Management Pioneers Celebrate Tenth Anniversary of Partnership
More than 3,250 students are following the OUBS Professional Certificate and Diploma in Management in the Romanian language. Since 1999 a further 150 students a year have been studying the OUBS MBA in English.
In 1993 a joint stock company, CODECS (Centre for Distance Education for a Civic Society), was formed to pioneer the use of OUBS distance learning management courses to a small number of managers. The first 26 students studied in English and then became tutors and mangers at CODECS to bring the same opportunity to other managers.
A celebration to mark the anniversary will be held in The Romanian Opera House in Bucharest on Tuesday, November 4. Among those attending will be the British Ambassador to Romania and a representative from the British Council, which was instrumental in setting up the partnership, as well as guests from OUBS partners in Russia, Bulgaria and Hungary.
“The effect that our students have had on the Romanian economy and on their own organisations over the last ten years is incalculable,” says Renaldo Nita, MBA Director at CODECS.
“In many cases their study has changed not only their own lives but that of their colleagues at all levels.
“The responsibility we have to our partners in bringing management education to emerging economies is something the School takes very seriously,” says OUBS Dean Professor Roland Kaye. “I am delighted to congratulate CODECS on their success and I congratulate the students on their achievements.”
Nearly 40 per cent of the 30,000 annual OUBS student population study courses through partnership arrangements across eastern Europe and in Russia.
EDITOR’S NOTES
The Open University Business School (OUBS) is Europe’s leading business school and the major provider of management development programmes delivered by supported distance learning. It is one of an elite group of UK and European business schools to hold both the prestigious EQUIS quality kitemark, awarded by the European Foundation for Management Development (efmd), and AMBA (the Association of MBAs) accreditation for its MBA. The School is ranked fourth in the world for distance learning MBA programmes, according to rankings published by the Financial Times (March 2003).
Currently the OUBS has 30,000 students based in the UK and more than 40 countries. Since its inception in 1983, more than 150,000 managers have studied an OUBS course at Certificate, Diploma or MBA level. The OUBS has also developed a significant research capability based in eight research units, and boasts one of the three largest Alumni Associations for MBA graduates outside the United States.The School is based at the Open University’s Milton Keynes headquarters in Buckinghamshire. Its website can be found at: oubs.open.ac.uk
MEDIA CONTACTS
Neil CoatEN
Open University Media Relations
01908 652580
n.d.coaten@open.ac.uk
Jessica Magill
Open University Business School
01908 655042
j.magill@open.ac.uk
