In 2017 fellow classmates Andrea Guzzoni and Dennis Helderman  (MSc Strategic Marketing 2014) set up Rentuu. What began as a solution to providing eco-friendly, sustainable solutions to temporary furniture, has developed into a B2B marketplace providing high-spec items for events and everything else in-between.

The business has been so successful that the duo were selected to participate in the Pitch@Palace 11.0, an initiative founded by The Duke of York as a platform to highlight and accelerate the work of entrepreneurs. Selected from hundreds of applications to take part, we talk to them about the process and their future business plans.

Talk us through Pitch@Palace

Our mission is to empower event organisers through enabling access to 1000s of event suppliers from furniture to audio/visual to infrastructure hire for larger scale events. We applied to take part in the Pitch@Palace event as we wanted to gain exposure and continue to grow the business.

Pitch@palace provides a platform for businesses to pitch to some of the most influential business leaders and investors from across the UK’s technology, innovation and business communities.

“The application process was straightforward and comprehensive. We invested the time to thoroughly answer each question ranging from our current revenues to key milestones to future vision and intended ask from the Pitch@Palace audience. Our answers were carefully reviewed by the Pitch@Palace team who did their due diligence and connected with us personally to share the news of our acceptance.” 

As part of the process they had to participate in a bootcamp which gave them the chance to hear from industry experts, and former Pitch@palace alumni, as well as receiving mentoring and support. As an added bonus, the event was hosted by the Imperial Enterprise Lab and held at Imperial’s White City Campus, in the new Molecular Science Research Hub.

“The bootcamp experience was fantastic! Being an Imperial alumni it was great being back on campus. The event had a series of talks from alumni and key business leaders from  Will King, founder of The King of Shaves and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, chairman and founder of easyGroup.

“Pre-event the Pitch@Palace team match you up to mentors (called elevators) to help support and guide you through the programme. Silvia and Neil were absolute rockstars and not only gave valuable introductions and advice but, Silvia’s German Craft Beer Brewery ended up as one of our clients!”

The Rentuu team made it to the 42 finalists, and although they were beaten to the title by another Imperial team of graduates, Jelly Drops, they took a great deal from the experience. “The Pitch@Palace team were incredibly well organised and proactive in ensuring every entrepreneur was briefed and received the support they need. We are very grateful to them. In terms of what we took away with us – we met clients, prospective investors, partners and built a wider Imperial alumni network. The experience has been invaluable.”

Growing the business

And if the excitement of Pitch@Palace wasn’t enough, Andrea and Dennis recently received investment of £400k from Mash Media. Using this they hope to grow the business in Europe and leverage technology to build the client base.  “We believe this investment with help us do this better by providing experienced UK knowledge and access to a wider industry network to scale as we bring on board more venture capital. We’re delighted that they saw the potential in our business.”

In terms of securing the investment their advice to others wanting to do the same is:

Be persistent, start early – things always take longer – and ask for help from current stakeholders and beyond.

They credit their time at Imperial for meeting each other, as well as providing the strategic thinking needed to see the bigger picture. And with experience, drive and investment on their side, they are all set to become a leading name in global event management in the next five years. “We hope to become a global platform spanning continents empowering tens of thousands of businesses to hire equipment faster at better value with less stress to fuel sustainability through the circular economy.”

So you’re interested in an MBA and Imperial College Business School’s Full-Time MBA has piqued your interest. You can talk to students about their experience on the programme online, you can read about all about the different parts of the programme, but at a glance, what does a year really look like on the Full-Time MBA at Imperial?

Find out below in our Full-Time MBA highlights reel.

Autumn: setting up for success on the MBA

Induction week

You’ve attended information sessions or online webinars, you’ve laboured over your application, passed through the interview and you’ve made it on the Full-Time MBA! To welcome you onto the programme, all students have a highly engaging, social and hands-on induction week.

There are a lot of new faces to meet – 74 students in the Full-Time MBA class of 2018-19 – so induction week is not only a crash course on beginning your MBA, but also the beginning of lifelong friendships. The Leadership and Teambuilding Day during Induction helps to foster these connections very quickly through a high ropes and climbing towers course which requires a high level of trust and empathy.

Core one modules

The MBA is not just about networking, the knowledge and skills are so integral to the journey. After Induction Week, students launch straight into their first set of core modules. These modules begin to build students’ foundation in business, beginning with Accounting, Business Economics, Design Thinking and Innovative Problem Solving, Organisational Behaviour and Strategic Problem Solving.

