Meet Oxford Saïd’s MBA Class Of 2024

“SERENDIPITOUS INTERACTIONS”

And the city of Oxford – teeming with over 150,000 people – offers plenty to do when students step off campus. “I also love to explore bookshops, coffee shops, and cafés around the city to find places to wind down and spend my time reading fiction books and writing my reviews,” writes Edo Prayogo.  “One of my favourites is The Norrington Room of Blackwell’s bookshop, once one of the largest rooms full of books in the world. Surrounded by a massive bookshelf and a beautiful interior of books hanging from the ceilings really helps me to think clearly when I need to produce writings – be it my essay or book reviews for my Instagram.”

Maybe the best part of the Oxford Saïd experience involves the people drawn to the university. At one event, Farah AlZu’bi met Husam Zomlot, the current Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom. By the same token, Hannah Arrighi got an audience with Athol Williams, a South African poet and philosopher, who shared his thoughts on corporate social responsibility. At an Oxford Business Network social, Arrighi was introduced to a “computer science prodigy” who was already busy working on an idea she’d shared on extracting LinkedIn data. Arrighi calls such discussions “serendipitous interactions” – a meeting of people with jaw-dropping talents and ambitious goals. And they’re a regular occurrence at Oxford, she adds.

“One very personal example of this is that my sister has been suffering from severe long COVID complications, and I happened to meet folks at Oxford working on this exact issue. I met a “DPhil” (PhD) studying the topic at a college “bop” (the Oxford word for party) and met the founders of an anti-inflammatory biotech company through an entrepreneurship conference that Oxford hosted. It’s unclear if any of this will lead to a tangible solution for my sister’s case, but I feel hopeful because of these chance connections. Solutions can be just around the corner in the right environment.”

While many meetings may be serendipitous, Oxford students – past and present – look out for each other, adds Diana Chao. “What’s most interesting is where the Oxford name gets you outside of Oxford. Every time I wear my Oxford jacket or my Saïd Business School backpack, I always get at least one person asking me what I’m studying. Then, inevitably, we end up having a conversation about my MBA programme or their own Oxford experience. Just the other day while I was attending the World Economic Forum as a delegate, I bonded with multiple heads of companies and government through our shared Oxford experiences – including one company that fondly recalled their best hire, who had been a Saïd Business School MBA.”

A CLASS PROFILE

By the numbers, the Class of 2024 represents history at Saïd. Here, women account for 51% of the class. What’s behind the gender parity? In 2023, P&Q interviewed Amy Major, the associate Director of MBA Programme Delivery. Aside from cutting edge programming and the Oxford mystique, she credits the school’s commitment to achieving this milestone.

“We’ve had a visible dedication towards reaching gender parity,” says Major. “The establishment of the Laidlaw scholarship two years ago has made a big impact. The scholarship gives ten awards to women that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to undertake an MBA. Most scholarships are about academic merit; this one also takes into account women that wouldn’t have otherwise been able to afford a degree. It is difficult to quantify the impact of something like that.”

Overall, the class features 334 students, who brought a 680 median GMAT and six years of work experience to the school. One number that stands out: 97% of the class hails from outside the United Kingdom, making it one of the most international programs on the globe. As a whole, 63 nationalities comprise the Class of 2024. South Asian and East Asian students make up the largest segments of the class at 23% and 15% shares respectively (with South East Asia holding 14% of class seats). North America (12%), Africa (11%), and Europe (11%) also boast sizable populations, followed by the Middle East (5%), Oceania (5%), and Latin America and the Caribbean (3%).

AN INTERVIEW WITH AMY MAJOR

This past year, Oxford Saïd climbed five spots to 26th worldwide, including placing 5th for its ESG and net zero teaching. The program fared even better under high-ranking executives surveyed by CEOWorld, where it earned the 7th-highest marks. Beyond the rankings, what else is happening at the Saïd Business School in 2024? Earlier this year, P&Q reached out to Amy Major. From sustainability and leadership programming to student-run events and distinctive traditions, here are Major’s thoughts on the state of the Saïd MBA.

P&Q: What have been the two most important developments in your MBA program over the past year? What type of impact will they have on current and future MBAs?

Major: “We have a significant change coming up which is the reconfiguration of the middle term of the MBA, known as Hilary in Oxford. This term has typically been made up of largely core study options with a smaller elective option. This change is to being much more focused on electives, allowing students to customise their intense one-year MBA experience sooner in the academic year. This will have an impact on allowing students to choose and focus on their own pathway or select courses from various pathways.

As a result of these changes, we’ll also be starting the year with a reconfigured orientation Launch period. This will expose students to key individual, organisational and societal challenges that are facing business leaders and introduce approaches for addressing them.”

P&Q: Give us your one-minute pitch for your business school. What makes you unique?

Major: “It might sound cliché, but the ability to immerse yourself in a university like Oxford is a truly unique experience. Of course, there are a few similar institutions out there but any collegiate university is different from the other. The ability to be a member of one of the Oxford colleges and to interact with wider departments means that every MBA student has the opportunity to have an experience entirely unique from the person next to them in their cohort. Our Dean, Soumitra Dutta, referred to Oxford as an ‘intellectual Disneyland’ and I think that sums it up rather well.”

P&Q: Sustainability has emerged as a major attraction to prospective MBA students. How does your full-time MBA program integrate sustainability across its curriculum?

Major: “The FT rankings have been released, which judge schools according to their volume of ESG hours in core teaching. We see an emerging focus on content across electives and the carbon footprint of the School. At Oxford Saïd, sustainability and the desire to equip students with the skills to tackle the challenges facing leaders for today and tomorrow is embedded at the heart of our ethos as a school. There is a myriad of core courses and electives that put sustainability front and centre, along with a large number of faculty with expertise in this space. We are also reviewing how we can embed this even further into some courses where sustainability might be traditionally seen as less typical.”

