The Uniqueness Of An Oxbridge MBA

While London Business School is consistently ranked as the best MBA program in the United Kingdom, the most unique and historic MBA experiences are the province of Oxford and Cambridge. At these two world-leading institutions of learning, rankings fail to capture the true uniqueness of the MBA experience.

The business schools at at Oxford and Cambridge are relatively young: While Oxford was founded in 1096, Oxford’s Said Business School opened its doors 26 years ago in 1996. And while Cambridge was founded in 1209, the university’s Judge Business School got its start in 1990.

Despite the relative youth of the business schools, however, incoming students are thrust into a culture of rituals and traditions that is truly unique in business education.

First and foremost is the college system. Oxford and Cambridge are each made up of colleges – more than 40 at Oxford, more than 30 at Cambridge. Incoming MBA students are assigned to one of these small communities, typically with 300 to 500 undergraduate and graduate students, studying everything from History and Modern Languages to Physiological Sciences. Each college, moreover, boasts its own student accommodations, common rooms, cafes and bars, library, computer facilities, and most importantly, dining halls.

‘IT’S AN ACADEMIC DISNEYWORLD’

“It’s an academic DisneyWorld,” says Amy Major, director of MBA programs at Oxford Saïd. “There are 39 different colleges at Oxford and the MBAs are split across 25 of them. There are a few colleges with big numbers of MBA students like Green Templeton College which might take 70 of the cohort every year. Some of the world renown names like Balliol, St. John’s, Worcester, Christ Church, and Trinity have a single number of MBA students. Most colleges have a couple of formal dinners a week and you might row with your college. The whole time you are here you are pushing an open door to world leading researchers, talks and events, and finding yourself with this colliding schedule of things to do outside the classroom.”

Chat with recent MBA grads of Oxford and Cambridge and they will tell you that one of their most enriching experience was sitting down to dinner in their college with people vastly different from them. For all the talk of diversity and inclusion in the U.S., no other school can match the kind of mixing and networking that occurs in the dining halls of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge.

'COLLEGE FORMALS ARE ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE TRADITIONS'

“In my opinion, College Formals are one of the most valuable traditions,” confirms Pablo Valdés Fernández Del Valle, who came to Cambridge from Mexico City and earned his MBA from Judge last year. “It is a great way to interact with other students, faculty members, professors, and even Fellows. I really enjoyed having dinner and drinks within the fantastic colleges, surrounded by the history that these entail, and exchanging experiences, anecdotes, ventures, and endeavors with highly intellectual and motivated individuals. These conversations were so enriching.”

Zorawer Singh, a ’23 MBA from New Delhi describes formal dinners this way: “Delicious Hogwarts style three-course meals served in dining halls that are hundreds of years old…[where] everyone wears a suit and the traditional Oxford gown.” Indeed, Oxford inspired J.K. Rowling’s Hogwarts houses, with Oxford boasting 39 colleges that MBAs can join and live alongside students from all disciplines.

His feeling is nearly universal among the Oxbridge MBA students. Daisy Moraa Ong’angi, who came to Cambridge from Kenya and graduated last year with her MBA, views the Formals as the perfect networking opportunity. “You can be sat next to a fellow, a PhD student, a master’s student, or an undergraduate,” she says. “Still, the intellectual richness of the conversations will be engaging. Cambridge is a hub of knowledge, and the college formals provide a structured way to network, which in and of itself is important for any MBA candidate.”

Earning a business degree at a university that has more than 800 years of history also brings with it many rituals and traditions, often bizarre to cultural outsiders but an essential to bonding. Latin, for example, is often invoked during the formal dinners and certainly at matriculation and graduation.

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING CULTURES

So is the wearing of gowns at times or ‘sub fusc’, the Latin phrase for the formal dress code. Oxford’s Dellar says that it is sometime of a myth that “we have to wear full academic dress, with gowns and mortar boards called sub fusc during in-person exams, This is only partly true. The mortar boards go on the floor under your exam desk.”

Students at both schools praise the collaborative learning cultures, noting the high level of support from their classmates, even when pursuing similar career outcomes. “I initially thought that most MBA cohorts would be very competitive in nature, and I couldn’t be more wrong,” believes Anthony Adhinata Tjong, a 2023 Cambridge MBA from Indonesia. 

“Even though I am constantly surrounded by brilliant and motivated people here at Cambridge, the cohort is very supportive of one another. I feel like people truly want each other to be successful in whatever goals they are pursuing. I am glad that Cambridge managed to foster such a collaborative environment for its MBA program.”

And the diversity of the students, of course, extends just as deeply in the MBA cohorts themselves. “Everyone tells you the cohort will be diverse, but I was still awed by how diverse our cohort is, in terms of geographies, professional backgrounds, personal philosophies and hidden talents,” says Katherine Dellar, who graduated from Said last year. A former diplomat, trade negotiator, and lawyer in Australia, she notes that in her class was a breakdancer, a concert pianist, and a cookie chef, “to name a few.”