Careers Week

In the first term of the Full-Time MBA, Imperial College Business School Careers host a Careers Week with all students on the programme. Students attend compulsory sessions and tailored events and workshops that they can choose depending on their career interests.

Vidhi Dwivedi is a Full-Time MBA student who participated in the entrepreneurship session hosted by the Imperial Enterprise Lab. She says, “It was one of the busiest yet most insightful events during Careers Week in all senses. The session is as useful for a professional like me who wishes to return to the corporate world, as it is for those wanting to start their own business straight out of the MBA.”

Natural History Museum

We like to think that we put on one of the best welcome parties in town! After dark, the Natural History Museum, which is just two doors down from Imperial, closes its doors to the public and comes alive after dark for a special welcome event to kickstart the academic year.

The event brings together students across all programmes at Imperial College Business School and is a spectacular way to mark the beginning of their journey. .

Core two modules

Two months into the programme, it’s time to commence the second set of core modules: Corporate Finance, Marketing and Strategy. For Carra Torres, a student in our current class, the module she found most challenging was Corporate Finance, especially not coming from a non-finance or quant background:

I definitely felt I had a huge learning curve when it came to understanding the financial modules, but the Professor for our Corporate Finance module, Franklin Allen was amazing. He’s really good at explaining things in a way that everybody can understand…I’m not going to work in finance after my MBA but I totally get the perspective that you need to have when you’re making big investment or financial decisions.

Full-Time MBA Christmas social

Christmas cheer is in abundance around campus all month with the Natural History Museum turning festive with a beautiful ice-skating rink and Winter Wonderland just a hop and skip away in Hyde Park.

Another highlight of this term is the Full-Time MBA Christmas dinner. Students get to celebrate an early Christmas with their classmates, complete with a ‘Secret Santa’ gift giving. This year’s dinner was held at the beautiful Royal Garden Hotel.

Winter: final core modules and group projects

Core 3 and 4 modules

After an inspiring few days abroad, students return to campus ready to get stuck into the last core modules. This term it’s Decision Analytics, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Investments and Risk Management, Macroeconomics and Operations.

Entrepreneurial Journey/Group Consulting Project

It’s not all core modules in January, this month also marks the start of their key project. The Entrepreneurial Journey is a live, team-based entrepreneurial project where students develop a product from beginning to end, creating a full-fledged business proposition that they pitch to a panel of investors to compete for a monetary prize. One of last year’s Full-Time MBA student, Samantha Madigan said, “The most rewarding part of working with Uteepi on the Entrepreneurial Journey was seeing the ideas being developed into a reality and the launch of the company this summer, which has already started generating revenue.”

The other project they can choose is the Group Consulting Project. In teams, students take on the role of a team of consultants for a company working on a real-life business problem. Groups work directly with the client during the project and are also assigned an informal mentor who is an alumnus of the Imperial MBA and currently engaged in consulting.

Spring: learning innovation, international study tour and customising your study

Imperial Innovation Challenge

The Imperial Innovation Challenge is an engaging week dedicated to sustainable innovation, and is an opportunity for students to deep dive into issues of crucial importance to business and society.

The theme of this year’s Challenge was: The Solar Economy: Harnessing the Disruption of Digital Energy. During the programme, students were tasked with developing a business concept that employs a new business model to re-configure the way an existing technology is adopted by consumers. Students then presented their ideas to their class and were judged by a panel.

Elective pathways

After returning to campus from their incredible week abroad, students return to campus to begin their electives. We offer students on the MBA a wide portfolio of electives so they can really tailor their learnings to their career goals and interests.

There are four elective pathways: Finance, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management and Analytics and Marketing. Electives are offered in different formats and can range between on campus or online, and can sometimes be shared across the MBA programme portfolio and offered jointly with MSc students.

Summer: putting MBA learnings into practice on an international exchange, internship, individual project and Capstone

Exchange opportunities (optional)

Our option exchange programme allows students to choose to study some of their electives at one of our partner schools abroad. This gives students the opportunity to learn from the expert faculty in another country and opens up international working opportunities. We have partner schools in cities such as Paris, Shanghai, Switzerland, Texas and more. View the full list of institutions on offer here.

Perspectives on Practice

In June, the programme begins to wrap up with the Perspectives on Practice final pieces of coursework. Lasting between two to three months, students can choose to undertake an internship or work on an Individual Project. The aim of both these options is to provide an opportunity for students to integrate and synthesise all of their learnings on the MBA to one final piece of work.

