The MBA. Reimagined.

LIS has unlimited degree awarding powers granted by the UK Government. The LIS MBA is therefore a fully recognised and accredited masters level (Level 7) qualification in the UK’s National Qualifications Framework.

To be eligible for the LIS MBA, you would need to have at least 6 years professional experience with a minimum of 3 years management experience. Only mature recent graduates may therefore be able to meet this criteria.

Yes. As a part-time, hybrid delivery programme, it is expected that students will be working alongside study. This will give students the opportunity to apply their learning in real time and bring their findings and experiences to the classroom, adding to the vibrancy of discussion.

All LIS MBA candidates will receive dedicated, on-demand career coaching. At LIS, we have experienced career coaches who offer bespoke support with all stages of career exploration, and can be accessed through the course. Career support for the LIS MBA is designed to help all participants build their networks and profiles in a way that complements their learning. Career coaching is only one part of this puzzle: it is a space for reflection and accountability, as well as action. It will help you embed new skills, frameworks or insights into your leadership practice, to turn new career objectives into an action plan, and to drill down on development areas with expert support. 1:1 delivery means every student will be able to set their own goals and will receive bespoke guidance - while also benefiting from whole-cohort learning and support.

The programme is designed for professionals who are already in work or have other responsibilities, and so we are not prioritising sourcing paid internships. Students seeking experience in new roles or sectors can access partner consultancy projects to be completed on a voluntary basis as part of the course. 

‍

Weekly virtual learning requires 10 hours’ commitment, designed to be completed while working full-time. This involves 2-3 hours of synchronous learning (typically a lunchtime seminar and an additional small-group session), 7-8 hours of asynchronous learning to be completed at your own schedule via access to bespoke material and our carefully curated apps, reels and reading lists.

The LIS MBA is a response to calls for change that come from within the business community as well as in wider society. You can read a summary of that demand (from one set of perspectives), in this 2024 report commissioned by the B Team, a global collective of CEOs and leaders of multilateral organisations. The reception to the LIS MBA both in the LIS partner organisations and beyond has been very positive, and following our launch we we will be working more publicly to spread awareness of the longstanding recognition within business schools of the need to adapt curriculum more dramatically in response to the changing business environment.

The LIS MBA is designed for mid-careers who already have some professional direction, but who see that their role, their organisation, or their sector is undergoing change. This MBA prepares these professionals to have more agency in shaping that change, which may include defining new roles or new business models. The skillsets taught are in line with the original aims of an MBA: to progress in the leadership or management of organisations via better understanding of the wider business environment and of each of the functions of a business. For those working in large organisations, the LIS MBA augments any one functional skillset (such as in Strategy or Organisational Learning; Operations; Human Resources, People, or Talent; Accounting or Finance; Communications or Marketing; Analytics, Research and Design; Change management and Transformation; Partnerships and Network), allowing someone to work more cross-functionally with a specific skillset around managing multi-disciplinary teams and decision-making via interdisciplinary integration and synthesis. In terms of more specialist skillsets, the LIS MBA includes exposure to a range of contemporary analytical, communication and facilitation methods, with particular emphasis on systems methods including systems thinking, mapping, modelling and simulation. An LIS MBA graduate will have relative expertise in these methods to work at a ‘systems’ level.

LIS now has a track record of ensuring that our new degrees, backed by our degree-awarding powers, are recognised and accepted by major employers. Our Head of Futures, in partnership with our Network, works hard to continually understand the needs of the business community as part of a wider environment, and Career Coaches prepare students to be able to identify and articulate how they meet those needs. No MBA guarantees entry to the field of business and many MBAs that are awarded carry a risk that their meaning and value relies primarily on institutional prestige. In contrast, LIS graduates have contemporary skillsets and visible bodies of work that can speak for themselves.

The LIS MBA is a hybrid programme, designed to be flexible for working professionals. Weekly sessions are delivered online, allowing you to continue your career while studying.

In addition, you’ll attend one in-person immersion week per term (six in total), where you’ll engage with industry experts and tackle real-world challenges related to our six major shifts—Energy, Ecosystems, Trust, Intelligence, Complexity, and Longevity. These immersive and online experiences ensure that learning goes beyond theory, giving you hands-on insights from leaders shaping the future of business.

‍

The MBA will take 18 months to complete. Scheduled learning starts in January 2026 and finishes in June 2027, with additional time to complete key programme assessments up to September 2027.

