Full Time MBA

Action learning
Thanks to Lancaster's ground-breaking work on how organisations and managers learn, our MBA has a dual focus on action learning and critical thinking. You don't simply absorb theories and models and evaluate them in the classroom - through a series of consultancy assignments you take them out into the workplace, to test out their strengths and weaknesses and your own effectiveness in applying them.

Skills enhancement
The and the allied Career Management Programme develop your skills for all kinds of management career - be it general management, consultancy, or a new business start-up. Tailor your electives to your preferred career route or keep your options open.

International experiences
Through its of students, international exchanges and a series of client-based projects, the programme helps you to improve your international management effectiveness and your understanding of different cultural contexts.
World recognition
The Lancaster MBA is accredited by the Association of MBAs and is in the FT and Economist Intelligence Unit's global top 100. In 2009 it was ranked 27th in the world by the FT, and 16th in the world by Forbes magazine. Drawing on work in organisational and managerial learning developed at LUMS over many years, we have built our MBA programme design around the concept of learning through action.Our aims in doing this are to enable you to gain the most you can out of your year at Lancaster - not purely functional knowledge but self-knowledge, too - and perhaps a different, more reflective, perspective on the process of management and leadership.
At its core, the Lancaster MBA seeks to:

• enable you to gain a knowledge and understanding of the functions of business and their inter-relationships
• show you how to structure and understand complex business situations so that you can apply your functional knowledge effectively
• give you experience and confidence in using theoretical knowledge in practice
• stimulate you to read and critically appraise management theory and, in doing so, develop your desire for life-long learning

A drive to develop skills
The many different team and project-based activities help you to refine important managerial skills - such as leading, managing and consulting, critical thinking, quantitative skills and business planning. You will be developing your communication skills, your capacity to scope and manage projects effectively, and your skills in negotiation and facilitation.
A focus on critical thinking
An area central to the programme philosophy, and a crucial complement to the action component, is an emphasis on critical thinking and reflection.
What critical thinking means for our MBA students is the ability to understand the increasingly complex world of management and business, and to make responsible changes for the better in that world. It also means being able to see through gloss, rhetoric and shallow argument, and to pose questions which go right to the heart of complex issues.

To help you deconstruct messy organisational problems, we will introduce you on the MBA to a range of conceptual thinking skills whose usefulness will live on long beyond the latest management fashions.
A culture of co-operation
The worlds of management and consulting increasingly require people who are effective team players, who can be equally effective in situations where they have no hierarchical authority - for example, with supplier partners, or with partners in a joint venture or strategic alliance.

While we set high standards for individual performance, the Lancaster MBA cultivates a culture of team co-operation, in contrast to the more individually competitive class cultures found on so many MBA programmes. MBA international exchange programmes
Most of our MBA students are focused on furthering their global careers, so gaining additional experience of studying in other countries and cultures can be hugely rewarding. Lancaster's international MBA exchange schemes provide an opportunity for you to enrich your international experience as part of your Lancaster MBA.
We have links with world-class partner institutions in the EU, Canada, China and Australasia. Most of the exchanges require you to spend a period of around three months over the summer at your exchange institution, where you complete courses or projects in place of the work you would have undertaken at LUMS.
Some exchange programmes begin in September or October - after you have completed your Lancaster studies - and may mean that you graduate the following year.
You will find brief details about each programme in our overview of current exchange schemes.
A handbook detailing all the exchange opportunity is provided at the start of the programme, and you have until mid-January to decide whether to apply for an exchange.
Language skills
It may be possible to build on your existing foreign language skills to the level required for some of the exchanges by undertaking language support courses during your MBA programme. These courses attract an an extra fee.
As a student on the Lancaster MBA, what will a week of study typically involve? There's no simple answer to that. The mix of teaching and the various group and individual styles of working means that, though your days will be full, there's unlikely to be any predictable routine. This is particularly true when you are working on team-based projects.
However, with that proviso in mind, we have tried below to give some broad indications of the amount of time you can expect to spend on various elements of the learning process.
Teaching and learning styles
A diverse range of teaching and learning methods are used on the various modules within the programme. Sessions typically involve groupwork and interactive discussion to draw out the experience within the classroom and relate theory to practical experience. Case studies are used extensively, and some sessions will also involve simulations. Tutors are drawn from across all departments of the School and there are many guest speakers from business and industry.
Assessment processes
Assessment is given in each course/module taken - for example, in Part 1 you take six modules and undertake specific coursework assignments for each of these. The assignments may be individual or group-based, or a mixture of the two. The assignments and projects require you to adopt an objective approach which is theory-led but practice-driven. This enables you to draw on your own observations and experience of working life. The type of assessment used on particular modules is indicated in each module description.
Personal study
All courses require pre-reading and preparation, and personal research - you should expect to spend a minimum 10% of your time on this throughout the course.
The University library, with its extensive resources of print-based and online materials, will be a vital element in this process. Data points in all campus rooms allow you to access the library catalogue and many other online databases from on-campus accommodation. You have 24-hour access to the School's computer labs and there is a wireless network in the School.
Typical weekly activities
Lectures: up to 30 hours in Parts 1 and 2
Seminars/tutorials: up to 4 hours
Group work: typically around 6 hours (more for some modules)
Personal research and reading: at least 4 hours
These figures are an indication only