P&Q: What are some key elements in your teaching of leadership? What types of options does your school offer that deepens student experience with leadership and makes them more competitive in the marketplace?

Major: “The MBA core Organisational Behaviour course aims to equip students with skills for leadership, ranging from developing an effective leadership style to designing and managing groups – all whilst navigating and leading organisational change that leaders are expected to steer the way on.

Some students opt to deepen their leadership skills through some of our deeper dive electives in courses such as Reputation and Leadership and Leadership Perspectives for the Humanities. Seeing leadership from a different lens can be very helpful to give students the toolkits to be agile as leaders in this fast-changing world.

Our Entrepreneurship Project, in addition, is a great test bed for would be entrepreneurs to assess how it might feel as a leader of your own venture, potentially working with co-founders or those of a different skill set to you in starting a business.”

P&Q: What is your biggest student-run event of the year and what does it reflect about your school?

Major: “The annual Oxford Africa Business Forum took place on 8th and 9th March 2024 and is now in its 15th year. It has become both our largest and longest running student-led event since the School was founded 27 years ago.  A unique element of this Forum is that it is hosted by the Oxford Africa Business Alliance. The Alliance is led by a student committee and brings together the passion, insights, and networks from our student body within the Alliance to work collectively with staff and faculty across the School to deliver this flagship event and support our Africa Initiative.

Each year the outgoing MBA students set the Forum theme for the incoming students who then curate a series of keynote addresses, panels, and fireside chats to be delivered in-person to over 400 delegates which is live-streamed to a global audience. The Forum is held in the iconic Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre, opened by the former, late President Nelson Mandela in 2002. The theme this year is centred on the integral role businesses play in national development on the continent and includes an opening gala dinner at one of Oxford’s oldest colleges.

As we celebrate 15 years of the Oxford Africa Business Forum at Oxford Saïd, we increasingly recognise the importance of both Africa and the platform this flagship event creates in promoting diversity and inclusivity in business education and reinforces our commitment to supporting the next generation of Africa leaders coming through Oxford. It highlights the diverse cultures, economies, and innovations across the continent that enriches our academic experience, preparing future business leaders to navigate the complexities of a globalised world and providing a platform to spotlight the unique challenges and opportunities within the African business landscape. This fosters a deeper understanding among students and professionals and helps bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical insights specific to the continent.

MBA student Beauclaire Mbanya, from Cameroon, is Co-Director of the Oxford Africa Business Forum and describes the relevance of this year’s theme. He says: ‘We are aware of the challenges facing the continent, but we are also emboldened by the future, which is Africa. This is not just another roundtable discussion about Africa – this Forum is the platform to navigate the complexities of doing business on the continent and serve as an avenue to share best-in-class business practices. I am confident we shall usher in a new era of positive impact towards accelerating the continent’s growth trajectory.’”

P&Q: What are your two most popular traditions at the school? How do these reflect the spirit and mission of the institution?

Major: “Our MBA Capstone has become a bit of a tradition within the MBA itself. It takes place over several days bringing students, family and friends together with most of the events hosting 800-900 guests. It gives our departing students with their loved ones, some of the hallmarks of the University itself: dining in Oxford colleges, tours of historic Oxford, some fabulous events at the Business School itself, and a ceremony in the famous Sheldonian Theatre. This week really brings to life the spirit and rich diversity of our MBA cohort.

Linked to the Capstone and a fine tradition of the MBA is the MBA debate that takes place at the start of the year during Launch and again during Capstone. The outgoing class of each cohort join as participants for the Launch debate, and you can see members of the new class keen to take this on for the next year. The baton passes and the keen and would be debaters take the floor in the Capstone, some having spent a few months honing their skills during the academic year. The Union is one of the world’s most famous debating societies and students take great pride in marking their place in history walking through the Aye or the Noe of those doors.”

P&Q: How many courses outside the business school can MBAs take during your program? To what extent has your business school embraced coursework from other schools and departments at your university? Are students from other schools and departments at the university allowed to take MBA electives?

Major: “The one-year MBA curriculum is of course intense. Students can look to audit courses across the University. In return, we accept students from across the University. Our faculty like to have people engage for the entire course to take maximum benefit from the experience as opposed to attending spot classes. Oxford naturally adopts a highly inter disciplinary approach, a very recent example being on the MBA GOTO (Global Opportunities and Threats Oxford) course where our faculty brought in contributing faculty from Oxford Net Zero and Zero Institute.”

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergraduate Alma Mater	Last Employer
Adeyemi Adegbayi	Lagos, Nigeria	Babcock University	TLcom Capital LLP
Farah AlZu’bi	Amman, Jordan	German Jordanian University	PwC Middle East
Hannah Arrighi	Foxborough, Massachusetts	Bowdoin College	Disruptive
Drishti Basi	New Delhi, India	University of Delhi	Dasra
Diana Chao	Claremont, California	Princeton University	Letters to Strangers
Peter Erskine	Belfast, Northern Ireland	University of Chicago	Chicago Trading Company
Kate French	West Lafayette, Indiana	University of Pennsylvania	Abt Associates
Mariah Greenstreet	Accra, Ghana	University of Leeds	Mansa Gold
Adam Hegedus	Sydney, Australia	UNSW Sydney	Educating The Future
Shahbaz Merchant	Mumbai, Australia	Mumbai University	Nuvama Wealth Management
Edo Prayogo	Bandung, Indonesia	Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia)	Kearney
Vladyslava Savytska	Kyiv, Ukraine	Taras Shevchenko National University	Hopp, Hyderabad

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