What Students Say
Likes
- Action learning based course and college. The faculty gives practical knowledge and real-life training sessions, consulting projects and presentations. There is "zero" bookish approach towards teaching.
- The faculty members are very passionate. My coordinator Pete Cornwall was amazing and ensured a smooth onboarding, along with Gillian Parry. Andrew Bagshaw was an amazing mentor and was always there to help students. Dr. Robyn Remke is the director of MBA, needs no introduction, she genuinely wants you to succeed. I think Lancaster has one of the best faculties across UK colleges for MBA.
- The culture of the university is great, they hold a lot of events including international trips, alumni events, networking events and many more to keep the students engaged.
Dislikes
- The cost of the MBA is too high with respect to it's course period. Its a one-year intensive course and the workload is way too high.
- The college is located in a very small town near Manchester, called Lancaster, so it is a country side with absolutely minimal facilities. This impacted my overall experience.
- The college had negligible diversity and there was also bias with respect to local job market and opportunities. So as an Indian, I faced that bias, which I felt is one of the most negative parts of being in this university.
Course Curriculum
10
- The difficulty level of the course was fine for someone who has worked before and graduated before because it was designed that way, it was created in a way that taught lessons an experienced professional can relate to and apply in the future.
- It was 90% practical and only 10% theory. It had presentations, field trips, and so on to teach us various aspects of business in numerous ways.
- The most positive aspect was group work and collaboration, as it personally helped me a lot. It taught most of us to be in a group and learn group work, which is the most important thing in working in a professional setupas well. The most negative aspect was its lack of placement opportunities; we all paid a huge amount to be there and I, at least, expected a few companies showing up and the college/course helping us in cracking those placements, but that didn't happen.
- The whole day was divided into 2 parts and one class was conducted by one professor in a day.
- The typical timings were from 9 to 6.
- There were 70 students total.
- There were 55 Indian students.
Admission Experience
-
I only applied to Lancaster University, Manchester University Business school, and Durham University.
- I was waitlisted in Durham.
- I was accepted in Lancaster.
- I was rejected from Manchester.
- In my opinion, Manchester University Business school is one of the top-ranking B-schools and needed a great GMAT score, which I didn't get. Hence, I was rejected from this college.
- Durham, again, tops the charts for MBA. Doesn't require a GMAT score, but a lot depends on your past work experiences.
- Lancaster University seemed a great choice for me because it is among the top 10 B-schools in the UK.
- I only applied to 3 colleges, all MBA, because my vision was very clear from the beginning about MBA and the kind of schools I needed to apply to. Also, I only wanted to apply in England. Hence, I didn't apply to any of the other great schools in Scotland.
- Lancaster University has great faculty.
- In 2022, it was ranked 132 for MBA in the QS world ranking.
- It had an international trip for the price of the MBA. I wanted that kind of exposure.
- The admission process was simple. I wrote an SOP (STATEMENT OF PURPOSE), and my agent submitted all the documents, including the SOP, past work experience, Resume, etc., to the Lancaster University portal and soon after I got to the second round of shortlisting, which was the interview. After the interview, the university sent an email to me saying I was shortlisted.
- The eligibility criteria for an MBA were:
- SOP
- IELTS - MINIMUM SCORE REQUIRED WAS 6.5 OVERALL AND IN EACH INDIVIDUAL TOPIC
- MINIMUM 4 YEARS OF WORK EXPERIENCE.
- The process and experience were just fine. I hired an agency to do the whole process for me, so it was pretty simple for me. I just wrote the SOP and submitted all the documents to my agent, who did all the filing for me. (I recommend going through this route). Once the admission was successful, Pete Cornwall reached out to help in any way possible, which I thought was sweet and thoughtful. Rest, I didn't face any challenges, to be honest. It was as simple as it could be.
- I was in the Autumn intake, October 2022. It is more aligned with hiring cycles. Plus Lancaster only had October intakes for MBA.
- The whole admission process took less than 15 days for me; it is very subjective, though.
- The process is as follows:
- I hired an agent for completing all the paperwork for me. I submitted all the documents to my agent, who in turn made a case file for me and submitted all the documents to the university.
- Once my documents, history and SOP were shortlisted. I received an interview email from the director of our MBA, Dr Robyn Remke.
- I cleared the interview and got an email that I have been selected for the MBA programme of 2022-23.
- I started in April 2022, and the whole process was wrapped up quickly within 15-20 days. I got the admission by May 2022.
Faculty
10
- There were about 10 courses in the MBA, and each course had a different professor. So there were about 10 direct faculty members, 3-4 guest lecturers, 3 support faculty members, 1 career relationship faculty member and 1 Director of MBA. The ratio was around 20 to 70 students all in all. I think the ratio was quite good, as we got to interact with multiple members of faculties for each cause.
