Manchester Business School (MBS) Middle East Centre aims to increase students beyond the UAE with a series of Open Days across six Gulf cities for its part-time MBA programme. The first event will be held in Dubai on November 12. Prospective students will get the opportunity to meet one-to-one with MBS programme counsellors. Candidates will have the chance to assess their suitability for programmes offered by the school from its regional centre in Dubai Knowledge Village, which supports more than 1,000 part-time MBA students in the region, 50 per cent of which are based outside the UAE. MBS offers four part-time Global MBA programmes, designed for experienced business people and allows working professionals to continue working and earning whilst studying. Students can choose from three different specialist MBA learning pathways – engineering, project management and finance - with an accelerated route available for those with relevant financial professional qualifications. MBS also offers the Global MBA General, which brings together general management elements with a focus on leadership, innovation and internationalism. The part-time MBA programme is delivered through a blended learning format of 250 hours of face-to-face workshops with Manchester faculty who come to Dubai. Randa Bessiso, MBS Director Middle East, comments: “Around 50 per cent of our Middle East MBA students are based outside the UAE and many of these are from neighbouring GCC countries, so there is clearly potential demand for our part time MBA programmes amongst these working professionals. She said the MBA Open Days allowed programme counsellors to meet with strong potential students and together assess whether the part time programmes would be suitable in helping them meet their career objectives and also whether they would meet the high entry criteria that we apply worldwide. The Manchester Business School MBA is ranked fourth in the UK, 11th in Europe and 29th in the world, according to the latest this year’s Financial Times ranking. MBS regional MBA Open Day programme: