Business School launches full-time MBA

The University of Sydney Business School's new full-time MBA features close collaboration by students with the university's multi-disciplinary Charles Perkins Centre.

In a new unit called "the nature of systems", students will interact with project teams at the centre who are working to solve the major first-world health problems – such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease – from a multi-disciplinary standpoint.

The business school's MBA director, Professor Guy Ford said students in the full-time MBA would be able to see how complex problems were tackled.

Embrace ambiguity

"Obesity is not just a clinical problem, it's a behavioural problem, it's a sociological problem,"  Professor Ford said.

"The reality is that's the way MBA students are going to work when they graduate. It's all part of their skill building and embracing ambiguity," he said.

MBA students will also work with teams in the centre on the commercialisation potential of their research work.

The full-time MBA, whose first cohort will begin in August next year with places limited to 50 students, follows the Business School's part-time MBA which was launched in 2013.

Except for the nature of systems unit, the 12 study units in the full-time MBA are available in the part-time degree. The difference is that students in the full-time MBA will progress as a cohort and there are no elective units.

Professor Ford said that while an MBA could not dispense with traditional business knowledge such as strategy, finance, data and marketing, students also needed to be equipped to thrive in "an increasingly complex and ambiguous world".

"It's very hard for the traditional content of an MBA to deliver on that," he said.

The degree is divided into thirds with the first part devoted to personal and interpersonal skill development, including the nature of systems unit and other units on creativity and leadership.

The middle third covers traditional business knowledge while the final third concentrates on building the future enterprise.

Discover our unique full-time MBA.