Ashridge Business School

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Ashridge Business School


Established:	1959
Type:	Business school
Staff:	400 +
Location:	Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Website:	http://www.ashridge.org.uk

Ashridge Business School is an independent, not for profit organisation, near Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, England. Its activities include open and tailored executive education programmes, MBA, MSc and Diploma qualifications, organisation consulting, applied research and online learning. Ashridge works with private and public organisations from around the world. It is based at Ashridge House, one of the largest Gothic Revival country houses in England.

1 Academic performance
2 History of the building
3 References
4 See also
5 External links
6 Further reading

[edit] Academic performance

In the latest Financial Times rankings (May 2007), Ashridge was ranked

25th in Europe in the aggregate business school ranking
70th in the world / 8th in the UK for its executive MBA
42nd in the world / 3rd in the UK for its open executive education programme
10th in the world / 1st in the UK for its customised executive education programme ^[1]

Ashridge is one of a handful of business schools in the world to be triple accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), The European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) and The Association of MBAs (AMBA).

[edit] History of the building

The 7th Earl of Bridgewater commissioned James Wyatt to build the present neo-gothic building as his home: it was completed in 1813^[2]. The boundary between Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire originally passed through the dining room, though the house is now entirely in Hertfordshire.

In 1921 the house was acquired by a trust established by Andrew Bonar Law, a former Prime Minister and in 1929 it became a "College of Citizenship" established to help the Conservative Party develop its intellectual forces in struggles with left-wing organisations such as the Fabian Society^[3]. It became a cross between a think-tank and a training centre and had Arthur Bryant as its educational adviser. During World War II, the building and the lawn in front of it was used as a secondary site for Charing Cross Hospital^[4].

After the war, the College of Citizenship was briefly re-launched. In 1959 it was re-launched again to provide management training, and is now a business school.

The building is now a Grade 1 listed building^[5].