For the internship, students can choose a company they are interested in. Support will be provided from our Careers team in securing placements. The alternative option, the individual project, is an individual consulting project tailored to a specific organisation or for those with an entrepreneurial interest, it can be a business plan.

Both the internship and individual project can act as a great recruitment tool, springboarding students to a future career opportunity.

The grand finale: Capstone

You won’t even believe it, but in a blink of an eye, it’s the end of the programme and a year has passed since the MBA journey began. All students on the programme come together for a final time for Capstone, the culmination of the MBA studies.

This two-day intensive course is designed to enhance students’ managerial knowledge and communication competencies. It is also an opportunity to celebrate your achievements on the programme and reconnect with your cohort one last time as MBA students, as the next time you are all brought together will be as graduates at your incredible ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall.

Last week, we admitted our largest ever Weekend MBA class of 2019-20, welcoming 102 students to Imperial College Business School. Among this class are scholarship recipients who we rewarded for achieving academic and professional excellence in their chosen careers.

We offer three types of major scholarships:

• The Dean’s Excellence Award is awarded to students who demonstrate exceptional academic and professional accomplishments, and are impactful leaders, embodying the key elements of Imperial College Business School’s mission and vision
• Future Leader Award is offered for applicants in the early stages of their career who demonstrate rapid progression, a strong track record of leadership and/or outstanding leadership potential, a focused career plan and a strong overall application
• Women’s Scholarships are available to female candidates showing exceptional academic achievement and professional excellence. We especially look for candidates who are committed to supporting women in business and who act as a role model for other women within their organisation

We also offer additional Imperial Business Scholarships to suitable candidates with strong applications.

Find out who are the recipients of our major scholarships in April 2019 cohort and why they chose to study the Weekend MBA at Imperial College Business School below.

In September 2019, we are launching our new cutting-edge MSc Financial Technology programme. We are excited to welcome the inaugural class who will be future leaders of the fintech industry.

The programme features an engaging curriculum that teaches the quantitative and analytical skills to excel in fintech. In September, students begin with a foundation module which is made up of six components that introduce the tools of modern finance and enhance their programming knowledge.

This sets them up perfectly for the core modules which run across the autumn, spring and summer terms. These modules are across the key areas of financial technology and give students an intensive grounding into the skills they need to launch their careers in the industry.

We speak to faculty members who will be teaching on two of the core modules; Tarun Ramadorai, Professor of Financial Economics who will be teaching Big Data I, and Ansgar Walther, Assistant Professor of Finance teaching Big Data II.

Tell us about your academic background and your interest in fintech?

Tarun: I did an undergraduate degree in mathematics and economics, I have a Master’s in economics and a PhD in business economics. During the course of my research, I’ve done a huge amount of work in computational applications, working with data in particular. This means large empirical projects using very large amounts of data from all around the world.

This has led to an interest in the use of large datasets, whether that’s structured or unstructured. And it’s also led to the use increasingly of what is now known as machine learning and artificial intelligence types of techniques. This is just becoming part of the standard toolkit that you have to use to do cutting edge research these days. And so that’s led to a natural development of interest in the area of fintech.

Ansgar: I have a PhD in Economics from Cambridge and have held academic posts in Economics and Finance at Oxford, Warwick and Imperial. Having spent most of my career studying financial systems and the economics of information, I am obviously fascinated by fintech and its impact on the economy. I think technology has huge potential to make the financial system more efficient, and perhaps even more importantly, fairer and more accessible for everyone.

For example, a well-known issue is that many households who are not wealthy lack access to credit and do not participate in stock markets. Fintech lenders and investment advisors have the chance to change this. At the same time, we need to be careful that a tech-based system does not penalise or deny access to people that are already disadvantaged. These issues motivate most of my research at the moment, and I am collaborating with both policy institutions and fintech firms to gain new insights.

What can students expect to learn on your core module?

Tarun: Over the last few years, there’s been an explosion of interest in the use of large datasets and new empirical techniques that are being used to facilitate financial decisions that people make. So what we do in Big Data I is examine how a combination of large datasets, new empirical techniques including machine learning, and insights from fields like psychology and behavioural finance are combining to help market participants make more effective financial decisions. We will focus on credit and mortgage analytics as well as the use of big data techniques and asset management strategies. Those are two particularly important areas that students can expect to learn a lot of techniques about.

