HEC Paris Launches Accelerated 1-Year MBA

HEC Paris has launched a new “accelerated” MBA program that will open in January 2025

Faster, for many, is better — particularly if they are MBA students itching to get back to the workforce. HEC Paris, one of Europe’s premier business schools, is embracing those students’ growing ranks by launching a sleeker version of its elite MBA program.

The leading French B-school announced Wednesday (September 11) the launch of a new 12-month MBA program, a more condensed and flexible version of its 16-month program that has topped The Financial Times‘s last five annual rankings of European MBAs. The first cohort of the new program will begin classes in January 2025; applications are now open.

Tuition fees for HEC Paris’s new one-year MBA will be the same as the 16-month program: 98,000 euros in total, which is currently just under $108,000.

NEW PROGRAM JOINS ELITE EUROPEAN COMPANY

HEC Paris’s one-year MBA joins elite company — including in its own country. INSEAD, based in Fontainebleau about 90 minutes southeast of Paris, offers a 10-month MBA that Poets&Quants in 2023 named the top-ranked international program as well as Program of the Year. ESCP, based in Paris, offers a 10-month MBA as well; and ESSEC, in Cergy-Pontoise, has a highly-ranked and -regarded 12-month program.

Elsewhere in Europe, IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, has a one-year MBA that recently underwent a major overhaul; there are plentiful highly ranked 12-month programs in the UK, including at Oxford Saïd, Cambridge Judge, Imperial, and Warwick; and Spain is home to a pair of elite programs, at IE Business School in Madrid and ESADE in Barcelona.

HEC Paris’s new program is aimed at professionals who want to return to work sooner. Like its 16-month program, the accelerated version offers a choice of seven specializations: Strategy Marketing, Strategy, Data and AI for Business Transformation, Advanced Management, Sustainable and Disruptive Innovation, Finance and Entrepreneurship. It also plugs graduates into an alumni network that rivals any in the world, with more than 80,000 people in 152 countries.

NEW MBA ‘STAYS TRUE TO AIMS’ OF QUALITY, STUDENT CHOICE & FLEXIBILITY

The new 12-month MBA will offer a narrower range of customization and will entail five Intensive Courses spread in three-day blocks, four times a year, the school has announced: “These courses address professional and industry specific skills and cover a large scope of topics, from blockchain and fundraising to leadership and investing. These Intensive Courses will be held on campus in Jouy-en-Josas or at the HEC UK Alumni House in London.”

Brad Harris, associate dean of MBA programs at HEC Paris, says the school has always prioritized quality and student choice and flexibility, and that will continue to be the case in the new 12-month MBA program.

“This new offering stays true to those aims,” Harris says. “We quietly tested this option for several cycles and are confident that we can deliver a transformative experience in a way that aligns with prospective students’ goals as well as the expectations of organizations seeking to sponsor high-potential talents.

“We’ll continue to innovate our curriculum and programs to fulfill our purpose of building leaders with the character, competence, and courage to change the world.”

Learn more about the HEC Paris 12-month accelerated MBA program here.

DON’T MISS AN AMERICAN IN (HEC) PARIS: P&Q’S EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH BRAD HARRIS, DEAN OF MBA PROGRAMS and MEET THE HEC PARIS MBA CLASS OF 2025