'SOME OF THE SMARTEST, MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE IN THE WORLD'

In the newest Class of 2024 cohort at Oxford Said, a whopping 97% of the students are from outside the United Kingdom. Some 52% of them hail from Asia, with 23% from South Asia, 14% from Southeast Asia, and 15% from East Asian. Europeans overall make up just 11% of the class, the same percentage as the MBA students from Africa. About 12% hail from North America.

In the Class of 2023 at Cambridge Judge, Taylor Barden Golden was one of the North American students. Originally from Highland Park, Illinois, she came to the U.K. after first working for the U.S. Senate as director of scheduling and then as a senior operations manager for the fundraising and engagement vertical at Bonterra, a philanthro-tech SaaS company. She says there were many reasons why she believed Cambridge was right for her. "But its strongest draw was the ability to work and live within the Cambridge ecosystem, a hub of scientific and entrepreneurial innovation," says Golden. "The University of Cambridge houses some of the smartest, most interesting people in the world. Earlier this term, I was sitting at a formal college dinner next to an undergraduate in his final year studying astrophysics (and yes, I told him to call me if he wants to start a company). I knew I wanted the experience of living outside of the US, but also to live in a place where innovation is fostered and rewarded with strong channels of flowing capital. There are many exciting professional possibilities. The history and beauty of the University were a close second and third."

Though students are immersed in the historical relevance of these universities, they are going to very modern and innovative business schools. Both MBA programs are a year in length and typically attract students who average 29 years of age with six years of full-time work experience. The accelerated nature of the MBA programs makes them intense learning experiences, with less opportunity for elective courses, though Oxford recently condensed its core MBA curriculum to free up time for students to take more electives. Oxford Said enrolls a slightly larger cohort of MBAs each year, 334 from 63 nationalities in the Class of 2024 vs. 226 with 45 nationalities for Cambridge Judge. Oxford also has achieved gender parity in its MBA cohort, with 51$ of the latest class female, compared to 42% at Judge. And when it comes to rankings, Cambridge Judge tends to consistently beat Oxford Said but it's generally a neck-to-neck race among the two schools. In the latest Poets&Quants' international MBA ranking, Judge is 12th and Said is 15th.

CORE & ELECTIVE COURSES OVER FOUR ACADEMIC TERMS FROM MICHAELMAS TO SUMMER

At both schools, the academic terms bear unusual names. There's Michaelmas term from October to December, Hilary term from January to March, Trinity term from April to June, and finally a Summer term from July to August. Oxford MBA admits start work in August with a virtual pre-program series on core quantitative, leadership and business concepts to help students hit the ground running. MBA candidates then come on campus in September for a two-week residential program. The Michaelmas term is filled with six core courses on the business fundamentals. You won't take any electives until the Hilary term when you get to take your first four elective courses. During the Trinity term, you'll choose a half dozen elective courses to allow for some level of specialization. And finally during the summer term, you have three option: more electives, a seven-week strategic consulting project or an internship.

At Cambridge, the terms have somewhat different names and follow a slightly different format. After Michaelmas, there's the Lent term from January to March, followed by the Easter term from April to June, and then a summer term from June to September. The focus for Judge MBAs in the first term is team building within a portfolio of core courses that range from entrepreneurship to microeconomics. Judge tilts a bit more than Said on experiential learning, tossing in a required team project in each term with an option for yet another during the summer term. During Michaelmas, students are put into teams of four or five to investigate market opportunities for a new product, service or treatment. In the second term, there's a global consulting project with a major corporation or organization. In the Easter term, you'll do a project that changes based on one of the nine concentrations you can earn through electives. Those concentrations range from  culture, arts and media to  health strategies. If you choose a project in your final summer term,  you would work as a consultant  on a business problem. For Judge MBA candidates, there are required core courses in every term, with the exception of the summer.

No matter what your choice, both schools offer superb educational experiences, unique in the world. Clare Bridget Dussman, an American who earned her MBA at Cambridge in 2018, looks back on her experience with some valuable advice to prospective students interested in her alma mater or Oxford. "Look beyond the business school when making your decision," she says. "It’s easy to get caught up in GMATs and rankings, but it’s more important to think about the communities you’re joining. Attending CJBS gave me the chance to move to the UK, join the community of Oxbridge students, participate in the oldest debating society in the world (the Cambridge Union), and dine with fellows of Sidney Sussex College. It’s all a cumulative experience, the MBA is just your degree but the communities will exponentially outweigh the value you graduate with."

DON'T MISS: MEET OXFORD SAID'S MBA CLASS OF 2023