Ansgar: Big Data II, not surprisingly, follows on from the prerequisite module Big Data I. The philosophy for both modules is the same: We want students to learn techniques to analyse big data, such as machine learning models, and at the same time practice applying these tools to financial problems. On the technical side, Big Data II puts more emphasis on deep neural networks and reinforcement learning. We will apply these tools, among other things, to the core problems of asset management, portfolio choice and trading strategies.

How does your module equip students with the skills to pursue a career in the fintech industry?

Tarun: This is now my third year teaching Big Data I at Imperial, having taught this module previously on our other Finance Master’s programmes, and these skills have become extremely useful. Many of my students have come back and reported to me that this module was very helpful in interviews they are now having. It’s also the case that the skillset that’s expected of them has changed and evolved so that some of the techniques that we teach them are becoming particularly important. This is an important module in the sense that it will open the door to a whole set of areas that they might not otherwise have thought they were equipped for. But also increasingly the areas they thought they were equipped for, or are requiring facility with, require some of these new tools and techniques. It’s an essential part of the toolkit, if you don’t have it you can suffer.

Ansgar: The skills students learn on this module are directly applicable for anyone wanting to work in a fintech business that involves credit scoring or asset management. Some concrete examples of firms that need to hire people with these skills are hedge funds, peer-to-peer lenders and “robo-advisor” companies. But the skills are valuable much more widely. For example, neural networks and related techniques are used extensively to prevent fraud in the financial industry, to automate consumer service interfaces, or to optimise marketing strategies. Further, throughout the module students will have guest lectures where they get a chance to interact with people from the industry who are looking for talent.

Why is Imperial the place to study a Master’s in Financial Technology?

Tarun: Imperial has an illustrious history, it’s one of the best STEM schools in the world. It’s routinely in the top 10 in the world university rankings and it’s got a very impressive heritage in the areas of science and technology. We also have a world-class finance department. A combination of both these factors makes this the ideal place to do work in this particular area. Fintech is one of those very fast-growing clusters of activity and organisations are hiring some of the smartest people in this subject. Student quality on our Finance Master’s programmes has been very high, our finance PhD students are particularly bright and working on very innovative areas. Imperial is a really exciting place to be.

Ansgar: The unique feature of Imperial College is that we have a world-class finance department next door to world-class engineering and computer science departments. We have the perfect ecosystem for teaching and researching fintech – for example, if I am applying financial tools to big data and want to know the state of the art processes, there are literally dozens of elite tech researchers that I can talk to. Very few places can offer this combination.

Farfetch

Farfetch is a luxury e-commerce platform founded in 2007 by Portuguese entrepreneur, José Neves. In 2015, the company became Portugal’s first unicorn – meaning they were the first privately held startup in the country to be valued at over $1 billion.

Flash forward to today, Farfetch is a global e-commerce giant that connects shoppers with more than 4,000 luxury brands from over 35 countries through a single online store.

Farfetch touts itself as both a technology and fashion company that advances the user experience through technological innovations. Their Lisbon office is home to many members of the technology team, including Luis Trindade, Principal Product Owner – Experimentation, and Carlos Oliveira, Principal Product Manager, who presented to the students.

In their talk they focused on how they use experimentation, segmentation and split testing, to improve the user experience and increase revenue. This is a perfect example to put the theory students learned on their Marketing Decisions module into practice, where they were introduced to the different marketing concepts businesses can use to serve its customers better than its competitors.

MSc Management student, Wenyi Zhang, said, “The flexible and creative working environment of Farfetch is really impressive. This is a fresh and promising team with unlimited potential.”

The offices are structured to be an agile and enjoyable place to work. Alongside hearing about their tech innovations, students were also excited by an office tour, which included the opportunity to dive into their giant ball pit!

The four letters you’ve undoubtedly heard when applying to postgraduate business schools: GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). You shouldn’t fear or lose sleep over the GMAT, with good preparation you will take the exam with confidence and be on your way to your dream Master’s programme.

The GMAT is an adaptive exam that analyses quantitative reasoning, verbal reasoning and data insights and is used in admission to postgraduate programmes.

You are required to submit a valid GMAT or GRE score as part of your application for MSc International Management. For the GMAT Exam, we recommend a score of 600+. We accept the GMAT Focus Edition (available from 7 November 2023), and you will need a minimum overall percentile ranking of 55%. Scores are valid for five years from your appointment date. 

Some of our MSc Management students who sat the GMAT share their insider tips to prepare for the exam.

