Knowledge Networks News MIT MBA to Train Top Managers Starts Classes in Lisbon MIT MBA to Train Top Managers Starts Classes in Lisbon
- 07/01/2009
The Faculty of Economics of the New University of Lisbon, the Faculty of Economic and Entrepreneurial Sciences of the Catholic University of Portugal and the Sloan School of Management at MIT marked the start of classes of the joint MBA program to train top managers on 7 January 2009. This also marked the fulfilment of the agreement signed on 28 February 2008 (see International MBA set up as part of the MIT-Portugal Program), at a ceremony attended by the Prime Minister, José Sócrates, and the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, José Mariano Gago.
The start of classes of the program known as The Lisbon MBA is the culmination of more than three years of preparation and collaborative work between Portuguese institutions in the areas of science, technology and higher education, MIT and Portuguese enterprises, which began in October 2005, under the scope of the Knowledge Networks activities integrated within the Commitment to Science for Portugal’s Future initiative, initially based on a diagnostic and evaluation exercise carried out by MIT and since then made public.
The preparation for the Lisbon MBA also involved sustained support from a group of public and private bodies, who have ensured financial support and suitable institutional involvement for the exigency, quality and ambition with which the Program has been launched. The initial group of enterprises which agreed to support the Program included the BPI Bank, the Espírito Santo Bank, the Caixa Geral de Depósitos bank, EDP – Energias de Portugal, Fundação Vodafone Portugal, José Mello SGPS and the Rede Eléctrica Nacional.
The Lisbon MBA will be taught in Lisbon with the active participation of the Sloan School of Management at MIT, where students will spend internship periods as part of their studies. The first class starting out on the program consists of 32 students who come from 6 countries (Brazil, China, United States of America, France, India and Portugal), and it is envisaged that the program will train more than 300 managers in the next 5 years. The ration of foreign students should gradually increase until around 50% of the total of the students by the 5th year, a time when it is estimated that the annual enrolment will be around 100 students.
The institutions involved in The Lisbon MBA are seeking to make the program one of the 100 best in the world in 5 years and thus enable Portugal to have a prominent role in the global supply of MBAs.