Academic curriculum

Programme outline

The Oxford MBA is an intense, one-year programme designed to empower you to lead with purpose. Commencing in September, you will experience an exciting launch period helping you to get to know your fellow classmates, assimilate into life at Oxford Saïd, and begin learning fundamental leadership skills.

Following the wider University of Oxford’s three-term structure, the Oxford MBA year is divided into modules, allowing you to focus on your core courses and chosen electives. Our curriculum has been developed to incorporate and prepare you for the world-scale challenges shaping today’s business environment.

Foundation learning

Core courses

The core courses will allow you to examine the foundation of business. The first term will immerse you in modern enterprise – from the economic theory of the firm, to the valuation of businesses and the choice of strategy and management skills.

The goal of these core courses is to provide a breadth and depth of knowledge that will allow you to approach any business situation with confidence and understanding.

Elective courses

We offer you the opportunity to choose from a wide range of subjects that will enhance your CV for certain career avenues or may just interest you intellectually. Courses are often taught by academics and industry practitioners working in partnership to ensure that cutting edge research is combined with relevant real-life application.

Electives on offer are subject to change from year to year depending on demand.

Integrative module

Explore the integrative module

Our MBA programme is built around a cross-cutting theme that relates to the world-scale challenges shaping today's business environment. You will be able to experience how this resonates within other parts of the programme.

Global rules of the game

This module looks at the rules, norms and laws that shape the global economy, including international institutions and agreements as well as differences and disputes across countries that influence or constrain business opportunities.

Global opportunities and threats: Oxford (GOTO)

""

An action-oriented problem-solving community geared towards addressing some of the most complex issues that the world faces today.

GOTO, a course unique to Oxford that all MBA students will take in Hilary term, provides students with two critical things: 

  1. Access to Oxford’s most famous pedagogic institution: the tutorial. Oxford tutorials have sharpened students’ thinking, analysis, critique of evidence and powers of persuasion for centuries. 
  2. Allows a critical analysis of the global opportunities and threats that will be, or already are, part of the business landscape for the coming few years.

Entrepreneurship project

By completing the entrepreneurship course and project you will develop a complete business plan and present it to a panel of invited venture capitalists and other practitioners.

Recent projects included:

  • simplifying technologies for the developmentally challenged
  • the development of a hedge fund
  • the commercialisation of a technology for conditioning household furnishings
  • a consultancy firm providing technical safety management expertise to the Chinese mining industry.

If you already run a business this is a great chance to develop new products or business models in a safe environment.

The goal is for completed plans to be attractive to the professional investor. This means that the numbers must add up, patents must be in place, the competition must have been understood and a winning strategy developed. It is often said that investors care more about the management than the plan – in this case, the management will be you.

International electives

*Please note these are subject to change dependent on local and international government guidelines due to Covid-19.

Doing Business in Africa

The objective of this course is to learn about what the growth prospects in Africa are and what business opportunities Africa presents. The course will also explore the long-term drivers of change in Africa, including the physical, human, global, technological, and institutional and private sector influences. 

The overarching aim of this course is to gain insights into which opportunities exist on the continent, what challenges may impact those opportunities, and to understand where future growth will come from.

Fintech: Present and Future: London

The objective of this course is to learn how Fintech is changing areas such as mobile payments, money transfers, loans, fundraising and even asset management. It will look into how the established financial firms will be rethinking their strategies and how their structures fit within this new market environment.

This course is a four-day field trip to London, taught by Nir Vulkan.

Internship

""

As an MBA student, you have the option to undertake a summer internship for credit towards your MBA. As an intern, you can develop knowledge and competencies related directly to your career goal and potentially secure a full-time job offer. 

The Oxford MBA created a unique opportunity for me to become an intern (again) and test out something completely new. It’s been nice to get back into the workplace and to put my MBA into practice.

Valerie Aguiar

MBA 2018-19

Strategic consulting project

Working in teams of two to four, you can choose to undertake a seven-week project for a corporate sponsor. Projects take place all over the world and for all kinds of companies. Teams have worked with a wide range of companies, charities, non-profits, and start-ups. You might find your team assessing the business case for a new product, creating fully implementable sustainable energy solutions, or sizing up potential strategic acquisitions for a corporate sponsor. You might be on a mission to develop social entrepreneurship in East Africa or formulate a strategy for penetrating the Chinese market.

We ask you to bring your own contacts and networking skills into play to develop exciting projects. If there is a company you have always wanted to work for, undertaking a project for them is sure to get you noticed. We also source projects and build relationships with corporate sponsors. We aim to provide students with the greatest possible choice when it comes to choosing where they will work and what they will do. 

Following the MBA Entrepreneurial Project's completion in Trinity Term, many students who wish to develop their project's ideas and concepts into business models and strategies for implementation find a Strategic Consulting Project to be the ideal avenue.

Co-curricular activities

You will have the opportunity to participate in co-curricular activities alongside the core Oxford MBA programming.

Finance Lab

This offers you the opportunity to understand key concepts, processes, instruments and models that are required to be successful in financial services. It connects theory with practice, preparing you for investment banking, private equity and asset management analyst and associate roles. 

Consulting Development Programme

A focused training programme based around the hiring processes of global consulting recruiters, designed to provide students with skills and insights relevant to a career in the consulting industry. 

Social Impact Lab

Impact Lab is a year-long, flexible co-curricular pathway for MBA students interested in becoming an impact leader, regardless whether you want to start something or work for an organisation, upon graduation.

Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)

  • The first CDL site in Europe, CDL-Oxford offers MBA students the opportunity to join this year’s Artificial Intelligence and Health Streams and work with deep-science and technology based start-ups from across the UK, Europe, and beyond, while being mentored by experienced entrepreneurs, investors, industry leaders, and scientists. 

Course schedule

A year at a glance

MBA Launch: September

This two-week residential programme is designed to introduce you to the world-class business school community at Saïd Business School and to college and University life at Oxford.

During MBA Launch, you will be introduced to talent development through soft skill training and coaching. You will start to build fundamental skills to support the core courses, particularly in Business Finance, Accounting and Analytics.

Michaelmas term: October to December

During this term you will start to build the foundations of business by completing core courses. You will also have access to support courses and will begin working on your talent development plan.

Hilary term: January to March

During Hilary you will continue to work on core courses as well as taking your first elective course.

You will also begin working on your GOTO and Entrepreneurship Projects.

Trinity term: April to June

Throughout Trinity you will work on further elective courses and co-curriculars.

Summer term: July and August

During the summer there is a choice of options:

  • a seven-week Strategic Consulting Project
  • summer electives
  • an Internship for credit of at least six weeks.

Ongoing

The talent development programme as well as co-curricular activities Finance Lab, Consulting development programme, and Impact lab will run alongside the main course schedule. 

Ready to apply?

Applications for the Oxford MBA class of 2023-24 are now closed. Download our brochure and sign up for our mailing list to be notified as soon as applications open for the class of 2024-25.