News

Henley and Reading Business School to Merge

4 January 2008

(Update: "Henley Upsets its Alumni" at the Exec-Ed Zone. 21 January 2008)

The University of Reading has announced it has reached agreement in principle on a potential merger of the Henley Management College with the University to form a new world-class business school.

The merger will bring together two highly complementary business education offerings: Henley is a leading international provider of executive education and MBA programmes, while Reading is a world leader in international business research with centres of excellence in business education for the financial and real estate markets.

Together - as the Henley Business School at the University of Reading – each of these elements will be strengthened to support a powerful, broadly-based new business school of international standing. Its appeal and offering to students, academics and the wider business community will be transformed by the cross-fertilisation of ideas, resources and reach within the merged organisation.

Professor Gordon Marshall, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading, said: "This represents a wonderful opportunity to establish a new business school to prepare future managers and business leaders for the challenges of the 21st century, with enviable core strengths but with the potential for innovative offerings to students, academics and corporate clients alike.

"The University of Reading is an ambitious institution and this will be a transforming step in further developing our reputation for outstanding teaching, research and enterprise."

Christopher Bones, Principal of Henley Management College, said: "Henley is already one of the most highly rated providers of executive education and MBA programmes in Europe and is widely recognised as a thought leader in the field of management.

"By combining with the University of Reading, we aim to build a new, more broadly-based business school of the highest reputation, able to attract students and academics of the highest quality and to provide business organisations with an education partnership in a class of its own."

The new business school will also benefit from being a core element of the enlarged University of Reading, already established as one of the top ten research intensive universities in the UK as well as one of the top 200 universities in the world.

Within an enterprising culture, the University of Reading will promote the Henley Business School to a wider international audience and will look to offer a broader perspective to the business school's teaching and research efforts through, for example, access to the university's established expertise in environmental studies, including the developing understanding of climate change. In turn the university as a whole will benefit from the strength of Henley's existing corporate relationships, leading to the potential for wider areas of collaboration.