The Business School has announced a new scholarship worth £23,500 designed to attract entrepreneurs to apply to its Full-Time MBA programme.

The Entrepreneurship Scholarship, which covers half of the fees for Imperial’s Full-Time MBA, will be available to students applying to the programme which starts in September 2017. Rather than supporting would-be entrepreneurs, the scholarship is aimed at established entrepreneurs looking to build the necessary skills to expand an existing business or develop a new one.

To apply for the scholarship, candidates must have applied for the Full-Time MBA programme, and must answer two scholarship questions, found on the Imperial College Business School’s website by Friday 23 June.  

Diane Morgan, Associate Dean of Programmes at Imperial College Business School, says the scholarship recognises the value that such individuals can bring to the classroom, by enhancing peer learning with real work and life experience. She said: “Entrepreneurship is at the heart of our teaching on the Full-Time MBA as we seek to equip students with the knowledge, confidence and skills needed to succeed in business. The need for a scholarship aimed at entrepreneurs has never been greater, as more MBA graduates seek to set up their own businesses.”

She added: “We want to encourage people who have experienced the full life-cycle of a start-up to take advantage of the many benefits that an MBA brings to growing their business, including the opportunity to share expertise with other students and extend their networks through Imperial’s dynamic start-up scene and links to industry in London.”

The idea for the scholarship came from current Full-Time MBA student Byron McCaughey, who is also the founder of MBA Connect, a student-led group of experts who support and mentor start-up businesses at Imperial College Business School and across the wider college.

Explaining what inspired him to come up with the idea for the scholarship, he said: “The aim of an MBA is to build a more rounded set of business skills and expose students to opinions and ways of thinking that challenge their own. Layer in these skills and new perspectives with the existing traits of entrepreneurs, such as vision and tenacity, and you have a powerful toolkit for building impactful businesses. The Imperial College ecosystem for supporting innovation and entrepreneurship has played a big role in my time here and I look forward to seeing what the recipient of this scholarship will accomplish.”

The Entrepreneurship Scholarship is to be awarded based on the applicant’s entrepreneurial experience and aspirations. Applicants need to demonstrate a strong track-record as an entrepreneur who has experienced the “full life-cycle” of a start-up, from opportunity recognition through to market entry, growth and maturity. The successful candidate will have a clear desire to continue their entrepreneurial journey with Imperial College Business School and contribute to enterprise activities and entrepreneurial life across the School and wider College.

Alongside the scholarship, students can boost their entrepreneurial ambitions through a variety of support schemes including the Enterprise Lab, which fosters entrepreneurial activity by enabling collaboration between students, alumni and businesses and Imperial Innovations, a technology commercialisation partner for Imperial College London, which turns research and ideas into viable business and technology opportunities.

Other initiatives include the Imperial College Advanced Hackspace, which gives students and staff access to a unique suite of prototyping technologies, workshops and labs to test business ideas, and ACT Now, an incubator for social entrepreneurs. Additional support for female entrepreneurs is also available through the Althea-Imperial programme.  

To apply for the Entrepreneurship Scholarship or see further information please visit: https://wwwf.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/programmes/full-time-mba/fees-and-scholarships/scholarships/entrepreneurship-scholarship/

Imperial College Business School offers a number of other scholarships to Full-Time MBA students and further details can be found here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/programmes/full-time-mba/fees-and-scholarships/scholarships/