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The Aurora-Cranfield MBA Scholarship for Women, worth £26,500, is sponsored by the Aurora Network to enable a dynamic professional business woman to study at a leading international business school and thereby contribute to redressing the gender imbalance in management education.

Around a quarter of MBA students in most British business schools are women, says Séan Rickard, Director of MBA Admissions at the Cranfield School of Management.  “The scholarships reward outstanding women with senior management potential who would otherwise, because of personal circumstances, not be in a position to study for an MBA,” he said.

Two scholarships are awarded each year – one for the one year, full-time MBA programme and one for the two-year, Executive MBA programme – and are open to outstanding women candidates who are members of the Aurora Network for businesswomen.

Cranfield’s International Centre for Women Business Leaders, which is renowned for its research on women’s leadership, was a major factor for Aurora in choosing Cranfield as its partner for the Scholarship. The Centre leads an annual summer networking conference for women MBAs, sponsored by Bloomberg, which provides support and guidance on post-MBA job-hunting and promotion.

Professor Susan Vinnicombe the Centre’s director, said: “Financial support in the form of a full scholarship is powerful, but research underscores the importance of support networks for women undertaking the commitment of time and energy that an MBA involves. For many of the women, they’re finishing their MBAs and it’s a forum for discussing the next step in their careers, and an opportunity to get practical advice on job-hunting and professional networking – which is seen as the key skill in getting promotion these days.”

Professor Vinnicombe feels many women don’t want to identify themselves as facing greater challenges than men, but in reality – as the Centre’s annual ‘Female FTSE’ report highlights – too few women progress to director level positions.

“This is partly due to women not being prepared to engage in the impression management behaviour required to get promotion. It is also due to the macho model of success used in many organisations,” she said.

Professor Vinnicombe continues: “Not to address that would be denying the reality that exists at senior management level in most organisations today. It’s not about a deficiency model – it’s helping women MBAs look at the differences in how men and women progress in management. I think women need to be clear about what the challenges are.”

Sepideh Nikzad, a 30-year-old district manager for the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis in Iran, hopes the Cranfield MBA will help her achieve career progression: "I consider an MBA to be a vital tool in achieving my career objective of becoming a leader in an international pharmaceutical company. I’d planned to do whatever necessary to finance my MBA at Cranfield so when I read the email regarding winning the Aurora scholarship I could hardly believe my eyes. I feel honoured to have won the scholarship and look forward to working in a top ranking company after my MBA.”