The University of Oxford ‘s business school , the Said Business School, offers full MBA scholarships through the Skoll Scholarship program. Candidates must be seeking to drive social impact and have the potential to propose entrepreneurial solutions to contemporary social and environmental challenges.
The scholarships include tuition waivers and financial assistance for living expenses and housing. In addition, scholarship recipients have access to an international community of leaders linked to Skoll Scholar. The MBA program at Saïd Business School costs around £83,770, approximately R$608,000. Financial assistance is also available for housing and other expenses.
Who can apply?
The main prerequisite is a track record of working in social enterprises. More specifically, the scholarship seeks candidates who have “identified opportunities and taken action to make a positive impact.” This could be: having created a social entrepreneurship project or having led the expansion of a social initiative in the organization where they worked.
The Oxford MBA scholarship also requires that the candidate be able to demonstrate, with data, the impacts of their actions. There are 5 main eligibility criteria:
- Entrepreneurial action: ability to identify opportunities and act in a way that ensures positive social impact. The program gives preference to candidates with more than 3 years of experience.
- Create impact with a focus on systems change: demonstrate positive results achieved through actions.
- Personal qualities of social entrepreneurship: having characteristics such as acting with a focus on positive change, perseverance, ability to deal with failures and continue, taking risks, having a bias for action and a tendency to explore environments in search of opportunities.
- Present the reasons why the Oxford MBA is essential for your career and work.
- Prove that you have financial need and cannot afford the costs of the program.
Of course, you also need to meet the requirements to apply for an MBA in Oxford. This means you must have already completed your undergraduate degree and have at least two years of work experience.
How to Apply for the Oxford MBA Scholarship
To apply, you must select the “Skoll Scholarship” option while applying for the MBA program. The application process requires the submission of a cover letter, letters of recommendation, GMAT or GRE scores (in addition to taking a specific Oxford online test) and a CV, in English, of no more than one page, according to this model.
Shortlisted candidates will receive an online application form along with their acceptance letter. This second application process consists of a series of essay questions about your experience as an entrepreneur, the social impact of your work, and a justification for why you would be a strong candidate for the scholarship.
Interested parties must apply for the scholarships until January 6, 2025, but the MBA application must be made until September 2, 2024 (round 1) or October 1, 2024 (round 2).
What are Social Businesses?
The Skoll Scholarship is offered to entrepreneurs who have started or worked on initiatives with a social purpose. Oxford and Saïd Business School define a social enterprise as “an enterprise that combines innovation, resourcefulness and the use of opportunities to address critical social and/or environmental challenges. You may have started a for-profit or non-profit organisation, or you may have led a programme/project within a larger organisation – in either case, the primary aim must have been to create sustainable system change.”
MBA in Oxford
The MBA at Oxford, like at most European universities, is a one-year program that includes lectures, group work, seminars, and the possibility of completing an internship or summer project. Candidates also have the opportunity to take elective courses from other areas of the University of Oxford, considered by several rankings to be one of the top 5 in the world.