Cranfield….. whats that?
This question, accompanied with a lot of confused faces, is very common for me now. Whenever I tell anyone regarding my admission to the Cranfield School of Management (2nd best in UK and 37th ranked in World) I have to confront such questions. People have heard of Oxford, Cambridge, LBS, LSE but not Cranfield; despite the fact that Cranfield University and its ‘School of Management’ are one of the prestigious and highly respected institutes of the world especially UK.
This illustrates another problem among the Indian students. We don’t know many good universities and their worldwide-acknowledged courses. So where can one find information about various universities of the world. Talking particularly about MBA, one should register with World MBA Tour and do visit the exhibitions and fairs organized by them. You will come across many new institutes (the institutes are usually very old and well established but are totally new to an average Indian student), many such courses which are typically new for you.
Coming back to Cranfield, I chose this institute over 2 other options that were available with me. One offer I had was from one of the best institutes of France and other was from the best MBA institute of the Asia pacific region in Singapore. I dropped the Singapore option cos it was not as highly ranked as the 2 other options I had with me.
I also dropped the France option cos French economy is not doing well these days. Though this French Institute ranks way higher than Cranfield still I opted for Cranfield, considering the ease of adjusting to language and culture of UK and the growing UK economy. I came to know that French economy is in such a bad shape that the MBA graduates from French Institutes are going to UK or US for jobs. They hardly find any job in France. Moreover you need to be very fluent with French if you wanna take up a job in France.
The particular reasons for selecting Cranfield, apart from its rankings and location advantages, are:
- Focus of the course on personal and professional development- infact this is the backbone of the Cranfield MBA. The institute takes pride in the fact that they help develop personality of the individuals while helping them attain their career goals.
- IBE Tour- Its something which might not interest is as such. Every other institute has such world tours packed in their course. What is different in the Cranfield’s IBE? Well the difference that I found is in their planning and organizing that goes into their tours. Though I have not taken this journey till now, I am sure it will be a great experience as I have discovered from the posts and diaries of the current students.
- New and exciting modules like Demand Chain Management, Entrepreneurship etc. The course modules are designed to meet the incumbent industry demands and are different from the conventional courses.
As I am from SCM (Supply Chain Management) background, Cranfield was the ideal choice for me. Cranfield University is well known for its Post Graduation course in SCM and the module of Demand Chain Management couples Marketing and SCM.
There are a large number of other good reasons why Cranfield should be the first choice for every person looking for an MBA. Well you have to do a bit of homework yourself and check their website http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mba
After having obtained scholarship, there was no reason why I would have denied the Cranfield offer. Looking ahead to Cranfield, I am very excited. This will be a big step in my career and a great venture of my life.
