The Loughborough Full-Time MBA MBA

Businesses need highly skilled, globally minded, socially responsible leaders to steer them confidently through the challenges of today’s fast-paced business world. Join us on this AMBA accredited programme to set yourself up for senior level leadership positions, working alongside renowned experts and academics from Loughborough Business School.

Suitable if you have at least three years’ professional or managerial experience, the Loughborough MBA is our flagship postgraduate programme. The MBA will expand and shape your potential as you develop the intellectual, analytical and enterprising knowledge and skills needed to make an impact at the highest levels of business.

Programme themes

The Loughborough MBA is focused on developing knowledge, skills and insights against five key themes: Purposeful Leadership; Performance Management; Value Creation; Explore and Discover; and Capstone Challenge.

Purposeful Leadership

The senior leaders of tomorrow need to navigate a fast-moving commercial environment with agility, skill and integrity, getting the best out of their people and setting strategic direction. Purposeful Leadership incorporates three core modules: Leading Strategic Change; Leading Organisations and People; and Sustainability and Responsible Business Practice.

Performance Management

Understanding the key disciplines which underpin Performance Management is vital for organisations, ensuring that strategic objectives are delivered effectively. Performance Management incorporates three core modules: Accounting, Finance and Economic Management; Business Analytics; and Operations and Project Management.

Value Creation

What made an organisation successful in the past won’t be sufficient to seize future opportunities in an increasingly digital world. Value Creation incorporates three core modules: Strategic Marketing; Digital Economy and Enterprise; and Innovation Management – where students have the opportunity to work on a live business project to commercialise new technologies.

Explore and Discover

As part of the programme, you will be able to further develop your MBA experience by undertaking one of two electives: Managing the Global Firm or Advanced Management. As standard, all students will be eligible to take our popular ‘Managing the Global Firm’ module. Selected students will be offered the chance to participate in the Advanced Management module.

Managing the Global Firm

Students studying the Managing the Global Firm module will develop a holistic and critical understanding of how firms operate and succeed in the complex landscape of international business. You will learn to analyse foreign market environments, evaluate entry strategies, and assess institutional and resource-based perspectives of firm performance. The module fosters critical reflection on how globalisation and geopolitics reshape business dynamics.

Delivered by specialists in strategy, finance, and marketing, ‘Managing the Global Firm’ provides a rich and varied learning experience. You’ll complete the module with the ability to think strategically and adaptively in international settings, skills highly valued by global employers. This module is particularly beneficial for students seeking careers in multinational firms, international consulting, cross-border entrepreneurship, or global human resource management.

Advanced Management

Students selected for, and accepting the chance to engage in, the Advanced Management module will participate in a residential trip as part of the European Summer School for Advanced Management (ESSAM).

Working with students from across other international business schools, participants will explore a variety of strategic challenges. This collaborative residential experience offers you the chance to build valuable connections and gain practical insights through workshops, team-based consulting projects and company visits.

Please note that there are essential costs associated with choosing to attend the ESSAM residential, which are not included in the tuition fees for the MBA programme and will be your responsibility to pay. For the 2024 / 2025 academic year, these costs totalled approximately £4,000.

The Advanced Management module is provided on a selection basis due to limits on participating student numbers from invited UK business schools. If you are selected to participate in this module, you will have the choice of whether to enrol in it.

Capstone Challenge

The Capstone Challenge is an integral part of the Loughborough MBA, offering you the opportunity to bring together and apply your new knowledge, skills and insights in a practical context. You will be able to choose between three project-based modules:

• Business Administration Project – Work on an individual project investigating and developing original solutions to a contemporary organisational challenge, building research and analytical skills.
• Consultancy Project – Work as part of a team to apply theoretical and research-led knowledge from the MBA programme. Address the real-world challenges of a client organisation, fostering critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork skills.
• Work Based Learning Project – If you choose to enrol on the 24-month internship pathway, you will undertake a Work Based Learning Project focused on investigating and developing original solutions to a challenge within your host internship organisation.

Whichever project you choose, you will receive comprehensive guidance on research, consulting, and analytical techniques and methods, along with support from a dedicated academic supervisor.

Two pathways to take your career to the next level

You can take the Loughborough MBA in two pathways:

• As a one-year full-time MBA pathway
• As a two-year full-time MBA with internship pathway

On the two-year pathway, you will undertake a 45 to 52-week long supervised internship, gaining invaluable experience of applying your skills in a commercial environment.

Whichever pathway you choose, you’ll learn alongside an international cohort of experienced managers, where you can share fresh perspectives and insights, and build lasting friendships and business networks.

Throughout the programme, you’ll learn to manage complex organisational issues, devise creative solutions to business challenges, get the most out of a team, and learn to lead and manage change in demanding global markets. So by the time you graduate, you’re ready to accelerate your career from the word go and progress with purpose.