Warwick Business School Looking to Move into London’s Shard: MBA News

Warwick Business School (WBS) is hoping to open a new campus in London from 2015, after submitting an application to take up residence in the Shard – the latest and tallest addition to the UK capital’s skyline.

If approved, Warwick Business School’s plans will see it install office and teaching space, including two lecture theatres, across much of the building’s 17th floor. The campus will offer WBS’s executive MBA program as well as its part-time finance and human resource management MSc programs.

“This is a very exciting project. WBS is a leading global business school and it’s only natural that we should have a base in London, one of the world’s leading capitals,” Warwick Business School’s dean, Mark Taylor, told student newspaper, The Boar.

WBS’ plans to offer a new option among business schools in London follow on from last year’s announcement that the budget and design of expanding the business school into a new home for its main base of operations had been approved.

WBS to compete with leading business schools in London

By joining the ranks of renowned business schools in London, Warwick Business School will provide a new source of competition to the city’s existing residents – particularly those offering strong executive MBAs, such as Cass Business School and Chicago Booth who are both located relatively proximal to the Shard, albeit on the opposite side of the River Thames in London’s City district. 

Plus, existing business schools in London have expansion plans of their own – London Business School, for instance, is redeveloping Old Marylebone Town Hall, a landmark building of a very different nature to the Shard’s modernism.

Situated close to London Bridge, the 72-floor Shard building designed by Italian architect, Renzo Piano, stands 310 meters high and boasts astounding views across the city from its observation deck. The deck itself can be hired out for corporate use at a rate of £30,000 an hour (just under US$50,000.)  

As of yet, finding tenants to occupy the Shard’s luxurious spaces below has not been easy. Ten apartments close to the building’s top and worth between £30 and 50 million (c. US$50–80 million) remain unsold. In addition, the 25 floors reserved for office space had only one incumbent until recently with US-based financial firm, Duff & Phelps, moving into the 14th floor. But, it is expected that Duff & Phelps will soon be joined by others, most notably Qatar-based media group, Al Jazeera.

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