'I had to be sure the teaching was good'

Oxford Brookes doesn't trade on its name but has earned a reputation for high-quality education, says Joel Budd

Daniel Palmer knows about Oxford. As an undergraduate, he read chemistry at the nation's most famous (and most reliably controversial) university. Given the chance, Palmer says he would make the same choice again. But when it came to choosing an MBA programme, he wanted something quite different.

"Having gone to Oxford, I wasn't particularly attracted by the idea of a big-name school," Palmer says. "Although Oxford gives you a lot of face-to-face contact with very eminent faculty, they are not all that interested in teaching. For my postgraduate qualification, I wanted to make certain I got a good education."

So Mr Palmer, who is a manager at the British Standards Institute, plumped for the university down the road. Oxford Brookes, formerly Oxford Polytechnic, has always been overshadowed by its more illustrious neighbour. But Brookes has been in the MBA game for longer (16 years) and has earned a reputation for high-quality pedagogy.

Oxford Brookes is one of many former polytechnics trying to grab a slice of the lucrative MBA market. Since December, it has had an important advantage, shared by only a handful of other new universities: formal accreditation from the Association of MBAs. To earn the accreditation, Brookes had to tidy up its course offerings. Individual schools within the university had begun to offer MBAs, in part to bring in much-needed cash, and these had to be brought under the business school umbrella. The school also had to restructure some of its ties to foreign programmes.

Any pain was certainly worth it. Britain is well stocked with MBA courses, and in a difficult job market, employers and students are increasingly keen on "respectable" qualifications. The Association of MBAs' stamp of approval will enable Oxford Brookes to widen its appeal, justify any price increases (full-time fees are going up roughly 10 per cent this year) and lure more prestigious faculty.

But will Oxford Brookes be competing with the Said Business School established by its ancient university neighbour? Not exactly. Dan Ganly, MBA programme director, explains: "Somebody who is going to London Business School or Said is probably going to get a good education, but they are very much buying a brand. We don't have quite the same cachet, and we're not necessarily competing for the same students."

Said's resources are so great, and the prestige of Oxford University so powerful, that it leapt into the top rank of MBA programmes, with faculty and prices to match.

Ex-polytechnics can't trade on their names and budgets are always tight, but places such as Oxford Brookes have a long tradition of working with local businesses, stemming from when they were yoked to the regional economy by local councils.

Local businesses are inclined to approach ex-polytechnics for consultancy projects, which means that their MBA programmes are able to offer hands-on training to students. The perennial problem of bridging theory and practice is, for them, a relatively simple matter.

It was the vocational orientation of Oxford Brookes that attracted Nicolette Michels. She had spent 13 years in the retail clothing trade and her experience and her age led her to seek a more applied training than was offered at more glamourous places."I was very taken with the way Oxford Brookes talked about managing financial issues, rather than finance, and managing information, rather than statistics. At Brookes, there seemed to be a reason behind everything," she says. The task for their business schools will be preserving their identity in a new, more prestigious marketplace.

Other new universities with programmes accredited by the Association of MBAs: Kingston University, University of the West of England, Manchester Metropolitan University, De Montfort University, Robert Gordon University, Middlesex University Business School