Becoming a Cambridge MBA is a rigorous process, an opportunity offered to a select group with the business experience and ability to thrive here. But we welcome all backgrounds, cultures, orientations and identities, and our inclusive, collaborative ethos will make your Cambridge MBA experience something special.
At Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS), our people are our greatest asset. We take pride in the diversity of our community and promote an inclusive culture in which all are treated equally and have equal opportunity.
We actively seek to admit people from all backgrounds, countries, cultures, identities, and orientations to each Cambridge MBA class. There are various initiatives and scholarships in place to support this recruitment goal, and to build an active, engaged and supported community through the MBA experience and beyond.
Cambridge Judge initiatives for diversity, equality, and inclusion
Our aspiration as a School is to be a leader in gender, diversity, and inclusion; with this ethos driving Business School strategy across research, teaching and engagement.
We have a Cambridge Judge Business School action plan that brings focus and coherence to Cambridge Judge’s vision to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion as a driving principle and to play our part in making our world more just, fair and equal.
Diversity
Our business school community is highly international, with the MBA class each being around 90% non-British. This global community is essential in enabling our world-class research, teaching, real-world impact and outreach as a School. To support the continuance of this diversity, we offer several scholarships to candidates from under-represented countries.
The new Cambridge MBA Scholarship for Regional Diversity offers up to £30,000, to five applicants, from countries we target to ensure a diverse global cohort each year. The list of countries may change in each annual admissions cycle – please see our scholarships brochure for details.
Nathan Ramadhan, current MBA student from Indonesia, and a recipient of a regional-based scholarship says, “My scholarship acknowledged my ambitions of becoming a positive agent of change for my country, and eventually the world – and that is an extremely energising thought.”
Diversity of industry and sector
With the launch of the new Cambridge MBA Scholarship for Professional Diversity, the focus is firmly on encouraging a wide diversity of employment sectors to be represented in the MBA Class of 2022 and beyond.
Building an MBA class of people who come from diverse professional backgrounds, in terms of sector and job function, is vital to the thriving learning community we create, bringing varied experiences and expertise to the classroom and team projects.
Alumni and South African Scholarship recipient, Pieter Daneel says, “The Cambridge MBA has transformed me into a global citizen, and I feel that I have the tools and connections to conquer future business opportunities.
“My network in Africa and South Africa is vast and strong, but the MBA has broadened my horizons through working with and learning from 41 other countries and alongside a wide variety of industry professionals. That is not something you can achieve through an MBA back home.”
Alongside this new sector support scholarship, we are also continuing our focus on attracting candidates with strong backgrounds in technology and Entrepreneurship, with the Cambridge Scholarship for Entrepreneurs, as well as the Cambridge Scholarship for Technology Advancement.
In all these scholarship awards, the recipient is expected to be an ambassador for the MBA and the wider business school and to support the work that takes place to recruit and attract future candidates onto the programme.
Enhanced Military sector support
The Cambridge MBA has a record of recruiting strong candidates from military backgrounds and educating them in the broad range of business skills required to make a transition into successful alternative careers. Graduates from military backgrounds have gone on to work in companies such as Amazon, Google, Booz Allen Hamilton, and leading investment banks.
Our MBA Military Personnel Scholarship has been expanded to two separate awards, to the value of £15,000 each, awarded in Round 2 and Round 3.
The Cambridge MBA is especially suited to former military candidates, with its emphasis on practical project work, which allows students to gain first-hand experience of many roles and sectors during the 12-month programme; along with our global alumni network and our class size, which is designed to enable the powerful Cambridge style of small-group discussion and debate between our students and faculty.
Katherine Danielson, US Military Veteran, says, “The Cambridge MBA will expand upon what you have learned in the military and help you translate that into business language. The military already develops many of the strengths and skills, and the leadership and critical thinking necessary to be successful in business. The Cambridge MBA can bridge that transition and cultivate the necessary communication, management, and quantitative knowledge for success in your next chapter outside of the military.”
Diversity of gender
We are proud to partner with the Forté Foundation again, this coming year, to offer five outstanding candidates a Forté Foundation Fellowships Scholarship of £30,000 each, an increased number of awards to a higher value, to demonstrate our support for gender balance at business school.
Sarah Sketchley, MBA 2020 and Forté Foundation Fellow, talks about the initiative, “The Forté Foundation Fellows Scholarship is such a brilliant initiative. I have mentored and been a mentor in several guises over the years, and I know first-hand how important female role models are to improving outcomes for young professional women and students; the Forté network plays a big role in this.”
Sarah Lester, Forte Fellow scholarship from MBA Class of 2019 said of her Cambridge MBA experience, “For me, with my background which was very male dominated, the balance in the MBA cohort feels refreshing. When you are sitting in the classroom it feels very equal and everyone is supportive of each other.”
Inclusion – the LGBTQ+ community
The ROMBA Fellowship was created as a joint effort between top business school programmes and ROMBA to demonstrate that business schools are the top destination to develop the out LGBTQ+ and active ally business leaders of tomorrow.
We are proud to partner with Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) to offer this scholarship to two people each year who help the LGBTQ+ community. Both awards are for £30,000
Cambridge Judge, together with these initiatives, work together to create a community in which all are welcomed and can be their authentic selves.
A new chapter – New Dean, New scholarship
With the arrival of a new Dean for Cambridge Judge in September, we are re-launching a scholarship award for those candidates with an outstanding academic record and whose career to date most reflects and embodies the values and attributes of the wider business school community.
The Dean’s Scholarship for Outstanding Achievement will consist of three awards, spread across rounds one, two and three, each one to the value of £15,000.
Professor Mauro F. Guillén was recently announced as the next Director of Cambridge Judge Business School, after Professor Christoph Loch steps down from a ten-year tenure. Professor Mauro F. Guillén, a prominent expert, award-winning scholar and teacher at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, takes up the position of Dean on 1 September 2021.
We look forward to creating a new group of Cambridge Judge and Cambridge MBA Scholarship holders over the next few years, as well as continuing to support and celebrate the community of people that are our greatest asset at the business school.
For the full list of all our scholarships, application process and deadlines, and eligibility criteria, please visit our scholarship brochure.