*Please note that these quotes were collected before the launch of GMAT Focus Edition; nevertheless, many of the principles remain applicable to the new exam.

What resources did you use to prepare?

There are many resources available to you that will help you crack the code on the GMAT questions and make your preparation run without a hitch. Our students have done the trialling out for you and share the top resources that helped them prepare.

AC: “I used a free Chinese simulation website called KMF to practice the exam. The website has a lot of mock practice exams retrieved from Official Guides, Manhattan PREP, and GWD. Since the GMAT exam is entirely taken on the computer, it is helpful to get yourself used to the test pace and the exam interface on the computer.”

PL: “I used several different resources to study for the test and set myself a goal concerning what score I wanted to achieve. I started with various books that guide you through all the different components of the test. I also bought the Official Guides with the questions from the previous years. These are very helpful as practice is key to improving your score. I also signed up for Magoosh which is an online platform with videos and a vast databank of questions with explanations.”

YQ: “I found the Manhattan Prep very helpful, especially the sentence correction book. I also scanned through the Official Guides quickly to get a sense of what the committee is trying to test the candidates on.”

How did you find time to prepare for the exam?

Many of you will be studying full-time, working or be in an internship while you are preparing for the GMAT. If you’re concerned about how you will fit GMAT prep into your schedule, our students give their tips on to finding time to study.

AC: “I was doing a summer internship when studying for the GMAT so I prepared for the test during nights after getting off work and on weekends. I spent around two months preparing for the exam.”

PL: “I took five weeks in the summer after I finished my undergraduate degree to entirely focus on studying for the GMAT. After three weeks I decided on a date to take the test and allowed myself some time after the first try to have enough time to retake it.”

YQ: “I was a full-time student when I was preparing for the GMAT. Whenever I had three to four hours free, I took a mock exam.”

Were you more worried about the Quantitative Reasoning or Verbal Reasoning part of the exam?

Many students who have not studied mathematics since high school are understandably concerned about the quantitative reasoning part of the exam. For those whom English is not their first language, it may be the verbal and written elements that pose the greatest challenge.

Find out how to target your weakest areas of the GMAT through preparation and study techniques.

AC: “The most challenging element of the test for me was the Verbal Reasoning section. Since English is not my first language, I spent a lot of time practicing verbal questions. My advice would be to use the various study materials and keep practicing.”

PL: “I was not more worried about the Quantitative Reasoning part than the verbal element, which is why I spent about the same amount of time on both. Time management during the test was the most difficult part for me. To get myself used to the test conditions, I took several practice tests before.”

YQ: “I was not particularly worried about Quantitative Reasoning. After I scanned through the quantitative guidance in the Official Guide, it turned out to be only what I learned at middle school (although I did learn about permutations at high school). For most students from China, I suppose, it is the terminology, not the mathematical knowledge that worries them. I think the most challenging element of the test was the Analytical Writing Assessment and Integrated Reasoning sections. To tackle this, I practiced every day.”

Have you been able to use your GMAT score in applying for graduate schemes?

The GMAT isn’t just used in admission to postgraduate programmes, it can also be used to put yourself ahead in the competitive job search. Our students share how their GMAT score is helping them land the all-important post-graduate role.

AC: “I included my GMAT score on my CV to apply for graduate schemes. I do think the process of preparing for the GMAT exam is useful for online and assessment centre tests. The preparation helped me speed up my pace of answering questions and improved my responses to the numerical questions.”

PL: “A majority of the quantitative elements of the test and some of the question types are very similar to online assessment tests for job applications. Having prepared for the GMAT not too long ago, the test definitely helped me to refresh some basic maths.”

What advice would you give to prospective students to help them prepare for the GMAT?

AC: “Create a study plan or timetable for preparation that suits for you. For me, I set a daily goal of finishing a practice test, figured out the questions that I did wrong, detailed the reason for making the mistake and tested myself again to improve my weaker areas. Practice regularly, keep a steady pace and be calm.”

PL: “Do a full practice test early on in the preparation process and then again on a regular basis. This will show you how you are progressing. I would recommend giving yourself time to retake the test a few weeks after your first attempt. Also, don’t expect the first test to be your best – this reduces the level of pressure.”

YQ: “Try to practice at the same time as the real test every day. And just stay normal. But I do suggest non-native English speakers review the mathematical part of the Official Guides swiftly the day before the test.”

The GMAT is compulsory for admission to our MSc International Management programme, and can also strengthen your application to our other Master’s programmes.