Each shift or block of learning initiates with a large-scale live problem framing exercise involving industry partners. From this, students may choose a partner problem to work on, or may bring one of their own organisational or personal questions to pursue through the term. Work is presented for group critique with peers and partners at the end of each block.

A key aim of the design of the LIS MBA is to increase the opportunity to work on live problems as they arise. In this way, the learning is driven primarily by concerns for practical relevance and application. The background learning material we ask students to engage with balances theoretical works on fundamental and enduring aspects of reality and practical detail of shift- and business-relevant developments in science, innovation, law, culture and experience.

At LIS, there are no term papers or dissertations. Instead, progress testing and oral assessment evaluate how MBA candidates are building specialist knowledge and practicing leadership, supported by coaching and debriefing. To develop depth, candidates design and lead a session on a shift of their choice, showcasing expertise, design and facilitation skills on an issue relevant to their work.

Yes—our MBA covers the core business fundamentals you’d expect from a traditional programme, including accounting, finance, marketing, and strategy. But instead of teaching these in isolation, we embed them within the six major shifts reshaping industries today.

‍

At LIS, you won’t just learn business principles—you’ll apply them to real-world challenges like AI integration, sustainability transitions, and shifting global trust. This approach ensures that you graduate not just with knowledge, but with the foresight and adaptability to tackle the business challenges that every organisation will face in the coming years.

No. The fee is the same regardless of nationality or domicile.

Your work and management experience does not need to be in the field of business, however defined. The LIS MBA provides education for leaders across sectors, who want to engage in understanding their organisational environment and how their organisation or role may be changing within it. Our professional short courses include a substantial minority of participants from the public sector, third sector, media and research and this diversity of contexts and viewpoints makes for a cohort that is better positioned to think and act systemically. We aim to build a founding LIS MBA cohort with similar range.

Whilst the LIS MBA is an academically challenging and rigourous programme, we as an institution are committed to widening participation where possible and reducing barriers to accessing higher education. We can consider professional qualifications and/or significant professional and managerial experience in place of an undergraduate degree. Request a profile review to get personalised feedback on your experience and suitability for the course.

LIS does not offer student visa sponsorship for part-time programmes, including the LIS MBA. Non-UK nationals are welcome to join the programme but will need to ensure they are eligible to study in the UK part-time via alternative routes.

LIS doesn’t require a specific undergraduate degree. Our cohorts are diverse, representing a wide range of fields. If your degree classification is below a 2.1, we’ll look for other evidence of your learning. A traditional degree isn’t always a proxy for success in the LIS MBA. If your degree was either quantitative or qualitative and your work doesn’t involve calculations or dense texts, consider preparing for these areas. We provide guidance for interview prep and look for evidence of your ability to tackle challenges with determination.

To be able to fully participate in the programme, including classroom discussions, assessments, and engagement with partner organisations, a high level of English fluency is required. If you are not a national of an English majority speaking country, LIS reserves the right to request an English Language proficiency test as a condition of offer to join the LIS MBA programme.

We have a range of Scholarship options available to high potential students. More details will be released later in the year.

To be eligible for the LIS MBA, you would need to have at least 6 years professional experience with a minimum of 3 years management experience. We take a broad definition of management experience. We are looking for impactful decision making experience. This may be through management of people, processes, products, services, or other areas of responsibility. Request a profile review to get personalised feedback on your experience and suitability for the course.

We do not require the GMAT or GRE as we believe these assessments have not been able to adapt quickly enough to the changing skillsets that are relevant for organisational leaders. Due to this, and because of the different barriers to entry or to high performance in these tests, we do not give them a separate weighting in admissions decisions. We are using a standardised test as part of the admissions process that is more aligned with the demands of the curriculum and the work of leaders and managers.

We operate Admissions on a rolling basis throughout the year. Note that places on the programme are limited and we therefore encourage early applications. The final application deadline for 2026 entry is 17:00 (UK time) Wednesday 12 November, 2025.

Transcripts and certificates can be uploaded in the “Evidence” section of your application form.

Our rigorous admissions process has multiple decision stages to ensure a strong fit between the school, the programme, and the candidate. Following submission of a completed application, applicants will hear if they have been invited to interview within 2 weeks. Following the interview and completion of the Admissions Assessment, applicants will hear if they have been admitted to the programme within 3 weeks.