Home to both the Queen and cutting-edge pop music, the United Kingdom has always mixed tradition with forward thinking. With the origins of Oxford University going back 1,000 years, and with several British universities dating from the 13th to 16th centuries, the excellence of the country’s education system has ancient roots.
But this is also where the first television pictures were transmitted, the life-saving properties of penicillin were discovered and the idea of the World Wide Web was born. The quality of research work of UK institutes is exemplified by the fact that Cambridge University has produced more Nobel Laureates than any other university in the world.
In the field of business, the Association of MBAs (AMBA) – an organisation that monitors the quality of MBA programmes across the world – reports that a third of the 126 business schools offering courses accredited by the AMBA are located in the UK.
“Students can gain hugely by travelling to the UK for their MBAs,” says Katherine Forestier, senior education consultant with the British Council in Hong Kong. “They can enjoy a larger variety of courses with different specialisms, build networks with students from across the world, forge valuable links with industry in Europe, and enjoy the cultural experience of studying in the UK, with its historic cities and famed universities.”
According to the British Council, at any one time about 9,500 international students are studying full-time on MBA programmes at UK universities and business schools, filling approximately 90 per cent of the total available places. In 2010-11, there were 85 Hong Kong students enrolled on UK MBA programmes.
Joe Sze Ching-chung, 27, had been working for three years as a customer relationship manager in Fubon Bank’s wealth management unit when he left to take up a place on the one-year MBA programme at Warwick Business School. Although he is the only Hongkonger in his class, Sze’s fellow students include a number of mainlanders and Taiwanese.