Beyond The Degree: The New Skills B-Schools Must Deliver In The UK

In lecture halls from Dublin to Durham, a quiet revolution is underway. A new survey of deans, associate deans, and programme leads across UK and Irish universities reveals that business schools are reshaping the core of their teaching; from knowledge acquisition to real-world capability.

At the heart of this transformation is a radical pivot to competency-based education.

In the past, business education focused on credentials: finish the course, earn the grade, get the degree. But today, as UK employers demand demonstrable evidence of what graduates can do, not just what they’ve studied, universities are racing to embed concrete, job-ready skills into the curriculum.

And our latest research shows they’re making serious headway.

COMPETENCIES TAKE CENTRE STAGE

According to our 2025 survey of education leaders across UK and Irish business schools, nearly 60% of respondents said competencies are now fully embedded across all programmes, with a further 40% noting partial integration. These competencies go beyond soft skills. They include:

• AI and digital fluency
• Adaptability and resilience
• Sustainability and ESG strategy
• Ethical leadership
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration

“We’ve developed our curriculum from scratch with competencies as the spine,” says one academic leader. “They’re not just an add-on, they’re the structure.”

This aligns with findings from the UK Employer Skills Survey 2022, which show persistent skills gaps in communication, leadership, and technical domains, especially in fast-evolving sectors like digital and finance.

WHAT UK EMPLOYERS REALLY WANT

Where a degree once served as a shorthand for capability, today’s employers are asking sharper questions:

• Can this graduate lead a hybrid project team?
• Do they understand environmental and regulatory risks?
• Can they translate complex data into board-level decisions?

One respondent puts it simply: “Employers are no longer content with graduates who can explain strategy, they need people who can execute it.”

Encouragingly, five out of seven schools say they regularly consult employers through advisory boards, co-design workshops, or live project briefs. Still, many note that employer engagement is often ad hoc.

“It needs to be systematic, not sporadic,” warns one Dean.

This point is echoed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which emphasises the need for structured industry-academia partnerships to close skill mismatches in the UK workforce.

STUDENTS KNOW WHAT THEY NEED: ARE WE LISTENING?

Surprisingly, most schools engage students only occasionally in designing competency frameworks. Just three out of seven schools reported structured student involvement.

That’s a missed opportunity.

Students consistently express clarity and urgency when it comes to skill priorities. The most frequently cited by students in our research?

• AI and data fluency
• Leadership and team skills
• Sustainability and social impact

“Students appreciate our focus on skills,” one respondent notes, “but they want more consistency and transparency across modules.”

This student feedback aligns closely with UK national priorities around innovation, green jobs, and digital infrastructure.

FROM CURRICULUM OVERLOAD TO REAL-WORLD INNOVATION

Business schools are under pressure—from employers, regulators, and students—to do more with already-packed curricula. Leaders identified three main barriers:

1. Curriculum overload
2. Staff development gaps
3. Lack of consensus on core competencies

Despite this, institutions are finding inventive ways forward:

• Integrated assessments simulating real-world decisions
• Live briefs from industry embedded into coursework
• AI and digital resilience modules as core, not optional
• Cross-programme skill audits with dashboards to track progress

One dean describes their newest initiative as “an AI and ethics thread that runs from first year to capstone.”

Case in point: One UK business school has partnered with a leading sustainability consultancy to co-deliver a capstone project where students assess a real ESG challenge faced by a FTSE 100 company. Students must analyse regulatory frameworks, model data impacts, and pitch viable solutions directly to industry partners.

This kind of learning is no longer extra, it’s essential.

CAPABILITY IS THE NEW CREDENTIAL

As competency-based education takes root, a new kind of graduate is emerging, fluent not just in theory but in execution. Employers are noticing. Students are responding.

But embedding competencies is no quick fix. It requires:

• Institutional alignment
• Investment in staff development
• Genuine partnership with the labour market
• And most critically, a willingness to share ownership of the curriculum with students and employers alike

“We’re not teaching content anymore,” one academic concludes. “We’re helping students build who they are and what they can do.”

In the years ahead, the business schools that thrive won’t be those with the longest reading lists, they’ll be the ones whose graduates can lead, build, collaborate, and adapt from day one.

The diploma, once seen as a timeless symbol of eternal knowledge, is now being reimagined as a testament to the practical skills and capabilities a student has demonstrably acquired. But the age of the competency has most certainly begun. 

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Professor Hannah Holmes is dean of the business school and deputy pro-vice-chancellor within the Faculty of Business and Law at Manchester Metropolitan University. Benjamin Stevenin is former director of business school solutions and partnerships at Times Higher Education. 

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