA programme is its annual study tour. This integral part of the Executive programme, which is covered by the students' fees, allows them to immerse themselves in the business environment of a specific country. Each tour takes a cohort on an intensive exploration of a country's business practices, challenges and cultures, using company visits as the ideal setting for practical case studies. 2005's cohort have just spent a week divided between Beijing - meeting with executives from Coca Cola, PetroChina and the Organising Committee of the 2008 Olympics - and Shanghai - meeting with GlaxoSmithKline, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, EDS and Standard Chartered. Students this year are currently voting for the country they will visit, and it seems the Dragon economy is still proving as fascinating, as it looks likely to top their list of destinations.

Notes to editors

About Imperial College and Tanaka Business School
Consistently rated in the top three UK university institutions, Imperial College London is a world leading science-based university whose reputation for excellence in teaching and research attracts students (11,000) and staff (6,000) of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and management and delivers practical solutions that enhance the quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture. Website: www.imperial.ac.uk

Imperial College's Tanaka Business School is a world-class provider of business education and research, focusing primarily on Imperial strengths in innovation and entrepreneurship, finance and healthcare management. The School offers full-time and executive MBAs, Master's programmes in Finance, Risk Management, Actuarial Finance, International Health Management and Management; and a PhD programme.