- The course is typically content for us to land or secure a job in the respective field, but as I said, this is something that is not assisted by any of the faculty members and it was your hard work/decision of how to pursue it forward. They taught all the courses required in an MBA.
- No, nobody can assist in finding any kind of jobs.
- The one faculty member that I admire the most is Andrew Bagshaw, as he was always there at our constant beck and call. He helped us frame our resumes and was one of the sweetest, most adorable, and most approachable of all. Each faculty member maintained a professional respect and distance, but he always was a mentor and a go-to person.
Campus Life
10
- There is only one campus of Lancaster University in Bailrigg, Lancashire, England.
- All the facilities are available on the campus, as below:
- Library
- Gym
- Swimming pool
- 2 grocery stores - central and spar
- Restaurant's
- Fast food joints
- Social hubs
- Bars
- Sports arena
- Porters
- NHS - medical facilities and many more!
- The most famous one is Lancaster Fireworks.
- There are tonnes of extracurricular activities depending on the interest of the student:
- Sports – football, basketball, badminton, and many more.
- Student organisations/hubs
- Networking events/cultural events – like flash mobs, potlucks and so on.
Part Time Jobs
- There are no teaching assistant/research assistant jobs available for any of the students. A student needs to typically apply for his or her own part-time jobs either in the campus or outside the campus
- Other on-campus jobs are working in grocery stores like Spar or working as a waiter/waitress in restaurants. Indian students usually get part-time jobs as waiters/waitresses in Indian restaurants. Students can also work as receptionists in the GYM/sports arenas. Or work as a junior assistant in student organisations or housing departments. Hourly wages are around 9.5/10 pounds.
- Only 20 hours a week is allowed.
- It is not that difficult to apply for/secure a job on the campus; it solely depends on the interest of the students and the time they have to spare for the work.
- 9.5/10 pounds per hour is what the average pay grade allows. It's easy to secure a part-time job but difficult to fulfil it, as it requires a lot of time, and an MBA is an intensive course with a lot of assignments, group work/jobs, fieldwork, and travel.
- So it is difficult to manage both. Students can either network their way into the part-time jobs or apply on the university portal, speak to student councils and also walk in. Once you submit your relevant details and the resume along with your visa/passport, they will interview you, and the shortlisting happens post.
Placement
6
- Only 10-20% get the employment within 6 months of completion of the course.
- (25000-35000 pounds) annually can be expected after graduating.
- There are limited campus recruitments. Only 2 companies show up – Amazon and one boutique consultancy. There are internships, but they never convert into full-time jobs; students in the UK typically use only LinkedIn and online websites of companies to submit their applications. Networking is another way to secure a good lead, but that also depends on the student.
- One student got into amazon and the other one got into boutique consultancy through campus. Rest searched their way through LinkedIn and found jobs in Hilti, Turners and Townsend, Schindler, Lloyds bank, British airways, etc.
Accommodation
Off Campus
10
- My accommodation was also found by my agent; he suggested I should apply to the accommodation provided by the university.
- There were no challenges, as my agent filled all the forms required to submit an application for student housing at the campus in the university.
- Yes, I will only recommend student accommodation provided by the university inside the campus, as it's the most beautiful campus, self-sufficient, self-reliant, affordable (as compared to other housing), and more social. Events were hosted here, there were social hubs to socialise, bars to hang out, and restaurants to eat. and so many things under one area.
- Accommodation is on the campus. Most students stay on the university campus. About 90%.
Exams
- Only IELTS is required.
- Documents required are Statement of Purpose (SOP), Resume (CV), Past experience letters from former employers, and IELTS score card.
- Yes, there was an interview as a part of the application process. The format was pretty basic; it was conducted by Dr Robyn Remke, director of the MBA. She would ask questions based on your SOP and your Resume. She will also judge your communication skills and how seriously you treat the interview.
- She would also ask about your future plans of living in the country and what kind of jobs you'd apply to. She would also ask see if you are a cultural fit for the university. All these answers influence the admission decision.
Fees
- Total tuition fees - 32500 pounds
- Scholarship - 8500 pounds
- Net tuition fees - 24000 pounds
- Hostel fees (only accommodation) - 12000 pounds
- (They gave all the above options. I chose to pay upfront right after admission. So I paid a total of 24000+12000 pounds before joining upfront.
- Rent - mentioned above (I lived in the campus hostel, which was 12000 pounds for 12 months, so 1000 pounds monthly.)
- Transportation - Used buses to transport in and around the city. 3.5 pounds for 1 round trip. Roughly 90 pounds a month.
- Food/Grocery - We had shared kitchens, hence shared groceries. So less than 100 pounds a month.
Scholarship
- I received a scholarship called the Lancaster Global scholarship.
- Each student in our batch/class received the same scholarship and of the same amount.
- The award amount was a standard 8500 pounds flat.
- Each Indian student receives this scholarship. Only one student received a 16000 pounds LUMS MBA Scholarship; otherwise, the amount is standard across students.
