Oxford Saïd’s open programmes ranked No.1 in UK for fifth consecutive year

The Financial Times has ranked Saïd Business School’s open enrolment programmes No.1 in the UK.

‘We are delighted to see innovations in preparation and course design have increased our scores in these categories, and we have been marked highly for the quality of participants – particularly their diversity – which has greatly enriched the experience of everyone we have worked with this year,’ stated Caroline Williams, Director of Open Programmes.

Oxford Saïd has expanded its offering of open programmes this year, with Driving Disruptive Growth and Delivering Value through Digital both launched in 2019.

To build upon the success of the Oxford Fintech and Blockchain programmes, the School also launched the Oxford Fintech Lab, which was open to participants of the two online programmes. It attracted 29 experienced and diverse participants and culminated in a pitching session to venture capitalists, with one participant securing £20m of investment as a direct result of the lab. The lab will run for the second time in December.

The Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme has also enjoyed a successful 2019, with 17 different nationalities represented by 29 participants in a 41% female cohort. Changes to the programme this year included lessons on ‘Thinking like a Historian,’ led by Oxford’s Dr Oliver Cox.

‘Dr Cox talked about a leader’s need to build narrative out of disconnected fragments, to mend what is broken, to spot patterns and to learn from them and, above all, to be conscious of all of our own, skewed places in history and how that distorts perspective,’ explained programme leader Tracy Camilleri.

‘Retaining our position as the top UK school for open programmes would not have been possible without the hard work of all our staff and faculty who continue to strive for excellence across all participant experiences at Oxford Saïd,’ commented Peter Tufano, Dean of Oxford Saïd. ‘Through our work, we make individuals and organisations stronger, and more purposeful.’

The School also improved its ranking position for custom programmes in 2018/19, the result of investments in programme design incorporating digital learning and value for money. The ongoing commitment to drive leadership development and economic growth at organisation and policy level has remained a key focus for the custom team with both new and existing clients.

Sir Frank McLoughlin CBE, associate director of the Education & Training Foundation, commented:

‘Leadership is the key to the success of any organisation. The leadership challenges in the further education sector continue to grow in size and complexity. I know principals and CEO’s will relish the opportunity to work with Saïd Business School, to raise their own leadership capacity, and the capability of the whole sector.’