Last week, we welcomed a diverse new class of 60 intelligent students as they take the next step to becoming international leaders of business and society on our Global Online MBA.

The on-campus Induction Week kick-starts the Global Online MBA, giving students the chance to meet their peers and faculty in-person, who they will be working with online for the next two years. Students are also introduced to their assigned syndicate groups, who they will work with closely on group projects.

Find out more about the new class, what they got up to during Induction Week and meet some of the students.

Class profile

38% of the class is female. As we strive towards gender parity across our programmes, we are happy to see this number continue to increase with each class.

The cohort has an average age of 35 and students bring an average of 11 years’ experience to the classroom, with backgrounds in a variety of industries. It is certain that students will benefit from the varied experience and wide breadth of knowledge of their peers.

The uniqueness of this MBA is its flexibility. Over two years, students study the programme completely in our bespoke online learning environment, with one more campus visit for at the end of the MBA for the Capstone Business Game.

This structure allows MBA candidates to study from anywhere in the world with ease, and the new class truly put the ‘global’ in the Global Online MBA. There are 26 nationalities represented in the class, with 72% of students coming from outside of the UK.

In an icebreaker activity, students called out the different countries and locations they hail from. Some of the highlights include “from the United States but living in Afghanistan”, “from Bahrain and live in Kuwait”, “French and living in Sweden”, “from London but I work in Iran”, “I’m Japanese living in Japan”, “Italian”, “originally from New Zealand but I live in London”, “I’m from Nigeria”, and so it went.

Paolo Taticchi, Programme Director of the Global Online MBA, comments on the new class:

The January 2019 cohort of the Global Online MBA is again an impressive group of talented individuals. Having spent a lot of time with them during induction week, I can say I’m impressed by their determination, ambition and commitment to study. An incredibly diverse group, that reflect well the values of Imperial College London and the calibre of our students.

Induction Week

The excitement in the Induction Week lecture theatre before the opening session was contagious – the whole room abuzz with the sound of chatter as students took a seat and introduced themselves to their neighbours, future colleagues and friends for life.

Francisco Veloso, Dean of the Business School, delivered a welcome followed by greetings from Leila Guerra, Associate Dean of Programmes, and Paolo Taticchi, Director of the Global Online MBA. All three of these key figures imparted their wisdom and shared some advice about the programme with students.

Francisco Veloso:

“Active management: as an active set of professionals, who are juggling many things, you’re making decisions about how to organise and how to invest your time. There’s a lot of work, but also there’s going to be prioritising and your own organisation about what are the things that really make a big difference for you; those are what you will invest more time on. And the others, you’re going to make whatever effort you think is appropriate.”

Leila Guerra:

“Have fun. Make the best of it. It’s going to fly away, you can’t even believe it. Try and find your work-life balance, it is very challenging, especially the first year. And of course you have your jobs, your friends, your families. Try and find that balance and reach out to us whenever you need.”

Paolo Taticchi:

“This programme is demanding, I’m not going to deny that. You will need to study, you will need to sacrifice some time with friends and family, and you may need to sacrifice some weekends in the next two years. But if you are here today it is because you are fine with that. My advice to you is to go for the extra mile. Really try to do your best in the next two years. If your goal for this experience is to go through a transformation, really try to go for full power.”

Following the opening remarks, students launched straight into a highly interactive icebreaker activity; the ‘maximising your worth’ game. Within seconds of the opening bell, students were stuck into the strategic trading game, bartering, negotiating and forming partnerships. By midday, the ice was well and truly broken.

Throughout the week, we eased students back into academia spending a whole day with Imperial College Business School Careers to begin their Personal Leadership Journey, as well as participating in sessions on networking online and working in virtual teams.

There was also plenty of time for socialising. A welcome dinner, drinks with students on our other MBA programmes including the Full-Time MBA, Weekend MBA and Executive MBA at the student bar, as well as a personal dinner in syndicate groups.

Student Amy Callis said, “Induction Week was fantastic. Bringing us all together for the week to get to know our cohort has been invaluable. This focus has allowed us to build relationships so the online work feels more connected. The Imperial team has clearly spent a lot of time thinking through how to maximise every hour and it’s worked!”

Students crossed many miles to arrive at Induction Week, brought together from all over the world in the shared pursuit of business acumen and developing an entrepreneurial mindset. This is just the beginning of an exciting journey of learning online, as well as the start of many lifelong friendships.