IN OCTOBER 2004 Manchester Business School (MBS) joined forces with the Institute of Innovation Research (IoIR), UMIST’s Manchester School of Management, and The Victoria University of Manchester’s School of Accounting and Finance to create a new, super-sized MBS.
Post-merger, MBS is the largest campus-based business and management school in the UK. The numbers are impressive: 180 academic staff; 50 research staff; 1,000 undergraduates; and close to 1,000 postgraduates, taking doctorates, the MBA and more than ten masters programmes.
Bigger is better for both school and students. It gives MBS international clout. “Size is important for us,” says John Arnold, the director of MBS. “Before, we had about 50 faculty, and an annual turnover of less than £14 million. We were not big enough to force our way into the world’s top 20 business schools. Today staff numbers are 200-plus and annual turnover is more than £30 million. Now we can compete globally.”
There are a number of advantages for students. “The merger brings an increased diversity of staff and a wider choice of courses, at undergraduate, postgraduate and post-experience level,” says Ken Green, the academic dean at MBS. Increased size also enhances the learning experience through greater diversity in the student mix; more than 60 nations are represented at the school. There is the added bonus of a huge alumni base. “The alumni network has expanded substantially, with about 20,000 former students on the list. It provides an opportunity to network our students to a much broader group,” Green says.
Some business schools make a virtue of being small: a more intimate learning experience; a better student-to-teacher ratio. Because of the increase in the number of staff, MBS has relatively small class sizes for the flagship MBA, and a staff-student ratio similar to many other business schools. Add the benefits of scaling up the school, plus the synergy made possible by merging four academic institutions, and for MBS at least, bigger really is better.
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www.mbs.ac.uk
STEVE COOMBER